Black Bottom Gun Club – NAAG Detroit Chapter promotes gun safety through meetings, trainings and more.
Last summer, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an Executive Directive to reduce crime and gun violence. During a swearing-in ceremony for her second term as governor earlier this month, Whitmer began by speaking to statewide elected officials and leaders about her resolution to continue efforts to reduce gun violence among other key changes in the Mitten State.
Whitmer noted that “common sense” gun reforms would include laws passed to mandate background checks for gun transactions and the safekeeping of weapons, the Detroit News reported.
“Gun violence is the number 1 killer of kids in America, and only in America, and there are things that we can do to keep our communities safer and our schools safer,” Whitmer said in a Detroit News article.
Last week Whitmer signed an Executive Directive instructing Michigan state departments and law enforcement agencies to utilize federal resources from the recently passed bipartisan Safer Communities Act to reduce crime and gun violence. This action follows a roundtable discussion the governor held with members of the law enforcement community, parents, students and faith leaders on how to stop violence and hold criminals accountable for committing violent crimes.
More Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2020 than in any other year on record, according to recently published statistics.
According to americanprogress.org, Michigan has one of the highest rates of gun homicides of Black people.
Compared with other states Michigan ranks 21st when it comes to overall gun homicides—a rate slightly above the national average. However, gun homicides in Michigan disproportionately affect Black communities, according to the independent, nonpartisan policy institute. From 2015 to 2019, the state presented the ninth-highest rate of gun homicides of Black people across the 50 U.S. states.
Young people between the ages of 15 and 29 are disproportionately affected by gun-related homicides against Black people in metropolitan counties in Michigan. In fact, from 2015 to 2019, there were 57 gun homicides of young Black individuals in metropolitan Michigan counties per 100,000 people, which is 33 times more than there were of young white people.
“As a former prosecutor, public safety is a top priority for me,” said Whitmer previously. “But today, far too many families in Michigan do not feel safe in their neighborhoods because of crime and gun violence. That is unacceptable—we must stop the violence and hold people accountable. We need to tackle both crime and gun violence simultaneously because they are inextricably linked—nearly 1 in 3 reported violent crimes to involve a firearm and in the first six months of this year alone, over 450 Michiganders have died because of gun violence. That’s why I worked to give law enforcement the resources they need in my bipartisan budget.… Let’s work together to protect public safety and reduce crime and gun violence.”
Black Americans are purchasing more guns at a faster speed, with gun ownership hiking up by 58.2 percent just two years ago, Black Enterprise reported.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), Black Americans bought firearms at gun stores for a variety of reasons in an article in The Guardian, which includes stress from the pandemic, the growing number of mass shootings and more.
According to the article, even when buying a firearm, a number of Black Americans face the racism of prejudice from white gun store owners. That has drawn many Black Americans to join Black gun clubs or find training from Black gun instructors.
Black gun ownership has been equated with protecting Black neighborhoods and individuals, according to the article. Post-Civil War, many freed Black men and women bought firearms to ensure the safety of themselves and their neighborhoods.
Chad King, president of Detroit’s Black Bottom Gun Club, told the Michigan Chronicle recently that the club, committed to educating and informing communities about firearm safety (and state laws), wants to be the change.
“We are motivated by and guided by our core values of being focused [on] people, community and firearm ownership, as seen through the lens of the Black experience in America,” King said. “We are very clear on our claim to every right denied our ancestors, including gun ownership. We also recognize that violence poses the greatest threat to our rights.”
King said that corrective policies that address root causes of violence, or that reinforce positive prosocial behavior, will “solve the problems we have.”
“We will maintain our boots-on-the-ground presence in our communities and pass out thousands of gun locks and information brochures, as well as hold more workshops and seminars in neighborhoods in conjunction with our partners in this work,” King added.
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