With an increasing number of members since Trump, the Black Gun Group is planning to do politics: NPR

The purpose of the African-American National Firearms Association is to familiarize black Americans with firearms and explain how to use them.

Some see this group as an alternative to the National Rifle Association for owners of black firearms, but it presents some notable differences. The organizers say that it is a civil rights organization that aims to create a community and promote self-protection.

Since its inception in 2015, the group has grown rapidly with approximately 30,000 members and 75 chapters across the country. Leaders are expecting 25 additional chapters by next year.

According to a 2017 Pew Research Center study, four in ten Americans report having a firearm in their household. Twenty-four percent of African-Americans report owning a firearm, compared with 36% of whites and 15% of Hispanics.

"Black people and guns usually have a negative stereotypical reaction of the type:" What does this guy do with a gun? "" says Philip Smith, president and founder of the group.

The number of members rising after President Trump's swearing, Smith said, partly attributing this growth to a political climate in which people with racist views feel encouraged to talk about it and put it into practice.

Some members of the organization say that it's time to have a bigger platform. The leaders of the group are considering the possibility of creating a political action committee that would raise funds and support sympathetic candidates for the cause. However, the main objective of the PAC would be to seek solutions between black gun owners and the police.

"Do law enforcement, or more importantly society as a whole, see black men with guns in a certain way? Let's have this discussion," Smith said. "It's a difficult discussion, but it's a discussion we need to participate in, as an organization."

Smith and others do not hesitate to point out that the group is supportive of law enforcement, but they also argue that carrying a gun in black can have deadly consequences .

The group often speaks of Philando Castile who was shot dead by police in 2016 after being arrested in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a broken rear light.

During the arrest, Castile told the officer that he was allowed to carry a firearm and that he had taken his wallet, at the request of the agents he had been shot .

There was also Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge in 2016 and EJ Bradford in Hoover Alabama in 2018.

It's impossible to know what role played being black in these incidents, but for Smith, "My job, and it's a very long-term wish, is to change this socialization process where [when] People see a black man or a black woman walking with a gun. They do not automatically say, "It's a thug" or "He or she is doing something illegal." "

On the group name, some members call it "NAAG" for short.

Others use all the letters in the acronym: N-A-A-G-A, which, when spoken aloud, sounds like a specific racial insult. Smith says people have a problem with the name since he started the group: "Some people thought it was offensive.I thought, and I still think, that there is a kind of advantage to that. "

Division on Political Change

In a sunny lounge located in downtown Atlanta, a handful of NAAGA members gather to film, but also discuss.

Their discussion ranges from the real need for an Afro-centric firearms organization to murderous incidents involving police and African Americans to white nationalism in the United States.

Casandra Light, 23, wears a black t-shirt with a pink lettering on which it says: "I'm wearing a [image of a handgun] because my [image of a military-style rifle] will not fit in my bag. "She says she's wary of a change in politics.

"One of the main things we are trying to do is change the perspective of owning a black weapon into a positive state of mind," Light said. She is concerned that if NAAGA forms a PAC, some might think that the group is radical and is pushing the membership away. "I would hate that to happen," she says.

"I think that if the organization wants to maintain the openness we have towards everyone, regardless of race, gender or political affiliation," says Light, "we must also make sure adopt a political stance because it is very easy for that to get out of proportion. "

Michael Doyle, one of the few white members of the Atlanta chapter, said that change was inevitable.

"The colors of our skin are politicized, unfortunately, possession of weapons is politicized, unfortunately," said Doyle.

"The idea that an African-American gun association would remain gleefully silent on issues of race and possession of weapons would be absurd".

Monica Neal, a former fighter who said that she "was seriously interested in firearms training and self-defense after her divorce," thinks NAAGA could bring out more firearms owners of the organization.

"If other people find that we are for protection and we own a firearm, I think it would probably increase our numbers," said Neal.

Phil Smith, the national president, said that the organization's management team was discussing whether and when to launch the CAP. Once the group leaders come to their conclusion, the members of the base will also have their say.