German Lopez · Thursday, July 07, 2016, 5:27 pm
On Wednesday night, police officers shot and killed reportedly legal gun owner Philando Castile — and although the details remain unclear, it seems the officers may have panicked and shot Castile to death when Castile reached for his driver’s license, after disclosing he had a gun.
This would seem like a standard case for the National Rifle Association: A legal gun owner was shot for doing everything you’re supposed to do — reportedly getting his concealed carry permit and telling an officer during a traffic stop that a gun was present in the car. But the NRA’s position official position so far is “no comment.” Why?
One possible explanation is the NRA has an uneasy alliance with police. Both police unions and the NRA are conservative groups, and many police officers are also gun owners and NRA members. The NRA, then, has an interest in not upsetting police — especially since the facts of the shooting remain unclear due to the lack of video of the shooting itself. (Still, the NRA has consistently decried the heightened scrutiny of police officers following the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.)
But there’s another, more obvious explanation: Castile was black, and gun ownership in America — down to the NRA’s messaging — is largely built on white identity.
Read more
http://www.vox.com/2016/7/7/12123040/philando-castile-nra-guns-police-shooting
This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
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