NRA Shamefully Silent On Innocent Black Man Who Tried To Stop Intruders

Louisville, KY — According to his attorney, Kenneth Walker woke up in the middle of the night to armed intruders kicking in his door. He then grabbed his legally owned firearm to defend himself. He managed to fire off one round before the armed intruders fired off more than 20, murdering his beloved girlfriend, Breonna Taylor, as she slept in their bed. Instead of being hailed as a hero, Walker is now facing attempted murder charges — because the armed invaders who killed the love of his life were cops. Because the killers were cops and because the man who defended his home from the killers doesn’t fit the NRA’s narrative, gun rights activists are choosing to remain disgracefully silent on Walker’s arrest.

As TFTP reported, this wholesale government sponsored execution of Taylor and subsequent unlawful arrest of Walker took place in March. According to a lawsuit filed by the victim’s family, Taylor was shot 8 times during a drug raid on the wrong home.

For those who may be unaware, Walker is a legally registered gun owner. What’s more, the state of Kentucky uses the Castle Doctrine with a “stand your ground” law. As the the U.S. Concealed Carry Association points out:

A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat. He or she has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force, if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another. Force may also be used to prevent the commission of a felony involving the use of force. Any person who uses a gun in self-defense has immunity from criminal and civil law.

Walker was engaged in no unlawful activity. He has no criminal history and was starting a new job with UPS. No drugs were found at the home and he is not facing any drug charges because cops botched the warrant and were not even supposed to be there, according to the family’s attorney. Cops were reportedly looking for a suspect named Jamarcus Glover, who lived over 10 miles away from Walker and Taylor’s home.

It was also obvious that Walker had no idea the intruders were cops, especially given the witness testimonies claiming officers never identified themselves before the shooting began. Nevertheless, for defending himself in his own home against armed robbers in the wrong house looking to kidnap him for alleged drug possession, Walker has been charged with first-degree assault and attempted murder of a police officer.

As the NRA jumps at the chance to tout the rights of others to defend themselves against armed intruders in their own homes, they remain shamefully silent when innocent black men assert their right to bear arms.

Radley Balko sums up this silence quite accurately in the following Tweet.

This silence by the NRA should come as no surprise, however. Just like the NRA is silent on Walker’s tragic case, they were silent on many other cases in the past as well. See if you can pick the common theme among the cases below.

As TFTP reported, early one Sunday morning in 2018, a tragedy took place in Illinois after a hero security guard stopped what was quickly becoming a deadly mass shooting, only to be shot by police moments later. Jemel Roberson, a 26-year-old black man, was working security at Manny’s Blue Room one fateful morning when his heroism got him killed. He had a permit to carry the legal gun, used it properly to stop a crime, was killed for his pro-Second Amendment actions—by police—and the NRA is dead silent.

They were also silent when Siwatu-Salama Ra, a 26-year-old black woman, was kidnapped and caged for legally defending her family with a gun.

Ra was a legal gun owner with a concealed carry permit in a state that allows open carry, and when she pulled out her gun, she was defending herself, her mother and her 2-year-old daughter. But she was convicted of felony firearms violations and thrown in prison anyway. The NRA said nothing.

Philando Castile is another tragic case of the NRA choosing to remain silent. Castile, a black man with nothing on his record other than traffic tickets, was a legal concealed carry permit holder who had committed no crime, was complying with the officer who pulled him over to harass him, and was shot and killed by a cop afraid of his own shadow. Castile had harmed no one, and was killed for practicing his second amendment right. Once again, the NRA said nothing.

On top of being black, both Castile and Roberson were killed by police. When cops kill citizens for practicing their second amendment rights, the NRA also chooses to remain silent.

As TFTP reported at the time, Mesa, Arizona police were called over reports of a man with a gun in a legal carry state, and within minutes of their arrival, they opened fire on Daniel Shaver, father of 3 and a husband. Police killed Shaver even though he posed no threat, was complying with their commands to the best of his ability, and was even crying and begging the officers to spare his life. In response, the National Rifle Association remained silent. Shaver was in pest control and the “gun” — which was not in his possession at the time he was murdered — was a pellet gun to kill rats.

The organization’s website defines the NRA as “America’s foremost defender of Second Amendment rights,” and paints the picture of an association that has been committed to educating and protecting Americans’ Second Amendment rights since the 1870s. However, the NRA also notes that it is “widely recognized today as a major political force,” and it appears that politics are keeping the NRA from defending the Second Amendment rights of Americans who are killed by police as well as being black.

As journalist Radley Balko noted on Twitter after the officer who murdered Shaver was acquitted, “The insanely heavy-handed police response to Daniel Shaver came after someone reported seeing him with a rifle. (it was a pellet gun). Arizona is open carry, including for long guns. So the NRA will denounce this verdict and demand better training for Mesa police, right?”

Wrong. Just like the NRA was silent on Castile, Ra, Roberson and Shaver, they are also predictably silent on Walker.

The fact of the matter is that Second Amendment protections have often been denied to black citizens. Martin Luther King, Jr. couldn’t even get a concealed carry permit after his life was threatened. The NRA has historically not commented on individual or mass shootings. However, the NRA does have a close if fraught relationshipwith American police forces.

If the NRA actually cared about the Second Amendment and Americans’ civil liberties—instead of just how much money can be raised and how much public support can be garnered from powerful politicians—then it would be adamantly speaking out about the unjust killing of Breonna Taylor and the man who was arrested for practicing his Second Amendment right while trying to defend her.

Originally published by Matt Agorist at The Free Thought Project.