I know precisely where you are coming from, and what you are trying to get across. We cannot go into inner-city Black neighborhoods because we would not fare well. This is the fault of generations of government oppression towards the Black community, and resentment passed down from genearation to generation in the Black families.
I used to be an Archery instructor (not firearms, but very similiar) for a Boy Scout camp in Nebo, NC. The camp -- rather ignorantly -- brought all of the troops from the inner-city of Charlotte in during the same week. It was obvious that the only reason the majority of the kids were there is because they were probably bribed into being there. I broke up several VIOLENT fights that week, and I could not get through to these kids (majority) no matter how hard I attempted to do so. They had no respect for me regardless of how much respect I tried to show to them.
On the other hand, my best and most memorable students came from these same troops. I basically taught four young-men the entire week, while the rest did as they pleased, while doing nothing that I asked of them (of course, the Camp Director told me to continue to allow them to do as they please; it was obvious he did not care, which infuriated me). Those four young-men were the best students I had ever had, and they were absolutely thrilled to learn the sport of Archery. I still have pictures of one young-man in particular that caught on and couldn't get enough of learning the Sport. Any free-time this youngster had he would be on the range practicing, and asking questions. The sad thing about the situation was that the youngster would get criticized from the others in his troop for wanting to learn. I hope that this one youngster atleast is still enjoying the sport, because if I reached just him I did something good that week.
When one has been raised into believing something is bad or ignorant or just stupid, they tend to shy away from it. This is what we need to change, but it will take many of years and a good amount of personal-time to do so. Not only have family members passed along ill-conceived knowledge, but the government has done plenty to hurt inner-city youth.
These folks feel like the country has forgot about them, and in a way they are right. We might not be able to waltz right into downtown Detroit and start teaching folks about firearms, but we can certainly do so one person at a time. We teach one person, and they teach more. This is how we must accomplish the goal of bringing black AMERICANS to understand and exercise THEIR rights.
Oh, and to everyone: they are Americans just like the rest of us, not African-American. The only way they would be African-American is if they have immigrated from Africa in their life-time. We need to stop labeling races with such non-sense. We are ALL AMERICAN, and that we need to promote.
