Sunny Hostin: The Second Amendment Really Was Designed to Protect Slavery

EXCERPT:

HOSTIN : "Well, you know, I think it’s a cultural problem and I think Ana is absolutely right. If you look at the history of the NRA for decades, the NRA has pushed legislation that not only supported a lot of gun ownership and the proliferation of guns but stifled the study, spread of information right, about the causes of gun violence. And when we talk about the culture of guns in this country I’m reading an incredible book called 'The Second' by professor Carol Anderson. And she describes that the constitutional — the Second Amendment really was the right to bear arms was designed to protect slavery, right, because they wanted our Founding Fathers and others, they wanted to be able to empower a local militia group to basically put down a slave revolts and protect plantation owners. And so because of the origins of the Second Amendment many and because of the NRA, I think we’re seeing this proliferation of guns and gun ownership. But I will say that gun ownership is -- is on the rise, of course, in this country, but the biggest gun ownership on the rise is among African-Americans. It’s up 58.2 percent and in large part when they are questioned, they’re talking about white supremacy, they’re talking about the pandemic and they’re talking about police violence. They want to be able to protect themselves. So this is not about a rise in crime in the streets, this is about people feeling unsafe, black Americans."