The NRA can be relied upon to defend the most outrageous justifications for gun owners.

It famously had a nationwide advertising campaign describing federal agents as, “Jack Booted Thugs,” which led former President George H. W. Bush to resign his life time membership.

There is nothing that can stay the NRA’s absolutist rhetoric, the above case was a full throated endorses of the Branch Davidians in Wako, unless it involves a black person:

Amid the national fury over the death of Philando Castile at a traffic stop in July — a shooting made more horrific by his girlfriend’s Facebook Live broadcast of his final moments — some condemned the National Rifle Association’s near silence on the matter.

The organization had been quick to defend other gun owners who made national news. Castile had a valid permit for his firearm, reportedly told the officer about the gun to avoid a confrontation, and was fatally shot anyway after being told to hand over his license.

So some NRA members were furious when the organization released a tepid statement more than a day after the shooting that merely called it “troublesome” and promised that “the NRA will have more to say once all the facts are known.”

………

On Tuesday, video of the traffic stop was made public, showing Castile calmly telling the officer about his firearms — followed within seconds by the officer shooting him and cursing in what sounds like a panic.

So outrage is boiling again.

And still the NRA has nothing to say.

This is not a surprise.  The whole modern gun control debate has been steeped in racism.

The use of open carry by the Black Panthers in California led to the adoption of restrictive gun laws in California, signed into law by Ronald Reagan, and this led to the 1968 Gun Control Act, and then the NRA went insane, because they wanted guns to protect themselves from black people.

The silence of the NRA is not a bug, it’s a feature.