"When an oppressed people show a willingness to defend themselves, the enemy, who is a moral weakling and coward, is more willing to grant concessions and work for a respectable compromise.... They are most vicious and violent when they can practice violence with impunity." -Robert F. Williams, Negroes With Guns
What should we do as a community when our own government, which is supposed to uphold the law and protect us, not only fails to uphold the law, but commits violent, illegal acts against us?
If the people who are supposed to protect us are the ones abusing us, then no one is left to save us but ourselves. We must protect ourselves. And specifically, we must arm ourselves.
This is not a call for violence. This is a call for the community to buy guns, not for violence, but for deterrence. Deterrence is nonviolent; it prevents violence. It’s a way for us to protect our community without bloodshed. An openly armed community will make ICE think twice about breaking the law, violating our rights, and hurting and killing us.
ICE has shown us that they’re cowards. They’re scared to show their faces, scared to have us watching them, scared to be alone... The only reason they’re not scared to use illegal violence against us, too, is because they know we can’t fight back! So to stop them, we must gain the capacity to fight back.
To ICE, one protester with a gun is a threat to be neutralized. But a crowd of protesters with guns is a strong motivation to follow the law and deescalate. They’re not here to die for a cause; they’re here for a paycheck and for the chance to beat up people who can’t fight back. Why should they risk their lives by starting a shootout with a crowd of armed community members?
There’s more than a thousand of us for each one of them. If we arm ourselves, we deter their illegal violence. We can win without firing a single shot.
We won’t shoot first. We don’t need to.