Black Lives Matter Has No Claim To The Second Amendment

During an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on June 24, the leader of Black Lives Matter’s (BLM) Greater New York chapter, Hawk Newsome, threatened that “if this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it.” 

He also said that for BLM to “intervene effectively” would be an example of “upholding the Second Amendment.” To the contrary, however, the violence and destruction Newsome threatened, and the violent crimes and property crimes rioters have been committing in support of BLM’s political objectives the last few weeks, are things the Second Amendment is intended to prevent.

As the Supreme Court noted in District of Columbia v. Heller, 2008, the Second Amendment protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms so that a well regulated militia drawn from the people will be able to assure the security of a free state against three threats to life and liberty, two of which are being posed by BLM: insurrection and tyranny.

That insurrection and tyranny are what BLM intends is indicated not only by Newsome’s statements, or by pro-BLM agitators’ attempt to set themselves up as the governments of so-called Autonomous Zones in Seattle, Portland, and several other cities around the country, or by their demand that police officers, National Guardsmen, and other Americans kneel before them. BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors has said that she and her co-founders adhere to a political ideology that seeks to destroy society as we know it.