NSSF: ACLU Doesn’t Care About Americans or Civil Liberties
Last updated: April 22, 2026 · Originally published: July 30, 2021
If you’ve been keeping an eye on the ebb and flow of American politics–and of course you have been–then you have no doubt noticed that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has one civil liberty that it doesn’t much care for. That, of course, is the right of self-defense as enshrined in the Second Amendment to the Constitution. They’ve recently shown their hand with an attack on American gun owners … and the National Shooting Sports Foundation‘s Larry Keane has the last word on the matter. The below is directly from NSSF:
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) needs to change their name. At this point, it’s false advertising.
The ACLU recently argued that, “anti-Blackness determined the inclusion of the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights, and has informed the unequal and racist application of gun laws.” That’s plainly arguing that the Second Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights as a tool of racist control of slaves. The posting by communications intern Ines Santos was an introduction to a podcast that included opinions from several professors who wholeheartedly agree the Second Amendment is racist and is a tool to deny civil rights to African-Americans.
It’s clear the ACLU is a shadow of its former self. It’s not the bastion to protect God-given liberties, but to drive special interest agendas. The ACLU’s disdain for the Second Amendment as a foundational and individual right isn’t new, but it is an attempt to flip it on its head. The ACLU‘s argument that the Second Amendment is a tool of oppressors doesn’t just ignore history. It is rewriting cold, hard facts.
Backlash
The criticism over the outlandish claims was as quick as it was severe. The Twitter-sphere lit up with reactions denouncing ACLU for peddling falsehoods.
Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby noted the irony that the ACLU was denouncing the Second Amendment at a time when African-Americans are claiming their gun rights in record numbers. “The ACLU has completely lost the plot. Meanwhile, the [sic] National African American Gun Association, which began in 2015 with a single chapter in Atlanta, now comprises more than 75 chapters with 30,000 members,” Jacoby tweeted.
NSSF’s own retailer surveys in 2020 showed African-Americans were buying guns at a 58 percent increased rate over 2019. At the same time, Hispanic-Americans were buying guns at a 49 percent increased rate and Asian-Americans at a 43 percent increased rate.
National Review writer David Harsanyi lambasted the claims as “nonsense,” and linked to a previous article where he debunked the same claims pushed by the 1619 Project as “wishful thinking.” Harsanyi refuted the theories, pointing out that John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams were abolitionists who argued against slavery and for the right to keep and bear arms. Harsanyi pointed out the ludicrous presumption that if African-Americans are being denied their rights, then that right must be stripped of all Americans.
“We don’t attack the idea of free speech simply because people are denied its protections,” he wrote. “That fact only accentuates its importance. For most of our history, self-defense was also seen as an immutable right that existed with or without the sanction of the state.”
Real Racist Roots
Maj Toure, founder of Black Guns Matter, told The Daily Caller in his usually blunt fashion that claims the Second Amendment is racist is an attempt to, “brainwash black people into believing that having the means to defend themselves is nefarious. I think gun control is racist, not the Second Amendment.”
Toure explained to The Daily Caller these attempts to twist history are exactly why he and his organization are dedicated to educating the public about their rights.
That used to be the role of the ACLU – to educate the public and defend civil liberties from government infringement. The Second Amendment is a second-class right in their estimation, though. The ACLU doesn’t agree with the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2008 Heller decision that affirmed the Second Amendment as an individual right. They contend, still today, that owning a gun is a governmental matter.
“Given the reference to ‘a well regulated Militia’ and ‘the security of a free State,’ the ACLU has long taken the position that the Second Amendment protects a collective right rather than an individual right,” the ACLU website states.
The ACLU isn’t just ignoring a Supreme Court ruling that’s over a decade old, they’re ignoring legal history that’s nearly 400 years old. That’s the racist history of gun control laws. Gun control is literally rooted in slave codes and Jim Crow laws. Some of those laws – like requiring local sheriffs to approve handgun sales – still exist in North Carolina. The Atlantic, a liberal news publication pointed out that in 1640, Virginia already had laws on the books preventing Blacks from owning guns. In 1712, a law for a total ban on black gun ownership was enacted to prevent slave revolts. Slave Codes were renamed Black Codes after the Civil War.
Even as late as 1994, the Clinton administration “introduced H.R. 3838 to ban guns in federal public housing, which would have affected 3 million individuals.”
Attempts to twist history to fit a particular narrative aren’t in anyone’s interest, least of all when those who would do it pretend it is for greater good. Nothing is further from the truth. The Second Amendment clearly isn’t a white right, or a Black right. It is a God-given right of all Americans to freely exercise at their choosing. If the ACLU can’t defend that, they need to change their name.
ACLU: Agitated Communist Lawyers Union
They were NEVER about civil liberties; they have always been about gradually turning America into a communist country.
The ACLU has become a hate group, much like the Southern Poverty Law Center, BLM and others of that ilk.
Isn’t the aclu a terrorist organization. If not it should be.
I also intended to state that the ACLU from long ago was comprised of patriots with backbones. Today it seems to be filled with touchy-feely worms who have no spine whatsoever and simply work to make themselves and others feel comfortable.
They don’t seem to realize that there is no safety for those who give their protection over to the government. Any government powerful enough to protect you is also powerful enough to enslave you – and that is what government does by its very nature. It’s a cancer, and it will take over your life and substance to continue feeding itself.
The Second Amendment applies to EVERY American – of ANY color. Yet gun control has been used over and over to initiate genocide. If you feel discriminated against, go buy a damned gun. Or better yet, three. One for carrying and in your home, a rifle to reach out when you need to ‘make a point’ at a distance, and a shotgun for when you’re outnumbered.
The ACLU and the American Communist Party were both formed around the First World War and the Bolshevik revolution. Both were openly funded by Communist worldwide. Suddenly is be came unpopular to be affiliated wit Communism and the ACLU began being funded by another organization with not apparent ties to the Communist party but covertly the ACLU is STILL funded by worldwide communism. Sure the organization does some good openly with plenty of advertising of it, but their main stay is turning the world into a total Socialist/Communist state. The US Democratic party is right in there with this organization and under the Clinton administration became totally communistic following decades of little by little adhering to those precepts since Woody Wilson’s adherence to Bolshevism.
ACLU is part of the problem day 1
The Second Amendment clearly states; ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’ -Not the right of a well regulated militia nor only as part of that militia, but a Right of The People. Any so-called historian can twist facts or even lie (especially liberals, apparently) without proof or evidence while not under oath, but the wording of the Second Amendment is very clear.
A legitimate government does need to fear an armed citizenry
Liberals even lie under oath, as evidenced by the many politicians and office holders who have sworn an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of (ex: California) against all enemies foreign and domestic”.
The ACLU has never been about rights. They have been about advancing first socialism and communism, and thus the destruction of the Constitution and our way of life.. The ACLU was founded by an avowed communist whose goal was to defend people accused of being communists during the McCarthy era. Today, the ACLU has only to get a case before the court in order to get a huge payoff… even if they lose the case.
The ACLU should become the ANLU = American No Liberties Union. Now they are just another shill for the leftist democrat party. To suggest that the 2nd amendment had anything to do with slavery or blacks is absurd. If the democrat party had penned the 2nd amendment in the early 19th century it would be an anti-black thing but they didn’t. The 2nd amendment is there for all people of this country except for those who are criminals or insane. That should exclude the majority of the democrat party from owning firearms. Which is good because the democrat party is one of the reasons we have the 2nd amendment and it looks more and more that the democrats need to be reigned in and the spending and liberty stealing things they are doing put to an end. If we survive the Joke Biden, Skumballa Harris administration with out firing a shot that will be good. BTW is Biden all there?
The ACLUis taking its lead from Marxist Democrats and favor control and power over freedom and actual rights of the individual. They have taken the wrong approach and will be exposed as the evel organization that they have become. Marxist have no place in America and the second Amendment will help to eradicate these power hungry idiots from American soil ..
I totally agree! The so-called woke community is systematically trying to take down our country, largely with the help of the Dims.
This kind of statements doesn’t Help the Meaning of Americans. It just keeps hate and racist division going.
It speaking the truth wrong? Is it better to go along with bad ideas than to accept truth?
The Dems have been lying to Blacks since the Civil War, and deluding others to thinking as they do.
That is what the democommunists are doing…. “keeping quiet” and rolling over like whipped dogs without a fight, is EXACTLY what the FRAUDULENTLY “elected” COMMUNISTS that are currently running this country WANT.
OUR VOICES need to be heard, and heard LOUD and CLEAR that we PATRIOTS know what the communists are attempting to do and will not tolerate this behavior anymore.
The “tree of liberty” is obviously in need of “watering again” if this constitutional republic is to continue.
So when do we start the push back? This shit is going on too long. The longer we let this go the harder it will be to regain control of our lives. Maybe to late now!
The American Criminal Liberties Union is nothing but a mouthpiece for the communist, errr, Democrat party. Haven’t read one thing they have said in the last 40 years that would remotely attempt to help anyone’s “liberty”. With the exception of the criminal element. Just my opinion.