title:  NRA Finally Vomits Up Stupid, Hypocritical Non-Statement On Philandro Castile’s Death
text: Philandro Castile, the black man in Minnesota who was a licensed concealed carrier and carrying his weapon when he was pulled over and shot, must present quite a dilemma for the NRA. Castile did everything right   he informed the officer he was licensed, he was carrying, and then told him he was reaching for his wallet as ordered, and he was murdered anyway. One might say he was murdered for daring to carry while black.As  the nation s largest and oldest civil rights organization  (oh, please), the NRA remained suspiciously silent for two days following Castile s murder, likely because they know how this makes them look, and it ain t good. Today, they finally broke their silence, obviously figuring out a way to comment on Castile s murder without actually giving validity to the Black Lives Matter movement and their many justified grievances:Investigation? Really? Do they want a thorough investigation into the deaths of the Dallas police officers before actually commenting there, too? No, of course not. The deaths of those officers feed their narrative and makes them look like allies of the police, which bolsters the racist beliefs of their primary base. The death of a black man exercising his 2nd Amendment right? Well, that should just be swept under the rug lest we continue to fuel racial tensions.Here s what they said about the tragedy in Dallas. Judge for yourself:They were very quick to issue a statement following the shooting of 12 police officers in Dallas. The NRA caters to  white identity  politics, and they love to whine about BLM s criticism of police. Thus, it s easy for them to talk about police officers being shot, and white people being shot, as though black people are the scourge of our society.But when it s a black person that s been shot because they dared to exercise their 2nd Amendment right to carry?Silence.Until they figure out exactly how to craft a response that still caters to  white identity  politics while pretending they aren t also implying that black people don t have a 2nd Amendment right to carry a gun.Racial resentment (read: white pride) is one of the main drivers of opposition to every form of gun legislation ever. The two are intimately linked, and the NRA fuels it because it ensures more gun sales. The more racist a white person is, the harder the NRA works to court them.Their statement is a non-statement, and it s shameful and disgusting, both in its tardiness and in what it says.Featured image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images