Among today’s headlines:

from St. Louis Today: “Guns in St. Louis are increasingly semi-automatic – with higher caliber bullets, too”

from huffpost: “Police: 8 People Shot, 1 Critical At Florida MLK Day Event”

I have read that black Americans make up 12.5 percent of the population, but have been the victims in 61 percent of gun homicides. And I wonder if the laxity or absence of gun regulation is intended to maintain white supremacy in the U.S.

Implementing a policy does not always mean making things happen, but can also involve letting things happen. I have long believed that America’s failure to prevent the importation, manufacture, and distribution of narcotics is not the result of chronic incompetence, but is an intentional neglect meant to disable America’s black communities.

So too I wonder if the laxity of firearm regulations and the utter failure to control the traffic in illegal firearms are similarly part of a plan to inhibit the development of a cohesive, economically strong, and politically powerful black community, and to instill contempt and fear of blacks in the wider population.

Is this paranoia?