Maj Toure is an activist, politician, hip-hop artist, and the head of Black Guns Matter. He’s heavily involved in work on Second Amendment issues and responsible gun ownership. He has spoken at the Conservative Political Action Conference, preached a pro-gun message in radio and magazine interviews, and ran for Philadelphia City Council on the Libertarian ticket. He’s also released several rap albums.
At this year’s FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Toure participated in a roundtable with presidential candidate Cornel West, and 2022 New York gubernatorial candidate Larry Sharpe, on the future of freedom. Toure wore a T-shirt with the slogan, “All gun control is racist.”
Larry Sharpe, left, Cornel West, and Maj Toure at FreedomFest (Fox News)
Prior to the event, Toure sat down with Fox News Digital to discuss his libertarian philosophy, the importance of Second Amendment rights in contemporary society and urban communities, and the importance of 19th century reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass today.
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Toure said he believes that Americans in urban areas, who are most vulnerable to problems like crime, have not been properly educated about the Second Amendment.
“The Department of Education informs people very little about their human rights to defend life as codified in the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights as the Second Amendment. There is an ongoing attempt to make sure that Americans in the most vulnerable areas do not exercise their Second Amendment rights in a safe and responsible way. So there should be no need for Black Guns Matter,” Toure said. “We should be obsolete. If America was actually doing the thing that it’s founded on, the people having the right to keep and bear arms without restriction from government, there would not be a Black Guns Matter. But the reality is they are. And there’s…over 20,000 unconstitutional statutes that are in direct violation of the people’s right to keep and bear arms. So we just go to the areas where the people are misinformed the most about it and…are empowering [people] through that information.”
Toure said he has seen firsthand the way that the two major political parties, and big city machines conspire to keep third party candidates off the ballot.
“The massive level…of red tape and bureaucratic foolishness associated with someone running is wild. The fact that I needed more signatures to get on the ballot as a third party, as a Libertarian, than a Democrat or a Republican is insane to me,” he said.
He’s also critical of the job that Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker is doing.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker signed an executive order declaring a public safety emergency on Tuesday and directed police in the city to develop “comprehensive plans” that address crime throughout the city. (Philadelphia Mayor’s Office/X)
“I think the mayor of Philadelphia right now, is not really doing constitutional justice. So maybe…in a couple of years, maybe I’ll run for mayor or something like that,” Toure said.
Toure said that it’s fundamentally a misconception that the Black community in the U.S. leans left, but faults the Republican Party and conservative movements for a lack of outreach.
“Culturally, Black people tend to be more liberty-minded and/or conservative in their actions, right?…And historically, Black people definitely have had more of a conservative lean. But as it relates to the level of 90% voting Democrat in a lot of urban areas or Black cities, we can’t deny that that’s partly the fault of the other parties,” he said.
The Republican Party has a rich tradition as it relates to the Black community in America. I mean, Frederick Douglass, duh, right? They’re not telling that story. The libertarians are just now starting to have these conversations and do outreach in urban demographics. But the conversation about liberty and limited government and I have the right to defend what’s mine, and we don’t want criminals in our neighborhood: that’s not foreign to black communities.”
Toure added that while the Democratic Party undoubtedly has a larger footprint on the ground in urban communities, it is misleading the Black community.
“The Democrats just do a better job of doing outreach and lying to the people in those communities. And the Republicans and Libertarians just weren’t there. [The Republicans] had a good start and then it fizzled out. The Dixiecrats and the lily White conservative movement did a good job of securing the Black vote for the Democratic Party, and now they aren’t doing anything to actually fix that.”
While Toure is supportive of the anti-police brutality movement that emerged in the wake of Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, he has been critical of the Black Lives Matter leadership, and notes that others in the Black community, such as Missouri activist Darren Seals, were also suspicious for a variety of reasons.
A Black Lives Matter flag is displayed during a demonstration in Los Angeles. (Stanton Sharpe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“This movement [BLM] started and came out of the Ferguson movement, after Michael Brown was killed…people were active about ending qualified immunity because it almost felt like you couldn’t get through a week without a Black man being murdered by law enforcement…That Ferguson movement morphed into the Black Lives Matter movement and leadership…The late, great Darren Seals said, ‘I don’t know about those Black Lives Matter people. That’s not the Ferguson movement,'” Toure said. “Google gave [BLM] a check for $500,000, so forth and so on. So when you’re talking about the corporate structure, that’s a little bit different than the movement.”
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Toure said he supports grassroots activism within the Black community in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, but believes that the national movement has lost its way.
“When that narrative or the organization or the movement is hijacked…my critique is of the leadership of that hijacked movement, not the overall theme that this thing was created for. So when I say, ‘hey, you guys are painting the word Black Lives Matter on things as a symbol that is not substance.’…I am saying that you are just doing empty symbolism with no legislation…How about we start [talking about] the Gun Control Act of 1968? How about we start with the massive levels of redlining that have impacted property values? [How about we] remove gun control, gun free zones? That doesn’t help people getting murdered in gun-free zones, right?” he said. “What’s wrong with it is when leadership co-opts a movement and presents it as if it’s one thing intended to solve a problem, and it’s empty gestures and virtue signals that do nothing to repeal legislation or economic policies that have been detrimental to those same communities. That’s what’s wrong.”