ACLU slammed for arguing racism is ‘foundational’ to the Second Amendment, its inclusion in the Bill of Rights

The American Civil Liberties Union faced withering criticism Sunday for claiming that racism is "foundational to the Second Amendment and its inclusion in the Bill of Rights." 

Santos wrote the "vigilantism of widespread gun ownership puts Black Americans in an especially vulnerable position" because of brutality and the human cost of discriminatory policing.  "The gun violence epidemic continues to spark debate about the Second Amendment and who has a right to bear arms. But often absent in these debates is the intrinsic anti-Blackness of the unequal enforcement of gun laws, and the relationship between appeals to gun rights and the justification of militia violence," she wrote. "Throughout the history of this country, the rhetoric of gun rights has been selectively manipulated and utilized to inflame white racial anxiety, and to frame Blackness as an inherent threat."