Rapper Killer Mike is once again supporting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for president, partly because of his frustration with other presidential candidates’ proposals for increased gun control laws, especially the plans from African American presidential hopefuls.
“I don’t trust black leadership that wants to de-arm black people,” Killer Mike, born Michael Render, told Yahoo News, pointing to how indigenous people were conquered because colonists had firearms.
When asked how different the country would have been if everyone, including African Americans, was able to own firearms, Killer Mike, who is black, said, “It would’ve been a lot harder to commit acts like slavery and genocide on Native Americans.”
“They don’t want you to have guns in cities for fear of crime and violence, yet the crime and violence is there and the police treat you as those you are criminally violent,” he added.
Killer Mike supported Sanders for president in 2016, a key endorsement for the senator who struggled to gain traction among black voters.
Although Mike’s support for the Second Amendment and Sanders is not new, his reasoning for the endorsement is significant because Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, who are both black, have touted their experience of dealing with inner-city violence as reasons for tightening gun rights.
Booker called for federal gun licenses, which would require a gun registry to be enforceable, in his plan. Other items include a ban on “assault weapons” and limiting magazine sizes. Harris said if Congress fails to pass more gun control bills within the first 100 days of her presidency, she will take executive action on guns.
The California senator also said she would ban the importation of “military-style rifles.”
