The group emphasizes the need for Black gun owners to know their rights. “The Second Amendment is one of the least utilized rights within the African American community,” an Iowa chapter founder said.
Melody Mercado|Des Moines Register
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DeeAnn Pilate was against guns for most of her life.
In fact, she hated them, she said. But something changed in September when she went to a range with her husband, Steven Pilate, a gun enthusiast, and learned how to properly hold and shoot a firearm.
Now the 53-year-old Des Moines woman has a concealed carry permit for the .380 pocket pistol with which she regularly travels — it fits perfectly into her small hands, she said — and she and her husband belong to the National African American Gun Association.
Philip Smith founded the Georgia-based NAAGA in 2015 as an "unapologetically Black organization."Smith said he wanted to create a welcoming space for Black gun owners to learn gun safety, practice shooting and feel empowered to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
The group now has more than 40,000 members and 100 chapters across the country, including two created in Iowa over the last year.
DeeAnn Pilate traces her previous fear of guns to a lack of education about them.
“The myth in my mind was when I shoot a gun, I’m going to go flying back and get out of control,” she said.
Once she finally went to a gun range to shoot, she was hooked.
“I loved it. I felt powerful … I didn’t feel like a weak person,” DeeAnn Pilate said. “I tell you what, I feel a lot safer, especially at night when I’m by myself and I have my gun by my side.”
Besides the pistol, she owns a .22 rifle, and she practices at least once a month with theDes MoinesColonel Young Gun Club, which her husband started.
More: What to know about the National African American Gun Association in Iowa
Group founder: ‘Know your gun laws'
Just like DeeAnn Pilate, it took Smith, the NAAGA founder and president, some time to discover his passion for firearms. He said he didn't pick up a gun until 2013 but, when he did, he enjoyed the experience so much that he wanted to share it with other people like him. So he created an organization that catered to the cultural and educational needs of the Black community.
NAAGA started with fewer than 100 members in February 2015 and grew to more than 1,000 by the end of that year.
"You're not the first Black person to own a gun, nor will you be the last," Smith said. "You have the responsibility to act and conduct yourself in a certain way ... know your gun laws and, more importantly, the essence of how to shoot a gun."
Narren Brown of Cresco is a former member of the National Rifle Association.A lack of inclusive messaging led Brown away from the NRA, which he said didn'trepresent him culturally or politically.
He found a home with NAAGA, and was a member for two years before forming Iowa's first chapter, the Well-Armed Progressive, in Cresco, a northeast Iowa town of about 3,500 people. He also launched an online store by the same name, where he sells Second Amendment apparel "that is reflective of the many diverse voices and progressive values within the larger community." He said his products counter gun owner apparel that features "offensive and racist" designs and messaging.
Brown hosted a NAAGA event in central Iowa last fall that Steven Pilate attended. Just a few weeks later, Pilate formed a Des Moines chapter.
To do so, chapter presidents must pass a background check and have a prospective member list of at least 10 people. Once they form a chapter, leaders are in charge of organizing events and leading orientations, which each new member is required to attend.
The group stresses safe and responsible gun ownership, Steven Pilate said, and the importance of knowing your rights.
“The Second Amendment is one of the least utilized rights within the African American community,” Steven Pilate said. “We need to exercise that right just like everyone else.”
That principledrives NAAGA, along with itsemphasis onsafety. Its required new membership orientation offers an overview ofAmerican Black history with firearms from the Buffalo Soldiers in the mid-1800s andthe Black Panther Party in the late 1960s to today.
NAAGA doesn't limit its membership by race, and leaders say more than half of its 40,000 members are women.
“I'm very proud of that fact, doesn't mean we always agree, because we don't. We have debates, discussions and arguments, all in a very positive way,” Smith said. “We have a thing in our organization ... we agree to disagree, but not disconnect.”
For a newcomer like DeeAnn Pilate, the diverse membership makes for a safe space to learn more about firearms and improve as a shooter.
“I still get scared. I still get nervous. I still get that voice in my stomach to ask questions,” DeeAnn Pilate said. “Only dumb question is a question that’s not asked. So don’t let it intimidate you … every woman should join.”
Gun sales, permits rising in Iowa and the U.S.
Gun sales nationwide surged in 2020 and early 2021. Possible motivations include people's desirefor personal and family protection amidthe chaos created by the COVID-19 pandemic and as civil unrest simmered after the May 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black Minneapolis resident, under the knee ofa white police officer,USA Today reported.
Smith said NAAGA membership rates from last summer track with rising gun sales, and the group is now growing by about 1,000 new members each month.
"We can't make other folks care about us.We have to care about us," Smith said. "We got to stop looking around like someone's gonna come and save us."
In 2020, nearly 40 million guns were legally purchased in the United States, an increase of 40% from the year before, according to USA Today.
Last year the Federal Bureau of Investigations reported conducting over 270,000 firearm background checks in Iowa — a 67% increase from 2019 and the most of any year dating to 1999. Iowa law enforcement officials also issued 85,986 nonprofessional permits to carry weapons and 14,960 permits to acquire handguns in 2020, according to data provided by the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Those numbers were higher than any of the previous three years.
ThePolk County Sheriff's Office issued 9,145 concealed carry permits in 2020, an 80% increase from 2019.
Concealed carry permits don't specify the demographics of the person applying, but a survey from the National Shooting Sports Foundation found that gun sales to Black consumers increased 58% last year, the most among any demographic measured.
More: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signs law allowing permitless handgun carry, purchase
A night at the shooting range starts with education, concealed carry class
On a Saturday night in February, members of the Well-Armed Progressive, Brown's Cresco chapter of NAAGA, and the Colonel Young Gun Club, Steven Pilate's Des Moines chapter,filed into a back room at CrossRoads Shooting Sports in Johnston with boxes of ammo, tactical gear and concealed carry pouches in tow.
It wasthe first joint event of the year for the two Iowa chapters, whose presidents said they like to collaborate when possible. That night they were there totake a Minnesota concealed carry class.
Minnesota is one of two states bordering Iowa that does not honor Iowa's concealed carry permit.Those who want to conceal carry in Minnesota must complete a course dedicated to Minnesota's gun lawsto apply for a permit.
DeeAnn Pilate went out of her way to greet each of the members and spent extra time with the six women who attended the class.
"I don't want them to feel intimidated thinking this is a man's thing, because it's not," she said.
Deaonda Bradley, 30, of Des Moines was one of the women who attended. She joined the Colonel Young Gun Club in November because she was drawn to the group's messaging.Before joining NAAGA, she had never fired a gun.
"We need more African Americans that are actually licensed to carry ... that are knowledgeable about carrying that gun, how to handle it, the self-defense roles," she said.
Discussions that night went beyond Minnesota laws to include how to act during a traffic stop, when to present an officer with your conceal carry permit, the ins and outs of the "stand your ground" self-defense law and more.
"The more Black men and women exercise their right to carry, the more police will have to get used to it," Brown said to a room full of NAAGA members.
Once classroom learning was over, the group moved on to the shooting range.
Julian Merritt, 36, and his father traveled with Brown to the Johnston event. For Merritt, a who calls himself a progressive, NAAGA is a symbol that gun ownership— and gun organizations—aren't just for conservatives and white people.
"People of color do own firearms, he said. "The Second Amendment should be equal, whether you're white, Black, Hispanic, Asian— the whole spectrum.
"I also feel like (NAAGA is) more inclusive than the NRA."
Bradley, who said the Johnston event was just the second time she'd fired a weapon,plans to get concealed carry permits in Iowa and Minnesota. She said she appreciates other NAAGA membersoffering her tips at the range and praising her when she hits the target.
"I was a little nervous at first, but now the way the world is, being a single mom, I need to be able to control and fire a firearm," Bradley said.
A change in Iowa gun laws asmass shootings continue nationwide
In early April, Iowa Gov.Kim Reynolds signed a law allowing people to buy and carry handguns in Iowa without a permit— a longtime goal of gun rights advocates.
The law, which some advocates call "constitutional carry," will take effect July 1.
Despite the change, Brown and Steven Pilate say they will stilladvocate for their chapter members to attain permits for their handguns becauseit’s a way to prove another level of rightful and legal gun ownership
With many members of the Cresco chapter living within 10 miles or less from the Minnesota border, Brown recommends his members have a permit for both states.
Along withIowa's new permit law, Steven Pilate says his chapter has recently been discussing safety precautions in the case of an active shooter situation.
More: Many states were already advancing new gun rules this year, even before recent mass shootings
As of Wednesday, there had been 155 mass shootings — four or more people injured or killed, not including the perpetrator — this year in the United States, according to theGun Violence Archive.
Pilate said he reminds members inactive shooter situations to not draw their weapons unless they are in imminent danger, for their own and others' safety.
"We want to make sure that all our people and our members understand that it's different when we're carrying a weapon," he said. "We have to make sure we're always on the side of right every time."
Melody Mercado covers the eastern Des Moines metro for the Register. Reach her at mmercado@registermedia.comor Twitter @melodymercadotv.
