WELCOME TO THE CLUB! The growing ranks of Black gun owners.

In 2016, Toure founded Black Guns Matter, a Philadelphia-based gun rights advocacy and education group focused on African Americans that offers free classes on everything from conflict resolution to yoga. People fly him around the country to speak. But teaching members of the Black community here in Philly how to use firearms to defend their life and liberty is his calling.

“There’s not a question that more Black people would be alive today if they had guns,” Toure told me.

Toure and his students are a part of the fastest growing — and most often ignored — segment of gun owners in the United States: Black Americans.

Between 2014 and 2021, the percentage of African American adults who own registered firearms nearly doubled — from 14% to 24%. And, according to industry figures, gun purchases by Black Americans spiked nearly 60% from the first half of 2019 to the same period in 2020.

Don’t forget that range time.