Kenn Blanchard: Black Man With A Gun on Changing Hearts

Reverend Kenn Blanchard, known internationally as the Black Man With A Gun, is an ordained minister, author, trainer and one of the longest-running podcasters in the gun rights community. In this 2019 conversation for the Minuteman University interview series, he traces his path from firearms instructor to national spokesman to online pastor. His lessons on changing hearts one conversation at a time apply to every 2A advocate.

From Firearms Instructor to Spokesman

Blanchard has been involved in gun rights since 1991. Before that he worked in government security, including as a firearms instructor for the CIA, where he trained with weapons from around the world and learned from instructors from many countries. He wanted to share that knowledge at home and planned to become the friendly neighborhood firearms instructor.

The timing was difficult. It was the late 1980s, the crack wars were raging, and the news was full of grieving mothers. Blanchard found himself defending the right to keep and bear arms as much as teaching. He dropped the tactical branding from his business, worked with the Law Enforcement Alliance of America (where he served as chaplain), and began traveling as a spokesman with national groups including the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation. Soon he was testifying before Congress and state legislatures. In his words, he shot less and talked more.

Changing Hearts in a Hostile Room

One story from those years shows his approach. At a hearing, a mother whose son had been killed in a drive-by shooting spoke before him, holding up her son’s photo and blaming the gun. Blanchard was the next speaker. Instead of arguing statistics, he spoke to her directly, with compassion. He told her he was sorry for her loss, then asked why her son had been outside at two in the morning. The gun was just a piece of metal, he said. The streets, and a person, took her son, and the people who brought her there were using her grief. She gathered her things and left the room.

He repeated that kind of direct, personal approach across the country and changed hearts along the way. He also points out what rarely makes the news. A two-minute television segment is very different from a church basement filled with 50 hostile people, and after many of those meetings, ten people would come back afterward and ask him to take them to the range.

Black Man With A Gun: Starting From Ground Zero

Blanchard’s first website went up in 1999 to promote his book, and the book came out in 2000. He wanted to say plainly that a Black man with a gun is not a negative thing. At the time, he says, the cultural attitude had barely moved since the civil rights era, when NAACP leader Robert Williams armed his community and was told that was dangerous. When Blanchard published, he got the same response.

That meant starting from ground zero. All the advanced tactical knowledge had to wait. The first job was helping ordinary people feel comfortable simply being legal gun owners. The book’s short chapters included “A Letter to My Sisters,” which reached Essence magazine and was quoted in Jet, and “Leroy Get Your Gun,” which made the point that a Black American can own a gun legally and stay out of jail. The book put him on the radio for the first time and led to a gun club that grew far beyond what he expected.

He also credits a turning point at an NRA annual meeting, when three NRA directors asked whether he had heard of Ossian Sweet or the Deacons for Defense. He had not. He went home, dug into the history with family members and others in the know, and has been on fire about the racist roots of gun control ever since. Years later, a pro-Second Amendment publisher he met at the Gun Rights Policy Conference encouraged him to update the book, and he rewrote it in 60 days as Reloaded, published by White Feather Press.

A Pastor Who Defends the Right to Bear Arms

Blanchard went into ministry and pastored a church for seven years. Being openly pro-gun as a pastor drew criticism, and he did not back down. After the Navy Yard shooting, when he was invited on CNN, he used the time to talk about veterans who come home and get left alone too long, something no unit would allow in the field. Some local ministers were angry with him for it.

Asked whether people of faith are more open to the Second Amendment, he explains that the mothers and grandmothers in many churches were not afraid of firearms. They were afraid of losing their sons. Once he understood that, he could reframe the conversation. When officials quoted Scripture against gun ownership, he answered as a student of the Bible and showed where the verses were taken out of context. He has seen a real increase in church security and armed congregants since the early days of concealed carry.

After stepping away from his physical church, he moved his ministry online, including a podcast for pro-gun Christians that grew into Speak Life Church.

Why He Does It, and How He Keeps Going

His motivation began with how much he did not know, and a desire to fix that and share it. Communication is his gift. He believes people can reach each other when they meet on common ground, and the gun community has broadened his own appreciation for other people, from old western music to family heirloom rifles brought home from war.

“It always comes down to people. We’re all just people. Really, all we want to do is connect.”

Kenn Blanchard

He openly admits to burnout and has stepped back from projects more than once. What keeps him going is constant learning, being willing to set something aside until he is refreshed, and the relationships he has built. He also credits his supporters on Patreon, who paid for his podcast gear. His podcast and projects are collected at Black Man With A Gun.com. Back in 2000, he says, only a handful of Black pro-gun voices were on the air. Now others have taken what he started and gone further, which he counts as a win.

His advice for new activists is simple: work alongside someone who is already in the fight. A newcomer’s energy can lift up a veteran who has taken some hits, and the veteran can steer the newcomer away from costly mistakes.

“I’ve made all the boo-boos you can make and still be here. If you listen to me, I’m gonna save you a lot of pain.”

Kenn Blanchard

Watch the full interview

Video: Rev. Kenneth Blanchard LIVE with the Black Man With A Gun on the Gun Websites YouTube channel.