The op-ed’s framing is a textbook example of how anti-gun activists repackage the same tired “loophole” narrative every time the victim pool is politically useful. Rather than confront the uncomfortable data—most Black female homicide victims are killed by people they know, overwhelmingly with illegally obtained handguns already banned under existing federal law—the piece instead blames background-check “gaps” that would not have stopped a single prohibited person from obtaining a firearm through straw purchase or black-market diversion. By ignoring the 4473 form’s existing prohibitions on felons, domestic-violence misdemeanants, and those under indictment, the author effectively argues that law-abiding gun owners must surrender still more privacy and due-process rights to solve a problem the criminal justice system has already failed to address.

For the 2A community the takeaway is clear: every new “universal background check” or “red-flag” scheme is sold as a narrow, common-sense fix yet inevitably expands into registration and confiscation infrastructure. When the same politicians who decry “loopholes” simultaneously slash prosecution funding, empty jails, and treat illegal gun possession as a non-crime, the message to law-abiding Black women who want to exercise their right to self-defense is unmistakable—government will not protect you, but it will make it harder for you to protect yourself. The data from shall-issue and constitutional-carry states show that increased lawful carry correlates with drops in female homicide victimization; the op-ed’s solution points in the opposite direction.

Ultimately the piece reveals the deeper strategic goal: shift the Overton window so that any defensive gun use by a Black woman is portrayed as an unfortunate byproduct of systemic racism rather than an exercise of the same fundamental right the Constitution guarantees to every citizen. The 2A community’s response must remain consistent—more prosecutions of violent predators, not more restrictions on the law-abiding—and to keep reminding readers that the real “loophole” is the revolving door that returns armed felons to the streets faster than law-abiding citizens can finish a background check.