There are two general arguments one finds among those who defend the Second Amendment or the right to bear arms in the United States. One is that the legal protection of everyone's right to bear arms is morally required since we all have a human right to self-defence, and that gun control has the effect of disarming only the law-abiding sector of society, thus rending them more vulnerable to violence. I refer to this as the classical liberal argument. The other is that a right to bear arms is an essential part of American identity; it reflects American history, etc. It is often thought that these two arguments go hand in hand and stand to motivate a broad-based coalition in support of the right to bear arms. I think this is mistaken because the historical gun culture that the Second Amendment has functioned to protect in the United States has been highly discriminatory, and has been a device for keeping privileged whites armed, and the black community disarmed, vulnerable, and oppressed. I therefore argue that the case for a real, universal right to bear arms ought to take explicit notice of the harm that gun control has done to the black community, and doing this requires classical liberals to purge their discourse of conservative rhetoric around Second Amendment rights. The right to bear arms cannot be protected by defending or promoting gun culture.