Black Man With A Gun!
Black man with a gun
Black man with a gun
Security consultant Kenn Blanchard takes aim at a stereotype
Steve Davolt Small Business Editor
Kenn Blanchard draws his sermons from two works of scripture: the Holy Bible
and the Second Amendment.
Most Sundays, Blanchard, a licensed Baptist minister, can be found helping
out with services at the Mt. Sinai Baptist Church in Washington. The rest of
the week he works as a security consultant, and as such, is a staunch
advocate of gun rights.
Blanchard is founder of Blanchard Impresario Group, which advises
individuals, groups and businesses on “every element of physical security,”
including negotiation, avoidance tactics, risk assessment, and armed and
unarmed self-defense.
Like a lot of security pros, Blanchard has seen a sharp rise in the demand
for his services in the precarious post-Sept. 11 world. Unlike most of them,
he’s devised some ingenious ways of marketing himself, especially to a
population often neglected, if not outright avoided, by the pro-gun crowd:
African-Americans.
Blasting a stereotype
First, there’s his book, “Black Man With a Gun: A Responsible Gun Ownership
Manual for African Americans,” from which he also takes the name of his Web
site (http://www.blackmanwithagun.net). The site, which welcomes visitors
with a photo of Blanchard brandishing a submachine gun, warns: “If you had
any apprehension about this site … it is just proof of the conditioning we
have all been subject to about guns. A black man with a gun is no different
than any other ethnicity with one.”
He got the idea for the provocative marketing message while attending gun
rights advocacy events and holding firearms and self-defense workshops
around he country.
“Often I was the only black guy in the room,” he recalls. He soon found he
had struck a nerve among a sizable constituency of blacks interested in
keeping and bearing arms legally and responsibly.
“I hoped the name would help change the stereotype and the mentality,” he
says.
Blanchard has reached out to African-American gun owners in other ways.
Three years ago he established the 10th Cavalry Gun Club for African
Americans, named for the renowned Buffalo Soldiers who fought for the Union
in the Civil War. He continues to edit a monthly electronic newsletter for
its members.
Political doors
Blanchard’s high profile among African-American gun enthusiasts made him
appealing to the pro-gun mainstream. He was sought as a speaker by groups
such as the Maryland Libertarian Party and the Citizens Committee for the
Right to Keep and Bear Arms. He helped lobby for the passage of a law
allowing Virginians, properly licensed, to carry concealed weapons, and is
working on the same in Maryland.
Blanchard discovered that opening these political doors was good for
business. He was hired to perform more risk assessments and put on more
courses and workshops than ever; he gradually elevated his speaking fees.
“Kenn’s one of those rare individuals who can both do and teach,” says Kevin
Watson, a spokesman at the Falls Church-based Law Enforcement Alliance of
America, where Blanchard sits on the board of directors. “He has a knack for
both handling small arms and training and instructing in their use.”
Watson also ventures that Blanchard’s experience in the pulpit has helped
burnish the oratorical skills that have upped his currency as speaker and
lecturer.
Blanchard’s involvement with security and self-defense started when, fresh
out of Northwestern High School in Adelphi, Md., he spent five years in the
Marine Corps. He began as a heavy equipment operator but soon discovered he
had a natural talent for handling small arms. That led to security details
with U.S. embassies in London and Brasilia.
Once out of the service, he taught firearms instruction for a year at the
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glen Coe, Ga., where FBI, CIA and
other federal agents go to hone their combat skills. He spent a decade as a
federal police officer providing security to the CIA before entering the
private sector.
Boom business
As everyone knows, it’s a good time to be in the security business, with
demand rising sharply for consultants following the terrorist attacks in
September.
Andy Stanford, founder of Options for Personal Safety, a security firm with
headquarters in Sebring, Fla., and offices throughout the country, says his
company is fielding calls like never before.
“Sept. 11 was a wake-up call, not just regarding terrorist threats, but in
terms of general awareness of personal security,” Stanford says.
Since September, inquiries for Blanchard’s services have risen to about 30 a
month. “You used to say `counterterrorism’ and people laughed,” he recalls.
Whereas many security consultants market themselves only to corporate and
institutional clientele, Blanchard has designed his business to be
affordable for individuals and small business owners.
“I’m coming at it from the other side.” Blanchard says. “I’m focusing on Joe
Citizen coming out of the Wal-Mart.”
But Blanchard is leery of the legions of gung-ho ex-special forces and
survivalist types popping up across the country, whom he calls
“knuckledraggers.”
“I used to be one of them,” he says. “Drove a red corvette, lived out of a
suitcase. I knew every street in London, but when I came home to D.C. I got
lost.”
A mellower Blanchard, 39, lives with his wife and two children in Cheverly.
“Security is more of a cerebral game these days,” Blanchard says. “More
chess than checkers.”
His edgy marketing concept did backfire on him once, when he was caught off
guard by a fan who recognized him in a public restroom and enthusiastically
yelled, “Black man with a gun!”
“I almost wet my cowboy boots,” he says.
