Screenshot from a promotional page on the Black Wolf app
Kerry King Brown, a business owner and former bodyguard, has launched a new ride-hailing app, Black Wolf, offering drivers who carry guns as a security solution to the threat of escalating gun violence plaguing the U.S.
The 32-year-old Brown is a former private investigator who worked for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), New York Post reported. The startup has around 15 cars servicing the metro Atlanta area.
The Atlanta ride-hailing company is promoted as an “Uber with guns” whose drivers are trained to use and carry firearms.
Sixty-nine people were killed in 258 U.S. gun violence incidents in just the last three days alone — June 6, June 7 and June 8 — according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that collects incidents from more than 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources.
With many lawmakers unwilling to address the problem or find solutions, there’s no end in sight and businesses are stepping in to fill the void, Forbes reported.
Brown spent years working as a private investigator and providing security for celebrities and politicians, according to Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV Chanel 2.
All Black Wolf drivers must pass a background check and are trained in de-escalation techniques. Within a month of launch, Black Wolf has been downloaded more than 90,000 times.
“Our drivers are military, law enforcement, those who have been in the private security world for over five years. That’s the minimum we require,” Brown said. “They can see a situation brewing before it happens.”
On its Facebook page, Black Wolf said it offers armed and non-armored black car services in the metro Atlanta area. Services include airport rides, hourly rates and day rates.
Black Wolf launched in mid-May and gained widespread attention within days after going viral on Reddit. Brown’s service is being sold as “executive protection” for people worried about their personal safety.
In July 2022, the nonprofit news platform The Markup tracked a total of 361 ride-hail and delivery drivers who had been victims of carjackings or attempted carjackings since 2017. That was 237 more incidents than the 124 such incidents tracked a year earlier in July 2021.
“The lion may be the king of the jungle, but the wolf never performs in the circus,” Black Wold said in its promotional material. “For around the same price as a luxury black car service, you can ride around bulletproof like the president. DM with any inquiries or questions.”
Riders pay a base rate of $50 for an unarmed driver and $60 for an armed driver plus $1.75 per mile.
The Black Wolf app is available free on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Three different services are offered — armed executive protection, unarmed executive protection, and school executive protection, marketed as a way to send children to school more safely.
“We have clients from the political realm to the everyday blue-collar worker,” Brown said.
“Every Black Wolf App vehicle comes equipped with GPS tracking and live-streaming technology that allows our riders to share with their loved ones,” the company says on its Facebook page.
A Long Island native, Brown hopes to expand to New York City but his efforts are complicated by strict gun laws and difficulty getting a permit to carry a firearm. Other markets he’s aiming for include Los Angeles, Dallas, and Miami.
Black Wolf is looking for drivers who have had experience in law enforcement, private security, or the military, Brown told The Post. “We want retired officers. We want guys who have been in the military or private sector so it’s not just cops.”
In launching the Atlanta ride-hailing company, Brown said, “What I’m creating is a necessary evil. It’s a necessity.”
“Who are mostly on the news getting robbed, getting raped? The average person,” Brown told Atlanta News First.
Although there’s majority support for gun restrictions such as background checks for all gun sales, and for law enforcement taking guns away from people who have been legally judged unstable or dangerous, laws won’t pass in Congress, said political scientists Monika McDermott. That’s because there are more pressing priorities, like the economy.
“You can’t just think about majority support for legislation; you have to think about priorities. People in office care what the priorities are. If someone’s not going to vote them out because of an issue, then they’re not going to do it,” McDermott said in an interview with The Conversation.
