There have certainly been black men with criminal records that have lawfully defended themselves, of course. That one story is coming to mind of a convicted felon who unlawfully owned a handgun, but used it to shoot an armed robber that was holding up a drug store or something; because it was Tennessee or Kentucky or thereabouts, he wasn't charged, thankfully. People can change and if they serve their time, I see no reason to force them to be second-class citizens for the rest of their lives.
The majority of firearms deaths happening in that community clearly don't fall under lawful defense though. fwiw, I'm not a believer that available firearms automatically means everyone is a good law-abiding citizen and that the bad guys cower in fear before the almighty power of the Second Amendment. Things are screwed there for so many reasons, and unless you enact a complete and total firearm ban, sweeping house-to-house confiscating them, there isn't much you can do to reduce firearm deaths there.