Is Gun Control Racist?

[Sunstone]

An interesting argument that gun control is racist:

http://www.paganvigil.com/C1163190915/E20060812155043/index.html

The historical record provides compelling evidence that racism underlies gun control laws — and not in any subtle way. Throughout much of American history, governments openly stated that gun control laws were useful for keeping blacks and Hispanics "in their place" and for quieting the racial fears of whites.

Rest of the article is at the above link.

Do you think the argument that gun control is racist is compelling?

Would it change your mind about gun control if you believed it was motivated by racist fears?

 

[w00t]

I am thankful that I live in a country where handguns are illegal and even the police do not carry them routinely!

 

[Mathematician]

Sounds like the same arguement they use in support of legalizing drugs.

The historical record provides compelling evidence that racism underlies gun control laws — and not in any subtle way. Throughout much of American history, governments openly stated that gun control laws were useful for keeping blacks and Hispanics "in their place" and for quieting the racial fears of whites.

That was when they were legally inferior. Today it's a different story.

Would it change your mind about gun control if you believed it was motivated by racist fears?

My support for gun control is not motivated by racism, so no.

 

[!Fluffy!]

I think the racist claims are unsupportable in the conventional sense, without solid evidence from any reliable unbiased source. However there is tremendous support in modern and historical law that the individual's right to bear arms is considered "natural", that is 'self evident and necessary' in a free society.

"Finally, I contended that the debate over the question of self-defense was unnecessary since few people suggested that Negroes should not defend themselves as individuals when attacked. The question was not whether one should use his gun when his home was attacked, but whether it was tactically wise to use a gun while participating in an organized demonstration." Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Chapter II, Black Power, Page 27,

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. If we want the Arms Act to be repealed, if we want to learn the use of arms, here is a golden opportunity. If the middle classes render voluntary help to Government in the hour of its trial, distrust will disappear, and the ban on possessing arms will be withdrawn." Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Chapter XXVII, Recruiting Campaign, Page 403

"Moreover, "legitimate defence can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another's life, the common good of the family or of the State".[44] Unfortunately it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm sometimes involves taking his life. In this case, the fatal outcome is attributable to the aggressor whose action brought it about, even though he may not be morally responsible because of a lack of the use of reason.[45]" His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, Section 55,"

 

[NeoWayland]

Hello folks.

I'm the guy who posted the article. Actually I am citing someone else there.

I'm a reluctant gun advocate, mainly because the alternatives are worse. It's not something that I woke up one morning and decided. It's something that I argued and debated and struggled with for a long time.

Now if we were talking about something like bug spray or gasoline or fertilizer, there would be no question. Even though these items are dangerous and potientially lethal, we assume that most people are adult enough to make their own decisions on how to use them.

But guns and other weapons are different. There we have government morality stepping in.

Please think about those two words for a moment. Government. Morality.

Gun control laws are aimed at keeping cheap guns off the market, or in the case of the UK and Australia,all guns off the market.

But the people who would follow the law aren't the ones who everyone else is worried about.

Gun control laws don't prevent guns from being available, they just drive guns into a black market. A black market that doesn't pay taxes, I might add.

Gun control laws don't stop the rich from owning and using guns, they can afford lawyers and lobbyists to find or create exemptions from the law.

Gun control laws don't stop crimminals from owning and using guns.

Gun control laws don't stop overly enthusiastic police agencies from owning and using guns.

The ones caught on the short end of gun control are those honorable people without means to manipulate the law. And that usually ends up being the poor. And they are told in no uncertain terms that it is for their own good.

There is a lot more I could go into here, this is one of the "hot button" issues for libertarians. But instead I will just say follow the guns.

Who do gun control laws disarm?

 

[CaptainXeroid]

... Who do gun control laws disarm?

Honest law abiding people. That way, the criminals will know that their victims will be unarmed.

Just like Prohibition and the War on Drugs, gun control laws will not be effective except for creating a black market.

Anyway....racism connected to gun control laws...wouldn't surprise me, and it doesn't change my lack of support for them anyway.

 

[Booko]

Would it change your mind about gun control if you believed it was motivated by racist fears?

Being raised in Michigan, my definition of "gun control" is "a steady aim."

 

[niceguy]

Do you think the argument that gun control is racist is compelling?

No, I do not. They wanted to prevent the blacks from carrying weapons so they should be unable to cause trouble. This is not racism but an actual concern considering that they where of the "slave race". Slaves DO revolt when they get an opportunity so they wanted to reduce those opportunies. However to only allow black people (and maybe indians) to be held as slaves, THAT is racism. In a world where slavery are allowed, no "race" should be safe. This seems to have been the case of slavery in ancient europan civilizations and thus freed slaves had a much easier time to intergrate into society. One or two generations later and no one would know about their past. A black american can never rub of his slave heritage, it's plainly there for everone to see on his skin.

Would it change your mind about gun control if you believed it was motivated by racist fears?

I live in a country with strong gun control laws and those laws where created when the "non" white part of the population where practically non existant. but anyway, nothing short of laws specifically prohibiting only certain "races" from aquiring guns would make we belive that such laws where racist. This is different from your earlier question since that whas during a period of slavery when it was an real concern that they may revolt if armed (the slaves and X-slaves).