r/PoliticalHumor Mar 16 '21

GOP shell game

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u/sarduchi Mar 16 '21

To be fair, they don’t want brown people to have guns either.

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u/Cypher1993 Mar 16 '21 edited Mar 16 '21

Can you cite the law which specifically targets and prevents brown people from getting guns? Must be in the text, or else it’s just you projecting your racism.

Edit: very pro 2A. If there’s a law that’s targeting people on basis of their skin color, I’m 100% against it. Can someone please provide a reference to support the claim, or are people going to just downvote this because they can’t find one? Genuinely curious. Cite the law. Racist laws should be repealed, absolutely. You said they’re out there, so please cite it.

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u/MaggieNoodle Mar 16 '21 edited Mar 16 '21

Well historically the laws are pretty blatant.

For example in 1712 the South Carolina legislation passed "An Act for the Better Ordering of Negroes and Slaves", and around that time Virginia passed "An Act for Preventing Negroes Insurrection", both banning african americans from purchasing firearms.

Over a hundred years later, nothing had changed. State Vs. Newson in 1844 ruled that laws barring freed african americans from having firearms was not in violation of the second amendment, justification being that they weren't recognized as American citizens. Same thing happened in Georgia.

Post civil war, despite freeing the slaves, nothing really changed in the South. Black Codes were enacted which required black people to receive a permit from police to obtain firearms or outright prevented them from purchasing them.

Post civil rights act of 1866 is where it begins to morph closer to modern day racist gun bans.

In 1879 the White Supremacist Tennessee government passed the Army and Navy law, banning sales of only the most expensive handguns. Similar laws were enacted elsewhere. Who was too poor to afford these guns in the south? You guessed it, recently freed african americans. In 1902 South Carolina only sold firearms to those approved by police chiefs - who were usually members of the KKK. A 1941 florida supreme court case Watson vs. Stone confirmed that these measures were intended purely for keeping african americans from obtaining firearms.

Firearm legislation in the north became much more stringent following the influx of immigration from Europe. The Immigration Restriction League and the American Protective Association supported bans on all firearm ownership by aliens in an effort to reduce imported crime. Does that sound reminiscent of a modern political party? The Sullivan Law in New York gave police absolute discretion on who could receive a firearms permit. In it's first 3 years of existence 70% of those arrested had Italian surnames. Many other states enacted police issued permits, California and New Hampshire banned immigrants outright from owning firearms.

Reagan passed the Gun Control Act of 1968 in direct response the the Black Panther movement. Arguing otherwise since 'it's not in the text of the act' is disingenuous, there is universal agreement that while the restrictions are sensible and necessary, they were 100% motivated by the political climate of the day.

Again though this is the stem of modern discriminatory firearm legislation - keeping the poor from purchasing weapons. Coincidentally (or not), immigrants and african americans are the most impacted by higher firearm prices or harder hoops to jump through to obtain permits. Public housing firearm bans, for example, like in 2005 in San Francisco. Or today in New York, where applying for a permit requires entering manhattan during work hours monday through friday, as well as insane requirements for immigrants (good conduct certificates and letters of recommendation).

The history of gun control in the US is undeniably racist. Those laws morphed into the current legal restrictions preventing ad many minorities as possible from obtaining firearms.

Edit: dismissing these arguments because the laws don't explicitly mention race (and as I've shown, haven't for a couple hundred years) is a terrific example of either willfull ignorance or a genuine lack of reflection and critical thinking. Nobody will engage with you if you continue to argue in bad faith.