In Adam Winkler’s article “The Secret History of Guns” he explains the history of the Black community’s relationship with gun rights and gun control; from the American Civil war to the Black Panthers, the right to bear arms has been one of the most important rights they could have in order to protect themselves and their community. Black Americans have always been barred from bearing arms but after the Civil War ended with the rise of southern animosity towards Black Americans and the forming of hate groups such as the KKK, freedmen couldn’t rely on reconstruction to fix the south or on Union soldiers to protect them, so they had to rely on owning guns. Fast forward to the late 60s during the early beginnings of the Black Panthers, members
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There have been tons of mass school shootings, white people have been shooting up public places forever but no gun restriction legislation was passed because of white people shooting up public places, the NRA and other white conservatives have fought any type of restriction—except for when it came to restricting arms in urban communities. Alex wrote that “the standard form of gun control means writing more criminal laws, creating new crimes, and therefore creating more criminals or more reasons for police to suspect people of crimes.” In Winkler’s article he mentions how when the Act of 1968 was passed, which clarified which groups of people could and could not own guns (felons, mentally ill, minors, etc.), they restricted the importation of “Saturday Night Specials” which are cheaply made pistols typically owned by urban blacks. By restricting these cheap pistols, the only guns people in the community could afford, this automatically put the urban black community in a difficult place; don’t buy the cheap pistols and have no protection from crime in the community and from police, or get the pistol and be arrested for having it on you—you can’t afford not to be armed in some of these …show more content…
The Mulford Act wasn’t passed because a group of armed protesters entered a government building, it was passed because a group of BLACK armed protesters entered a government building. In 2016 an group of armed (white) anti-government activists, the Bundy brothers, took over a wildlife refuge in Oregon to protest the federal governments treatment of local ranchers—they even referred to themselves as militia men. There was no outcry and demand to enforce stricter gun control laws, there wasn’t even a large police presence or military presence and no forceful removal or violence. All members of the group were acquitted of taking over a federal wildlife reserve—if they had been Black, they definitely wouldn’t have been able to take over that building without facing gunfire from police, they most likely would have faced jail time too. Both the Black Panthers and the Bundy exercised their right to bear arms, only the Black Panthers didn’t take over federal building yet their peaceful protest resulted in gun restriction
There have been tons of mass school shootings, white people have been shooting up public places forever but no gun restriction legislation was passed because of white people shooting up public places, the NRA and other white conservatives have fought any type of restriction—except for when it came to restricting arms in urban communities. Alex wrote that “the standard form of gun control means writing more criminal laws, creating new crimes, and therefore creating more criminals or more reasons for police to suspect people of crimes.” In Winkler’s article he mentions how when the Act of 1968 was passed, which clarified which groups of people could and could not own guns (felons, mentally ill, minors, etc.), they restricted the importation of “Saturday Night Specials” which are cheaply made pistols typically owned by urban blacks. By restricting these cheap pistols, the only guns people in the community could afford, this automatically put the urban black community in a difficult place; don’t buy the cheap pistols and have no protection from crime in the community and from police, or get the pistol and be arrested for having it on you—you can’t afford not to be armed in some of these …show more content…
The Mulford Act wasn’t passed because a group of armed protesters entered a government building, it was passed because a group of BLACK armed protesters entered a government building. In 2016 an group of armed (white) anti-government activists, the Bundy brothers, took over a wildlife refuge in Oregon to protest the federal governments treatment of local ranchers—they even referred to themselves as militia men. There was no outcry and demand to enforce stricter gun control laws, there wasn’t even a large police presence or military presence and no forceful removal or violence. All members of the group were acquitted of taking over a federal wildlife reserve—if they had been Black, they definitely wouldn’t have been able to take over that building without facing gunfire from police, they most likely would have faced jail time too. Both the Black Panthers and the Bundy exercised their right to bear arms, only the Black Panthers didn’t take over federal building yet their peaceful protest resulted in gun restriction