September 17, 2022, 07:33 AM
sigfreundGun rights and lynch mobs: A lesson about self-protection. (WSJ article.)
Opinion piece from
The Wall Street Journal.
Bans on weapons throughout history have probably more often been motivated by upper classes’ fears of their “inferiors” than concerns about what the nonelites may be doing to each other. I have seen statements that many gun control efforts in this country originated as a result of wanting to keep Blacks, and then others, disarmed. The elites have always been able to count on protection by organs of the government; everyone else, not so much. This is the first mention of a formal study of the issue I’ve seen.
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Firing Back at Jim Crow A new study shows how guns helped blacks against lynch mobs. Search on Google for “white supremacy” and “gun rights” and you’ll see plenty of articles claiming the Second Amendment is a tool for white America. But a new paper from Clemson University economists Michael Makowsky and Patrick Warren finds the opposite is true. They say gun ownership helped black Americans defend themselves when no one else would.
The key finding of “Firearms and Lynching” is clear: “Rates of Black lynching decreased with greater Black firearm access” in the Jim Crow South.
In other words, when black Americans couldn’t count on the cops to protect them, guns made a difference. A few years ago, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to this on ABC’s “The View.” She related a personal anecdote from her childhood in Birmingham, Ala., to explain her appreciation for the Second Amendment.
“There was no way that Bull Connor and the Birmingham Police were going to protect you,” she said. “And so when White Knight Riders would come through our neighborhood my father and his friends would take their guns and they’d go to the head of the neighborhood, it’s a little cul-de-sac, and they would fire in the air, if anybody came through.
“I don’t think they actually ever hit anybody. But they protected the neighborhood. And I’m sure if Bull Connor had known where those guns were he would have rounded them up.”
The study confirms Ms. Rice’s point. Messrs. Makowsky and Warren take the data about lynching, and they use the percentage of gun-related suicides as a proxy for firearm access. One key point is that there was a determined effort by the Jim Crow South to disarm black Americans. The authors note that while the laws such as pistol bans may not have explicitly targeted blacks, that was the clear intent—and it was carried out by selective enforcement.
Unarmed people are vulnerable. But if someone can shoot back, even a bigoted mob is going to think twice. More black Americans today are absorbing this lesson about self-defense if their gun purchases are any indication. Overall gun sales are way up in the U.S., but a National Shooting Sports Foundation survey for the first six months of 2020 reports sales to black Americans were up 58% over a year earlier.
Second Amendment rights for black Americans were often deliberately limited by local and state governments that, the authors say, were “rarely better than indifferent to their safety and, at their worst, actively supportive of terrorist violence targeting them.”
All the more reason to ensure all Americans are able to enjoy this constitutional right. When the police no longer can guarantee public safety, as we see every day in too many American cities, a gun may be the only way for people to protect themselves.
LINKSeptember 17, 2022, 07:44 AM
71 TRUCKSome gun laws outlawing certain types of firearms like "Saturday Night Specials" were aimed at keeping minority's from purchasing firearms.
From what I remember a lot of those laws were passed during the civil right movements of the 60s and 70s.
The thought, if cheap firearms were widely available that minority's could arm themself.
If my memory is correct the NRA was a big proponent of equal 2nd amendment rights for everyone. They helped minority's protect their 2nd amendment rights.
September 17, 2022, 08:56 AM
tsmccullIs this an opportunity to push back against anti-gun restrictions by declaring all of them to be racist? Just taking a page from the dems playbook.
September 17, 2022, 09:43 AM
BeancookerI would like to read the whole article. If anyone can get past the paywall and post it, that would be great.
September 17, 2022, 10:30 AM
sigfreundI posted the entire WSJ opinion piece.
As for the study itself, I haven’t made any effort to see if it’s available. Is that what you refer to?
And yes, the racist origins of efforts to infringe on our right to keep and bear arms should be emphasized whenever possible. When the great thinkers of the West can be vilified for supposed racist opinions expressed centuries, if not millenniums ago, we gun owners should pick up and use that same stick. Every call for more restrictions on our rights should immediately be answered by, “That’s racist and elitist. You are perpetuating and expanding the efforts to control minorities and other disadvantaged peoples throughout history by disarming them to make it impossible for them to effectively defend themselves against oppression.”
(And also yes, yet another argument pertaining to self-defense that has nothing to do with the Second Amendment.)
September 17, 2022, 10:41 AM
CooksterExcellent article on this subject matter from JPFO (Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership) -
“The Racist Roots of Gun Control” There is a lot of other material from this organization related to “gun control”.
September 17, 2022, 12:55 PM
corsairGun control aimed at minorities is not any new revelation. It's only in this current climate, where outrage and indignation at history, have the unknowing come to realize this.
September 17, 2022, 02:44 PM
18Z50The Finn’s in my family tree fought the Russians to a standstill.
The Gypsies blood lines were all exterminated in the camps.
Very brutal stories from my grandmother very much shaped my world view as a teenager.
18Z50
September 18, 2022, 05:17 AM
XinTXquote:
Originally posted by corsair:
Gun control aimed at minorities is not any new revelation. It's only in this current climate, where outrage and indignation at history, have the unknowing come to realize this.
It's because the gun grabbers believe people who believe in the Constitution and traditional norms are the minority.
September 18, 2022, 07:06 AM
VeeperI give out this link often:
http://www.a-human-right.com/September 18, 2022, 09:59 AM
bryan11If you dig into the history of Iowa, you'll find the 'may carry' laws giving the sheriff complete choice of who may carry firearms was put in place largely to prevent blacks from carrying. This continued through 2000 and is hardly ever mentioned as part of the state's history. Many will likely deny it ever happened.