Gun control for who? Given the recent tragedy in Las Vegas, Nevada, where a lone gunman killed over 50 people and injured hundreds, the discussion of gun rights a dispute in the country’s storied culture wars will fail in any substantial changes to current laws. While I strongly dislike hearing of senseless deaths, especially when they seem preventable with proper legislation, however I know of gun control problematic racist past; not everything is black or white.
As Saul Cornell, a professor at Fordham University succulently explained, “Saying gun laws are always racist is just false. Saying that gun laws have never been racist is also just wrong.”
Likewise, former President of the National Rifle Association David Keene said, “You know, when you go back in our history … the initial wave of [gun-control laws] was instituted after the Civil War to deny blacks the ability to defend themselves”.
Again, gun control racist origin mars its current debate and I am fearful of laws that has historically affected African-Americans ability to defend themselves against illegal deprivation of life.
During the Reconstruction Era that followed the American Civil War numerous Southern States instituted Black Codes, which disenfranchised African-Americans and among those laws were ones that prevented African-Americans from owning guns. Effectively stripping self-defense from the Blacks gave rise to gruesome lynching’s, and both psychical and sexual violence from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, a White Supremacist organization who used terrorism to prevent African-Americans from exercising their rights.
With this is mind, it is important to appreciate courageous African-Americans civil rights activists such as Ida B. Wells, Fredrick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and who advocated for their civil rights even with their lives threatened.
Speaking of Wells she noted, “the only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense.”
By the dawn of the Modern American Civil Rights Movement, gone were the egregious Black Codes and numerous African-Americans own guns to protect themselves from harm, especially in the South where the legal system failed to alleviate their plight.
Charles E. Cobb Jr. This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made The Civil Rights Movement Possible. New York: Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Group. 2014
“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” These are the famous words drafted by the founding fathers into the Bill of Rights. This particular amendment has since then been a major part of American culture. Through the second amendment it has given American citizens freedom to buy firearms of any sort: AR-15s, AK-47s, handguns, and the like for self-defense. However, in light of the most recent mass shootings, people have felt that it is time to change if not regulate the freedom the second amendment grants. That is to say that some believe that there needs to be a solution to reduce if not end the gun violence in America by regulating and restricting the access to weapons meant for the police and military by American civilians. Ultimately, the solution to this social problem of gun violence in America is gun control. What is gun control exactly? From an extreme conservative's perspective, gun control is a means of disarming the public and infringing the right the second amendment grants Americans. What this point of view fails to take into account is that gun control is not about infringing on any right or disarming American civilians. It is about restricting the access and sales of deadly firearms to potential felons who have the capability of using them to commit mass murder. Furthermore, what some do not realize is that the second amendment was written in
In light of the racial injustice and police brutality happening across America, many in the Black community have been left wondering “what can we do to fix this problem?” While it’s evident that the lack of support has left parts of the Black community in a weakened state, many communities have started to take matters into their own hands, forming gun clubs as a form of self-protection. In the wake of the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, a new gun club was formed in Dallas called the Huey P. Newton Gun Club (HPNGC). Its mission is to provide armed security to businesses in minority neighborhoods.
The legal system acted as a political oppression against African Americans in the south. As soon as blacks gained the right to vote, secret societies sprang up. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, assaulted and murdered local republican leaders. This racial affect on the African American community took a century for “Black America” to
As firearm ownership and firearm manufacturing have been increasing over the past twenty years, gun murders have been decreasing (“Gun Rhetoric” 2). Although, many mass shootings have taken place over the past twenty years and have inflamed the gun control debate. The major problem with enacting more gun control laws is most mass shootings have happened with illegally obtained guns.
America needs to institute, and initiate gun control laws throughout the entire nation. But not everybody who inhabits the United States believes in regulating arms. Those who are against establishing gun laws argue that gun control directly infringes upon their “right to bear arms” granted to them by the 2nd Amendment. Anti gun control supporters, such as the National Rifle Association, often claim that the act of regulating guns is a sufficient reason why such an Amendment was introduced in the constitution; to protect themselves from any and all forms of violation of civil liberties and freedom. Supporters of anti gun laws are unwilling to welcome any interpretations of the 2nd Amendment that do not match up “word for word,” as was written in the Bill of Rights.
My grandfather was born and raised in the backwoods of Louisiana during a turbulent time for African Americans. As a black man he lived in perpetual danger. Through race riots, physical exploitation, and attempted rape, he has developed a much different opinion about gun reform than mine. So much so that my mother carries the many of the same opinions.
“But in practice, criminals, being criminals, don’t obey the law.” It just like what professor Li said, gun control is a problem connecting with civil rights and social security. If the government prohibits gun purchase, people would fear to go out, because they cannot forecast what dangers would be happened outside. “Why they feel fear? Because the evildoer has guns, people are defenseless.” professor Li said. While Americans remain sharply divided in their overall view of the tension between gun control and gun rights, shootings were happening again and again. In a word, the government, not only put into gun control effect, but have to ban illegal guns in the black
Throughout the past several decades gun control has been put under scrutiny by the media and the general public. While the first major piece of gun control legislation was passed in 1911 in New York, it was not until the 1960’s that the gun control movement was truly galvanized(“Gun Control Reform”).This occurred because of a series of major political assassinations that led to the Gun Control Act being signed into law in 1968(“Gun Control Reform”). To this day the gun control movement lives on and many Americans believe that harsher gun control laws should be put into effect. These supposed gun laws range anywhere from a nationwide ban of assault weapons to a complete ban of guns. Supporters of gun control argue that taking away guns from
Gun control has become an increasingly controversial topic in the nation due to the continuous debates relating to gun control and whether or not laws should be passed to make it harder for guns to be obtained. Guns serve for a variety of purposes that range from good to bad. Guns are not for everyone. Some individuals cannot handle guns properly, and some choose to use guns inappropriately. Lately, guns have become more of a problem in our society. There has been an increasing amount of shootings that have taken many lives and have wounded people emotionally, not just physically. Although guns are used for protection, firearms are reportedly used more in crimes. More and more shootings are breaking out across the nation. As a result, the
The gun control issue has recently created a massive uproar throughout the U.S. due to some major horrific events such as the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, where 32 people were killed, the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 where 27 people were killed, mostly children, and the Columbine shooting in 1999 where 13 people were killed, (CNN) as well as many others. To some, it is a crime issue, to others it’s a right’s issue. It is, obviously, a safety issue, an education issue, a racial issue, and a political issue, among others, and within each of these issues there are those who want more gun control, the Democrats, and those who
The gun control debates and issues started hundreds of years ago. First, in 1873 the State of Georgia passed a law to ban handguns and this law was thrown out, because it was ruled unconstitutional. Second, in 1865 several Southern States forbid Black people from possessing firearms in what was named at that time the “Black Code.” In 1871 the biggest movement in Gun Control in the United States happened when the National Rifle Association was established with a goal to train Union Soldiers for better rifle skills, until the State of New York banned the activities of NRA on NY State soil. (http://definitions.uslegal.com/g/gun-control/) US Legal Definitions.
In the space separating 1982 and 2012 the U.S. had approximately sixty-two mass shootings. Just because of this statement gun control should be fortified in order to reduce crime rate. Gun control laws in the U.S. are too facile. An example of this is that you can walk into a Walmart with money and an I.D. and walk out with a handgun. There are restrictions to gun ownership but they are not enforced. Usually the opposing crowd who do not want to bolster gun control use the Second Amendment as an excuse to not agree with the idea that emphasizing gun control will help the U.S. in many ways. Gun control in the U.S. should and needs to be
Gun control has a history dating back to 1791, when the Second Amendment of the Constitution was ratified. However, more recently, the debate over gun control has escalated into a much more public issue to which many citizens can relate. After all, stories about incidents involving guns appear frequently today in newspapers and on television or the radio. One could say that the debate started with the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which banned ownership of guns by certain groups of people and regulated the sale of guns. Since then, two main groups have gradually appeared: people who oppose strict federal
In the twentieth and twenty-first century, African American women have made considerable progress in history, politics, culture, religion, and in the economy. The contributions of the strong black female leaders such as Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Rosa Parks, and more currently; Oprah Winfrey, and Michelle Obama, all have influenced the history of the United States.