Is Gun Control Racist?

Professor Adam Winkler takes a look at the topic, in an article over at the Daily Beast:

Actually, the gun-rights websites are on to something. As I discovered in researching my new book Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America, for much of our history, gun regulation has been tainted by the stains of racism and discrimination. Today, the story is more complex than the simplistic slogans of gun-rights advocates. But there is no denying that racial politics have profoundly shaped America’s gun laws.

Professor Winkler is not someone I’d classify as being on our side, but he’s intellectually honest, which puts him in contrast with some of our opponents in the various gun control groups. I may not agree with him on everything, but I can respect his point of view, and his willingness to honestly engage people on both sides of the issue.

6 thoughts on “Is Gun Control Racist?”

  1. I suggest everyone become familiar with the case of Dr. Ossian Sweet. He was a Black dentist in Detroit that (after making a little $$) moved into an all White neighborhood in the 1920’s. A mob attacked his house, and Dr. Sweet and several men fired on the crowd in defense. The famous lawyer Clarence Darrow defended Dr. Sweet in front of an all White jury and eventually got him acquitted. During the trial, Darrow uttered the phrase, “a man’s home is his castle.”

    http://www.amazon.com/One-Mans-Castle-Clarence-American/dp/0066214157/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1318278316&sr=8-14

    After that time, the laws were changed in Michigan to outlaw concealed carry and require gun purchases to be tracked and monitored as well as county gun boards to be created. Well, the gun boards were all White so you can guess the rest of the story.

  2. I met and spoke w/ him for awhile at the GRPC ’11. He definitely received some heckles from the audience and I don’t agree w/ all of his points but he gets lots of hate mail from our friend at the CSGV.

    That puts him a few points up in my book.

  3. Weren’t most of the gun control measures enacted by Saint Ronald in the last ’60s in California aimed primarily at the Black Panthers?

  4. I love how he’ll calling us out for the simplistic slogans we tend to fall back on.
    If I hear “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” one more time I’m going to scream.

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