Video: The Racist History Of Gun Control

All throughout the nation, people are calling for the destruction of anything and everything they can see that might even be minutely related to slavery and racism that permeates so much of American history.

While this racism is typically overstated to some degree, any honest look at our nation’s history has to acknowledge that racism has been a part of that history. It’s been there for far too much of our country’s time on this planet.

These days, the destruction of statues has been the predominant way of pushing back against that history, yet there’s another racist legacy that still exists in this country.

The funny thing is, the people ripping down the statues? They tend to support that legacy.

In particular, gun control. Check out this video from The Daily Caller.

None of this was new to me. I’ve seen it all before and it’s correct. Gun control rose out of a desire to see black men and women be unable to fight back against the racism that surrounded them.

Here in Georgia, up until 2010, it was illegal to carry a firearm at a “public gathering.”

The history of that law stems from an incident during Reconstruction. A number of black legislators had been removed from their offices illegally. In Camilla, Georgia–not too far from my own home, actually–a group of African-American men and women decided to march to a Republican rally as part of a protest.

In the woods along the march route, white men with guns opened fire, killing about a dozen people and injuring as many as 30 others. In response, many of the marchers got guns of their own.

The incident was known as the Camilla Massacre and, in response, lawmakers made it illegal to bring guns to any public gathering.

You see, gun control was passed in this era with a nod and a wink. It was understood that no white sheriff or prosecutor would go after a white man carrying a gun illegally, only the blacks. It was a decision meant to unevenly apply laws so they only hurt one portion of the population.

Even today, such laws still have a similar effect.

While police routinely apply the laws against anyone who breaks them–at least in theory–these laws have a disproportionate impact on African American men and women. They’re the ones who are typically hamstrung in their attempts to lawfully purchase firearms. They’re the ones killed because they couldn’t buy a gun to protect themselves and their families. And yeah, they’re the ones prosecuted for violating gun control laws when they step outside the system.

If these protestors are serious about destroying all of America’s racist legacy, then why don’t they join us in standing against this particular racist legacy? Some of us–the very people they typically call racist bigots, I should add–have been opposing this particular legacy for years now. We’d love to welcome them to the fold so we can eradicate this particular blight from our nation.

Somehow, though, I suspect none of them are interested. What a shame.