Are gun control laws racist? This provocative question can be brought up when going through the documents of U.S. Supreme Court`s case 20-843, otherwise known as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen. The second amendment in the U.S: Constitution reads: “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.” While the exact content of rights in the amendment are argued to this day, for the purposes of this text we shall use the following: if you are an American citizen, you can own firearms, no matter the color of your skin. With this in mind, let us go over the criticism (and a little bit of the defense) of gun control laws.
The end of the Civil War in the USA and abolition of slavery did not mean that everyone was happily getting along with each other. After the war the southern states passed a collection of laws known informally as Black Codes. The exact wording of the law changed from state to state, but the basic idea was to restore what control was lost over slaves in the war to be reinstituted in a form of law. These included controls on marriage, “vagrancy” (basically homeless or wandering people), and also guns. So, it should be made clear that these laws were not just gun control laws. A more recent law is the 1968 Gun Control Act. It also has been criticized for having hidden motives. This line of argumentation is brought forth, among others, by gun control activist and journalist Robert Sherill outright saying: “The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed, not to control guns, but to control blacks.”
Gun control laws are not allegedly discriminatory against just African-American people. In the beginning of the 20thcentury Italian-Americans were stereotypically considered to be part of the mafia. Italian-Americans were not seen as Americans, but as “swarthy-looking, jabbering foreigners” as one newspaper of the time put it. Newspapers reported (and possibly spread) worries about how Italian-Americans were armed, not just with guns but with knives also. A group of Italo-American jurists argue that Sullivan’s law, one of New York laws related to the case 20-843, would have been made to control access by Italian-Americans to firearms and reduce crimes committed by Italian-Americans. Same argument has also been used by the National Rifle Association, or NRA.
A different view to the issue is taken by the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, which argues that the second amendment, which allows the right to bear arms for all citizens, is in itself a racist amendment. The ACLU’s argument is that the second amendment itself was set up as a way to arm white Americans against African-Americans. The amendment would give rights to white Americans, while gun control would effectively bar minorities from accessing firearms. This view on the second amendment has also caused discussion in academic circles that is still ongoing. Also it should be noted that the ACLU does not officially support gun control laws.
So, are gun control laws racist? I would use this incomprehensive look into different laws as a reminder that stated objectives of a law might not always correspond with reality. Making laws is a collaborative effort, and there is no guarantee that everybody involved is doing things for the right reasons. Doing research is vital, especially when it comes to law.
The Lawslingers