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19 replies
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http://constitution.org/cmt/cramer/racist_roots.htm
Often the relationship between racism and gun control was direct and obvious. On other occasions the connection was more complex. One example of a complex relationship between economic struggle, slavery, and possession of arms can be found in seventeenth-century Virginia. The aristocratic power structure of colonial Virginia confronted a political challenge from lower class whites. These poor whites resented how the men who controlled the government used that power to concentrate wealth into a small number of hands. These wealthy feeders at the government trough would have disarmed poor whites, but the threat of both Indian and pirate attack made this impractical; all white men "were armed and had to be armed."
5) Instead of empowering poor whites, blacks, who had occupied a poorly defined status between indentured servant and slave, were reduced to hereditary chattel slavery. In this way poor whites could be economically advantaged without the upper class having to give up its privileges.(6)
-snip-
The fear of armed blacks had become so extreme that dogs were considered weapons. Maryland prohibited free blacks from owning dogs without a license and authorized any white to kill an unlicensed dog owned by a free black.(14) Mississippi went further and prohibited any ownership of a dog by a black person, without even a provision for licensed ownership.(15)
-snip-
Sherrill failed to provide "smoking gun" evidence for his claim, but there is no shortage of evidence of the level of fear that gripped white America in the late 1960s. The California Legislature adopted a major new arms law in 1967, for the first time prohibiting the open carrying of firearms in cities.(57) This law easily passed after the Black Panthers demonstrated against it — by walking into the Assembly Chamber carrying "pistols, rifles, [and] at least one sawed-off shotgun." 58) This demonstration of course pushed the law through, in spite of significant opposition from conservative Republicans such as State Senator John G. Schmitz.(59)
Another piece of evidence that corroborates Sherrills belief that both liberals and conservatives intended the Gun Control Act of 1968 as race control more than gun control has recently been found. There are strong similarities between the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the 1938 weapons law adopted by Nazi Germany.(60) This similarity is no coincidence; one of the principal authors of the Gun Control Act of 1968 was Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut. After World War II, Dodd was assistant to the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crime trials.(61) Shortly before the Gun Control Act of 1968 was written, Dodd asked the Library of Congress to translate the 1938 German weapons law into English. {22} Dodd supplied the German text.(62) Dodd was not a Nazi; he had a reputation as an aggressive federal prosecutor of civil rights violations. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that any sort of American Holocaust was intended. Nonetheless, it would not be surprising if Dodd found it convenient to adapt a law that had already proven its efficacy at disarming a minority group.
Often the relationship between racism and gun control was direct and obvious. On other occasions the connection was more complex. One example of a complex relationship between economic struggle, slavery, and possession of arms can be found in seventeenth-century Virginia. The aristocratic power structure of colonial Virginia confronted a political challenge from lower class whites. These poor whites resented how the men who controlled the government used that power to concentrate wealth into a small number of hands. These wealthy feeders at the government trough would have disarmed poor whites, but the threat of both Indian and pirate attack made this impractical; all white men "were armed and had to be armed."
5) Instead of empowering poor whites, blacks, who had occupied a poorly defined status between indentured servant and slave, were reduced to hereditary chattel slavery. In this way poor whites could be economically advantaged without the upper class having to give up its privileges.(6)
-snip-
The fear of armed blacks had become so extreme that dogs were considered weapons. Maryland prohibited free blacks from owning dogs without a license and authorized any white to kill an unlicensed dog owned by a free black.(14) Mississippi went further and prohibited any ownership of a dog by a black person, without even a provision for licensed ownership.(15)
-snip-
Sherrill failed to provide "smoking gun" evidence for his claim, but there is no shortage of evidence of the level of fear that gripped white America in the late 1960s. The California Legislature adopted a major new arms law in 1967, for the first time prohibiting the open carrying of firearms in cities.(57) This law easily passed after the Black Panthers demonstrated against it — by walking into the Assembly Chamber carrying "pistols, rifles, [and] at least one sawed-off shotgun."
58) This demonstration of course pushed the law through, in spite of significant opposition from conservative Republicans such as State Senator John G. Schmitz.(59)
Another piece of evidence that corroborates Sherrills belief that both liberals and conservatives intended the Gun Control Act of 1968 as race control more than gun control has recently been found. There are strong similarities between the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the 1938 weapons law adopted by Nazi Germany.(60) This similarity is no coincidence; one of the principal authors of the Gun Control Act of 1968 was Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut. After World War II, Dodd was assistant to the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crime trials.(61) Shortly before the Gun Control Act of 1968 was written, Dodd asked the Library of Congress to translate the 1938 German weapons law into English. {22} Dodd supplied the German text.(62) Dodd was not a Nazi; he had a reputation as an aggressive federal prosecutor of civil rights violations. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that any sort of American Holocaust was intended. Nonetheless, it would not be surprising if Dodd found it convenient to adapt a law that had already proven its efficacy at disarming a minority group.
