Leave it to Think Progress, of all places, to give digital ink to the skeptics of gun control in the black community. Yes, as a radical left website, they usually embrace gun control with both arms. However, this time they published a piece detailing the downside of gun control schemes for African-Americans.
In the story, noting that Pittsburgh’s black community is wary of the city’s new gun control policies, the authors correctly observe that gun control policies don’t make people safer. Instead, they leave them more vulnerable.
‘Always lands on the backs of young African-Americans’
Pittsburgh Reverend De Neice Welch told an interviewer: “Any ordinance like this… always lands on the backs of young African-Americans.”
In a sense, she’s right. Then again, gun control has a long history of racist roots. Early gun control in America was passed by racist political leaders with an eye towards disarming “undesirables.” And African-Americans have faced a long and difficult road towards the relative equality they enjoy today, despite some, to this day, still like to pass gun control schemes that disproportionately impact the black community. People like Michael Bloomberg, who think minorities can’t be trusted with firearms.
But the vulnerability Think Progress erroneously cites for African-Americans relates to police brutality. However, it’s not the police who victimize the black community in Pittsburgh and other big cities on a virtually hourly basis. Instead, it is, by and large, their fellow African-Americans…gang members and other violent criminals.
Even though Think Progress gets the source of vulnerability wrong, they nailed the general concept of gun control’s role in protecting criminals, not victims.
Here’s a teaser:
Since 2014, 80 percent of Pittsburgh’s homicide victims have been black, and firearms have been involved 86 percent of the time, the Public Source reports. Yet, from the perspective of some members of the community, it took a high profile mass-shooting at a synagogue for lawmakers to act.
After the October 2018 shooting that killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue, city council members in Pittsburgh acted swiftly, despite inaction by the state legislature. The council earlier this month passed a slate of measures that banned some assault style weapons, as well as most armor-piercing ammunition and high-capacity magazines.
And they did it in direct violation of Pennsylvania’s state pre-emption law. But why should Pittsburgh’s city council follow the rule of law? After all, it’s not the city council members who have to pay the freight to defend their illicit ordinance in court.
…These new measures could lead to further distress, however, within Pittsburgh’s black community.
“Any ordinance like this… always lands on the backs of young African Americans,” Rev. De Neice Welch, president of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network, told the Public Source.
Welch, a supporter of gun control measures, is among many who reasonably fear that these laws could lead to young black men being wrongfully criminalized, especially those who possess firearms — legally, or not. “The phrase, ‘I’m in fear for my life,’ has literally given [officers] permission to fire at will,” says Welch…
While enhanced gun safety laws are something generally to applaud, the black community in Pittsburgh has voiced concerns about the downsides. Many local leaders worry that these new laws could lead to over-policing in their community, which in turn could lead to more tragedies like the fatal police shooting of black teenager Antwon Rose II. Rose, 17, unarmed and fleeing East Pittsburgh cops during a traffic stop in the summer of 2018, was shot in the back numerous times. Michael Rosfeld, the officer charged with killing Rose, was acquitted last month.
There’s also concern about newly enacted laws that apply only to the city of Pittsburgh and not to the state of Pennsylvania at large. In a recent report by CityLab, stringent gun restrictions imposed in Washington, D.C., provided historical parallels for some concerns expressed by Pittsburgh’s black community. Per CityLab’s Brentin Mock:
Many black organizations and leaders opposed the D.C. gun laws out of fear that they could further criminalize their communities. And they were right to be concerned: In 1993, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that African Americans were arrested at five times the rate of whites for gun possession, despite white men owning guns at much higher rates. However, the handgun ban in D.C. appeared to be serving its essential purpose: One study found that the gun-control law “coincided with an abrupt decline” in gun-related homicides and suicides.
Mock says the lesson that Pittsburgh will have to learn is “how to create laws that will take more illegal guns off the streets and save more lives, while ensuring that black people don’t become criminalized collateral damage in the process.” So while there is a real need for gun laws that make sense, there’s also a serious need to reform the ways these laws are enforced.
Let’s face it. We all know that criminals don’t follow the law. That’s why they are criminals.
Violent predators don’t care about laws against rape, robbery, murder, and arson. If they don’t care about the prohibition on murder, why are bad guys going to give a second thought to a city ordinance violation charge?
They’re not. But law-abiding people generally follow the laws. Including the overwhelming number of law-abiding African-Americans in Pittsburgh and elsewhere.
Misguided laws like Pittsburgh’s new gun control regime won’t make them any safer. n fact, it will leave all residents and visitors to Pittsburgh – not just African-Americans – more vulnerable.
Well, duh. Welcome to the fight.
That was my first impression when I read this article too.
“Let’s face it. We all know that criminals don’t follow the law. That’s why they are criminals.
Violent predators don’t care about laws against rape, robbery, murder, and arson.”
Don’t equate people criminalized by an illegal law with violent predators. I know ALOT of Californians/New Yorkers who are “criminals” because they don’t follow the law.
look for their numbers to increase across the country as non-compliance takes hold….
A politician with a law never stops a bad guy with a gun.
The politician only controls the good guys with a gun,
which is the politician’s true agenda.
The bad guy with a gun is merely a convenient tool of the politician.
Just another example of the recent fad about it being racist to prosecute blacks/minorities for anything, or otherwise hold them to the same standards as privileged white people. Soft bigotry of low expectations. We’ve been saying that gun rights have far more ‘social utility’ to blacks & those in crime-prone areas for years, and these same scolds shrieked “RACIST” at us all the while. They’re just trying to frame the argument as white people needing to give up their ‘extra’ freedoms, so they can resign themselves to the spare existence felt (would it be racist to say “chosen?”) by so many minorities in leftist-dominated urban crap holes without a future.
Case in point: ““The phrase, ‘I’m in fear for my life,’ has literally given [officers] permission to fire at will,” says Welch…”
It’s just the same old race hustlers trying to fan the flames by convincing their stupid marks that they shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions. We always say that same phrase applies equally to black Americans acting in self defense…except race hustlers like Reverend Whatever fight against ‘stand your ground’ laws, at least whenever it’s a person defending themselves against someone with darker skin. Just scumbags trying to reconstruct racially-enforced Jim Crow schemes, only this time in their own favor.
Spot on comment
The problem with Bloomberg is, in his sick, twisted mind, everyone is an undesirable.
It’s still hilarious his own magazine would publish this, after his little “young black men should all be prohibited from buying/possessing guns” spiel.
…betrays an innocence on how they actually acquire them….and illegally possess them…
I can recall being absolutely spellbound at an address by Osama during his supposed presidency, wherein he very carefully laid out all the reasons why blacks should be prohibited from firearm ownership, thinking to myself “how the hell is he going to get out of this?” Finally, he just dropped back to the “we need common sense gun laws” without explanation. But he went on and on about how it was blacks who were dying at this outrageous pace, not any others, and that it was blacks who were killing them at this outrageous pace, not any others, just over and over, until the only step remaining was “Let’s take guns away from blacks!”, before just dropping it like the idiot he is.
now their solution is to just take them from all of us!….”all gun owners are bad guys…or potential bad guys”…liberal mantra…which they’re not even trying to conceal anymore…
Ha ha Osama?
“Gun control is great as long as it only affects those other people” said every prohibitionist ever. Who the “other” is may vary but the hypocrisy remains constant.
Meanwhile, Ollie North is no longer running, or was not allowed to run, for a second term as Prez of NRA.
And people claim LaPierre doesn’t have the BoD wrapped around his little finger.
You know, seeing as Wayne didn’t claim the blackmail evidence was falsified (just provocative) wouldn’t the more intelligent course of action be to boot BOTH of them from the organization? Oh, and terminate all contracts/etc with Ackerman McQueen because of this criminal behavior, and purge the BoD of anyone with conflicts of interest with that group (which at this point is an awful lot of them including LaPierre first & foremost)
Two blackmails don’t make corruption right.
wouldn’t it be cool to have a black president of the NRA?…and I can think of one worthy candidate who defended us quite well on bill maher’s show…heads would explode everywhere!…..
That’s a good idea
“One study found that the gun-control law “coincided with an abrupt decline” in gun-related homicides and suicides.”
Ummm, the “Abrupt Decline” in gun deaths in DC was not a result of the new gun laws but a continuation of the previous decline in homicides, primarily due to the huge drop in population.
^^^ Correlation does not imply causation. Weird how the party of science is so good at ignoring this principle. Also: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
guns were essentially banned in DC in about 1975. By the early 90s DC was the murder capitol of the world.
Lot of black folks know the dems have using them for decades, but being equal opportunity oppressors, they would now like to make sure everyones unarmed when they proceed with their new ” vision” of our country.
I have NEVER understood blacks and Jews who favored gun control. In the past were SCOTUS cases that kept guns from blacks, one of them being the Dred Scott decision.
Jews tend to earn more than the average American and either don’t feel like they need guns, or know they have the ability to jump through the hoops if needed. They also traditionally vote democrat. Democrats tell them that republicans are Nazis, and for some reason this works.
Democrats tell blacks that republicans are racists, and for some reason this also works. Blacks and whites each receive about 40% of the available welfare. This is interesting because blacks only make up about 13% of the population. Democrats are almost always for increasing welfare, except in the rare case of Newt forcing Bill to compromise and balance the budget. When you acknowledge reality, you realize that blacks are more likely, per capita, to commit crime.
Judging from this I would say blacks don’t want to vote for someone they think is racist (thank you democratic brainwashing), they want to vote for more, not less welfare, and if they really want a gun, there are ways to avoid certain firearm restrictions.
….also more likely to be victims of crimes and unable (unwilling?) to count on the police for protection…that police shooting in Pittsburgh started out as an attempted drive by that elicited a significant amount of return fire..the young cop that finally stopped the shot up car and shot one of the fleeing occupants had to know he was dealing with some dangerous individuals…thus the acquittal…and the chairman of that jury was black….
One thing that brings about a big possum grin is a black man with an AR a 100 rnd mag and a belt full of pistols.
I would be willing to bet. That there are just as many if not more blacks possessing guns than there are whites. The only difference is most of the blacks are thugs and gang bangers. So any law has no effect on them. As for law abiding citizens. It comes down to a matter of choice. Choose to be helpless and oppressed or choose to be armed and empowered. Just don’t complain when you’ve made the wrong choice. Keep Your Powder Dry.
Let’s face it. We all know that criminals don’t follow the law. That’s why they are
criminalcity council members.what’s happening in Pittsburgh is part of the liberal agenda…and reeks of the stink of bloomberg…while the mayor acts as his stooge….
It’s not a white thing, it’s not a black thing…it’s a red thing, time to take all of the communists, progressives and socialists on a long walk off a short pier…see how many of them make it to Venezuela…30…
Golly as I’ve already mentioned a black man with a ccl shot a black carjacker to death in Chiraq. And reported POSITIVELY by the local newz…
The history of gun control in North America is the history of violent White supremacism and the efforts of its proponents to create for themselves a “safe working environment”.
I’m probably only here to type this because during the 1919 Chicago race riot in which the Chicago Police Department took the side of White rioters and arsonists like future mayor Richard J. Daley, men like my great uncles broke into the National Guard armories and armed themselves. Returned doughboys like them who’d served in segregated units attached to the French army defended themselves and their families, including my grandmother.
Not even neo-Nazis have hurled racial slurs at me the way White, anti-gun Democrats have online.
Scratch a gun controller, find a Klansman… or a Nazi.
Indeed.
Google/search for the phrase “Cramer” and “Racist Roots of Gun Control.” There, you will see an essay that Clayton Cramer, a software jock back then, and an historian now, wrote on the subject of gun control and post-Civil War racists. It is well sourced.
The other essay to take in is found with the search “Kopel” and “Racist Roots of Gun Control.” You’ll get Dave Kopel’s more recent essay on the subject.
I knew Clayton for years in usenet.
As I recall, he’s the one who exposed Michael Belisles as a fraud.
I also remember Clayton.
Do you remember Bill Levinson?
Umm republicans are nazis and racist. They have to be since they oppose the Jew commies. Jews actually try to brainwash blacks into being commie/black militant gun nuts.
There seems to be a lot of hate and racism on this site. More time is spent putting blacks down and demonizing them as a whole instead of blaming zionists for turning america into a police state. Gangs are the work of masons which you probably all are. Further you probably are all jews doing false flag attacks race baiting or have prior military experience. Point is since you work for the government you really can not be considered credible in anything you say and just want to dominate media, like a jew, to give a false narrative of everything you say. Everybody knows your lying about me and trying to play both sides of the street. This is not going to end good for you.
along with the War on Drugs, “common sense” gun controls are the largest remnants of white privilege.