For years, sensible gun control legislation has been pretty much off the table. There’s a fringe group that opposes any restrictions on firearms at all, and they have managed to get a lot of people at least nominally on their side.
Let’s see - sensible gun control legislation is always welcome - see the 12 states in the union that are now constitutional carry as one example. HR 38 with concealed carry reciprocity is another, and the effort to legalize suppressors is another.
If you are referring to the NRA as a fringe group then I’d say you’re using words in a non-standard way. A group that boasts large membership and widespread lobbying prowess is hardly fringe. That’s separate from the fact that they do not in fact oppose any restrictions on firearms at all. Are you referring to the NRA?
Then there’s the thrust of your OP - somehow people who support the right to arms would be opposed to black people also having the right to arms because racism of course. Baloney. Gun control in this country is rooted in racism first trying to deny freed slaves the right to arms, and later other minorities like Mexican immigrants and the Chinese. The right to arms is for all non-disqualified by law people and anyone who supports the right to arms is welcome under the tent.
I think the more people who are armed help the movement because it’s not just other people’s civil rights that are being infringed upon.
Lots of gun control legislation in the past was at least somewhat influenced by the fear of armed black people, but gun rights groups are way better politically organized today.
It does seem to me that effective increases in gun control legislation are more likely to come from the right without a major political and philosophical shift. And the reason is that pro-gun people are more likely to trust that restrictions put in place by the right are actually limited and reasonable, rather than the first step in an attempt to add ever-increasing restrictions and abolish ownership of guns entirely.
It doesn’t really matter what measures the left proposes, or how reasonable they might be on their face; people (probably correctly) see that the goal of the left is greatly increased restrictions on guns, and that the restrictions will not stop with the proposed one.
It’s the same thing with the right and abortion. The left (probably correctly) believes that any rationale offered by the right for abortion restrictions is simply a pretense, since a sizable group of them wants a complete ban.
I doubt it. Most Republicans will always be against most gun control measures; most Democrats will always be in favor of most gun control measures. One could argue (and I have as appropriate) that some measures have turned out to target the poor and minorities but that was as much by ignorance of/about firearms by the people writing the laws as it was outright racism; take for example the “Saturday Night Special” controls/measures. I expect we’ll see stuff like that again now and then.
As a conservative republican gun owner I’m all for more blacks owning guns. Heck they are the ones that tend to live in area’s with violent crime so it only makes sense to me that they be allowed to protect themselves and their families rather than be victims.
Okay. The gist of the linked article is that there’s a stereotype of the typical gun owner being a white guy. To me, this indicates that most people aren’t really used to seeing black people carrying guns unless they’re police or soldiers. If the public is suddenly confronted with it, I think it’s reasonable to wonder how they’ll react. And I suppose I do think it’s a little naive to assume that many white people’s comfort with broad access to guns has no link to the assumption that the ones who carry are likely to be white like them.
I understand that you think I’m wrong about that. If lots of black people do start carrying guns, I guess we’ll see how it goes. My worry is that a lot of people will die because, again, many whites freak out when they see blacks with guns. Even BB guns.
Bolding mine. This seems to be a persistent problem, and it really wouldn’t be that hard for a sincere legislator who truly wants to pass a piece of gun control legislation to get up to speed on the facts.
The gist of the article and the OP is that second amendment rights supporters must be racist. How else do you defend your assertion that more African American gun owners will scare people into supporting gun control? Ludicrous.
The problem becomes who does the legislator listen to about some proposed legislation? And just what facts seem the most important to him/her? Look, I’m a flaming liberal who happens to love guns and hunting. I could understand and support some restrictions on magazine capacity; a 30 round banana clip isn’t something I see helping hunter safety or success and/or target shooting. But if we address the topic, we’re headed right for Great Debates. Same for the whole Saturday Night Special thing - the NRA called out before any of that was be enacted that it would have a greater impact disarming law-abiding poor and minorities and almost no impact on crime. But that by itself would also head right for GD. Real life is much like the SDMB; enough people feel very strongly about guns that reasonable sharing of information isn’t that easy.
So we end up just where we are with both Parties refusing to see a “center” let alone move towards it – just bouncing back and forth from both extremes as the balance changes in Washington. And I don’t see it changing any time soon.
Black people live disproportionately in urban areas as do proponents for gun control. Since gun control opponents are mostly white and suburban and rural I don’t see this as having any effect other than making pro-gun control democrats more pro-gun control.
Many attempts have been made here to educate anti gun / pro gun control folks in the spirit of the Straight Dope. Those efforts have been mostly fruitless and I expect any effort with a sincere legislator would give similar results.
In brief, back in the day one could open carry in California. Then, the Black Panthers decided to show up on the streets with weapons pic. Soon, legislators weren’t as enthusiastic about the rules in place.
