History Shows That Efforts To Limit Right to Bear Arms Is A Cultural Issue ÄUnrelated to Extent of Crime Reprinted from Massachusetts Liberty A lot of arguments have been made that we should ban today's plastic guns and Saturday night specials. A little over a century ago, similar bans were proposed. History illustrates that gun prohibition is a cultural issue, not a criminological one. Cartridge repeaters were rare, were expensive, had weak actions, were sometimes unsafe, were always low-powered, and were condemned by the military as being ammunition wasters. Compared to the muzzle loading rifles then in use, multi-shot rifles were certainly unsporting for hunting. Some politicians and newspaper editorial writers sounded the alarm that the proliferation of repeating cartridge arms would almost certainly result in their getting into the hands of IndiansÄwhose hit and run guerrilla tactics against invading white men would be immensely enhanced by repeating firearms. Since there were only a few low-powered but expensive Smith Wesson .22 pocket guns so favored by gamblers, prostitutes and other unsavory characters, proposals to ban cartridge guns drew quite a few votes. The first gun control laws in this country were enacted about 100 years ago in the deep south. They were part of what's commonly referred to as the black codes. The black codes were a series of laws that were enacted by Southern legislatures shortly after the era of reconstruction, when white supremacists regained control of Southern legislatures. Their first action was to enact a body of legislation that would in fact repress newly freed blacks, that would curtail their basic freedoms, that would keep them in a position of both economic and political subservience to white society. Among the rights that southern legislatures were very eager to deny to blacks was the right to self-defense. Typical of this aspect of the black codes is an 1870 law enacted by the state of Tennessee which banned the sale of all handguns except Army and Navy model Colts. This is a very ingenious form of economic discrimination. It works like this: most of the members of the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups were Civil War veterans. They served in confederate forces during the Civil War. They had their guns and if these were handguns they tended to be the more expensive Army/Navy model Colts. However, most newly freed blacks were too poor to afford to buy the more expensive handgun. So by banning what would today be designated Saturday night specials, Southern legislatures were in effect able to disarm blacks. In conclusion, this quotation from B. Bruce Briggs' seminal article in "The Great American Gun War" makes my point: "But underlying the gun control struggle is a fundamental division in our nation. The intensity of passion on this issue suggests to me that we are experiencing a sort of low grade war going on between two alternative views of what America is and ought to be. "On the one side are those who take bourgeois Europe as a model of a civilized society: a society just, equitable, and democratic; but well ordered, with the lines of responsibility and authority clearly drawn, and with decisions made rationally and correctly by intelligent men for the entire nation. to such people, hunting is atavistic, personal violence is shameful, and uncontrolled gun ownership is a blot upon civilization. "On the other side is a group of people who do not tend to be especially articulate or literate, and whose world view is rarely expressed in print. Their model is that of the independent frontiersman who takes care of himself and his family with no interference from the state. They are conservative in the sense that they cling to America's unique re-modern tradition Ä a non-feudal society with a sort of medieval-liberty writ large for every man." Posted by Freedom Fighters BBs 406-295-5611 ***