Who Goes to Prison Due to Gun Control?
By Anthony Gregory • Friday December 21, 2012 2:56 PM PDT • 25 Comments
Somehow, left-liberals have associated the cause of gun rights with white racism, when if anything it is gun control that has a racist legacy. In the United States, early gun laws targeted recently freed blacks, and open carry first became banned in California under Governor Ronald Reagan to disarm groups like the Black Panthers. Today, blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately subjected to humiliating stop-and-frisk searches in the name of gun control.
Perhaps the most telling data concerns the racial makeup of who goes to prison for gun violations. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, for Fiscal Year 2011, 49.6% of those sentenced to federal incarceration with a primary offense of firearms violations were black, 20.6% were Hispanic, and only 27.5% were white.
This is how gun laws actually work—those caught violating them go to prison. For the mere act of owning an illegal weapon—not necessarily for using it, not for threatening anyone with it, not for being irresponsible with it—people who have harmed no one are locked up in prison for years at a time. As with the rest of the criminal justice system, particularly the war on drugs, these laws disproportionately harm the poor and minorities. That is the inescapable reality of gun control.
It makes sense that blacks and others living in the inner city would rely more on private, illegal guns for self-defense. The police are unreliable at best in many of these communities. It also makes sense that minorities would be disproportionately hurt by these laws, because so many of the dynamics in play are the same as with the drug war—people are being punished for what they own, rather than what they have done to others; it is easier for police to go after those in poor neighborhoods than to search middle-class folks in nice neighborhoods; jurors approved by prosecutors tend to believe police testimony over the word of minority defendants; prosecutors tend to use discretion in possession crime cases that fall more painfully on the disenfranchised; public defenders offer inadequate services for those loads of court-appointed clients, and so forth.
Left-liberals will respond that the racist implementation of gun laws is a problem independent of firearms policy, that we need stricter laws against guns and we’ll deal with inequity in prosecution and sentencing separately. But rarely do they make the same point with drug policy. Progressives know that in origin and in practice, drug policy is unmistakably racist. There is no way to easily purge the system of its racist elements—the problems are too entrenched. Yet these people somehow don’t fully grasp that this is just as unavoidably true as it concerns gun control policy.
When it comes to restricting firearms, liberals have an amazing ability to ignore the hard truth of what they are advocating—putting more people in cages. That is what gun control is. Sometimes it almost seems like progressives are completely blind to this obvious reality—that they understand the problems with drug laws, that they see laws like Three Strikes unfairly punish people for minor property crimes, that they detect a problem with the death penalty even for convicted murderers, that they know that for the whole range of criminal offenses, the state tends to go overboard in dealing with the accused. Except for gun control! On this, we can expect equity, fairness, and efficiency! In truth, putting people in cages won’t make a dent in criminal gun ownership, just as having a half million people behind bars for drug offenses has hardly stemmed the availability of illicit drugs. But that’s a whole other set of questions.
There are a hundred reasons why I oppose gun control. But here is one that lefties, if they are to be consistent at all, need to take to heart: More gun laws mean more peaceful people, disproportionately young black and brown men, who have committed no violence against anyone, being locked up in cells. That might make you feel safer. But it makes me feel like I live in a mockery of a free, humane society.
Tags: American History, Civil Liberties, crime, Gun Control, Racism 
I would love permission to reprint this on my website. Please and THANK you.
Simply brilliant and truthful and it expands so beautifully on what I was feeling today while writing.
Diane Gee | Dec 21, 2012 | Reply
Well, Anthony, once again I want to acknowledge your clear thinking and directly-expressed assessment of the import of what more gun control will mean. Like you, I can find a host of other reasons to oppose all of these hysterical proposals to legislate away the 2nd Amendment. You put your finger squarely on a consequence of gun control that I find especially reprehensible, and I think your analysis is spot-on.
Jeff | Dec 22, 2012 | Reply
Thanks for a thought-provoking article about the racist policing and judicial system, yet you offer no solution other than to demonize progressives. As if the “problem with the death penalty even for convicted murderers” has nothing to do with racist courts falsely convicting folks of murder.
You offer nothing new. Could easily be summarized, “Don’t jail guns, nor the people who illegally carry them, because the system is racist.”
Jonathan | Dec 22, 2012 | Reply
This debate has less to do with the 2nd Amendment, or street crimes with guns: it has everything to do with the weapons industry. This is a huge sector of the economy, and it needs to be retooled away from creating self destroying products.
We cannot trust the Government nor the military to handle this, as they are the weapons industry’s biggest customer.
JDre | Dec 22, 2012 | Reply
.... But here is one that lefties, if they are to be consistent at all, need to take to heart:......
Uh, excuse me Anthony Gregory, but cut the bullshit OK.
Lefties believe in, desire and agitate for a govt of, by and for elitist, tyrannical, power hungry mass murderers who, once in power will use mass extermination to maintain power. Oh, they also immediately move into the mansions of the uber rich they have murdered and they then proceed to live like kings and queens of 18th century Europe.
The left will NEVER EVER be against gun control because it makes their job (the subjugation of the citizenry) much more difficult.
Also, to even think for one minute that lefties give a rat’s ass about the people demonstrates how successful they have been in promoting this lie.
If anything, the more legal guns the citizenry can own, the more successful people will be in defending themselves against the wannabe Stalins/Castros/Pol Pots/Chavez’s , etc., of the world.
You should be ashamed that you even would suggest any alliance whatsoever, for whatever reason or cause, with lefties.
They are just mass murderers waiting for the right moment.
JA | Dec 24, 2012 | Reply
Left statists have indeed been responsible for many of the greatest atrocities and tyranny of all time. But in the struggle between liberty and power, not everyone finds himself on the “left” for purely statist reasons. The world is messier than that. Even on this issue, there is a gun-rights tradition on the left, and there are anti-gun rights conservatives. That is certainly not the norm, but there enough outliers to bring into question the simple sketch you draw.
Anthony Gregory | Dec 24, 2012 | Reply
Yet another wonderful, pulls-no-punches piece. Bravo!
Socrates Wilde | Dec 24, 2012 | Reply
Leftism and liberty – INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY – are mutually exclusive. You cannot belong to both camps at the same time.
Yes, there are the useful idiots who proclaim that leftist governments are the way to go, but they are either naive, ignorant of history, or more likely just plain stupid because they think that all that is required to avoid a Stalinist form of leftist rule is for they themselves (i.e, caring angels) to be calling the shots, for surely, they would never resort to mass murder.
They refuse to consider that when coercion is required to implement their world view, there WILL be a conflict and there will be violence because there are ALWAYS radical elements in any mass movement who simply are impatient to impose their world view on the citizenry and are willing to use any and all means to accomplish their goals.
The refusal of people to bend to the wishes of tyrants will force the hand of those in charge – or those that subsequently come to power – to implement any and all means to impose their world view. It is this reason that communist/leftist governments use mass murder.
Those who believe that cooperating with leftists will lead to greater freedoms or will advance the cause of individual freedom must also believe that hot showers await those proceeding under the “arbeit macht frei” entry way.
Anti gun right conservatives have no desire to squash individual liberties; they just do not think guns belong in a “civilized” society. Leftist ALWAYS stand for tyranny, oppressive government and loss of individual liberties.
Yes, the world is a very messy place indeed, but we have witnessed since 1917 in Russia and since 1945 in Eastern Europe and Asia, and since 1958 in Cuba and more recently leftist regimes in Venezuela and Argentina, exactly what leftists stand for and what it is they wish to impose.
Apparently, the misery they have inflicted on millions of souls is a lesson that many refuse to learn from or simply ignore.
Let’s be very clear here; the only leftists I can recall that did not wish to impose their world view on those who did not share that view, were the original founders of the Israeli kibbutzim – theirs was a purely voluntary form of communism and in this, was very , very unique (perhaps you could also call the Amish voluntary communists as well).
So, I stand by my original response to your column and frankly, in my view, there is zero difference betwixt a leftist and a Nazi (OK, there is one difference; communists are far more adept and efficient at mass murder than the Nazi’s ever were.)
JA | Dec 24, 2012 | Reply
There were leftists long before Marx, and not all leftists are communists. I agree, of course, that communism is comparable to Nazism in its totalitarianism and murderousness. But most lefties in the United States are not communists.
Anthony Gregory | Dec 24, 2012 | Reply
By DEFINITION, a leftist believes in big government and government control of many aspects of life and of course, it requires the implementation of laws that COERCE the citizenry to do what they otherwise would not do.
Implicit in the ideology of a leftist is the belief that those in government have the RIGHT AND OBLIGATION to tell individuals how they must live, irrespective of the desires of the individual.
The leftist worldview is one in which the STATE decides what is acceptable or not acceptable and the state enacts the laws based upon what the ruling elites DEMAND that the citizenry adhere to.
This is all fine and dandy if the rulers are “angels;” but generally they are not and there is a 100% probability that a ruler will emerge who is a real devil.
The leftist world view is fraught with peril because it leads one down the road – sooner or later – to tyranny. It empowers others to decide what you or I MUST do. This is OK as long as you agree with what you are told to do.
But what if you do not agree with what you are told you MUST do?? Well, you will go to jail if you disobey what the STATE has instructed you must do.
Lefties that are not communists will be the first to be exterminated when the government they helped install is inherited by the “bad” guys. Stalin wiped out Lenin’s inner circle; Hitler (a socialist)wiped out Ernst Roehm; Castro wiped out those against Batista but who desired a real democracy; Ortega of Nicaragua wiped out the indigenous people who simply wanted to pursue their own lives, etc., etc.
Leftists believe that individual rights must be subordinated to the whims of the ruling elites in government. And once individual rights are abandoned by the people, it will lead to tyranny.
There may be non-communist leftists, but frankly they are far more dangerous than hard core radical malevolent communists because in their naivete and perhaps fundamental goodness, and frankly speaking, their incredible stupidity, they are ultimately leading the citizenry to hell.
One either believe in the supremacy of individual rights or in the supremacy of the ruling elites of government.
A leftist does NOT believe in the supremacy of individual rights.
JA | Dec 25, 2012 | Reply
I think we should cut to the quick and have a religious fundamentalist state in here right now. We could be a light for the Egyptians, the Turks and the Iranians (joke).
Reza Pavlavi | Dec 27, 2012 | Reply
I like the way you think.
Mike | Dec 28, 2012 | Reply
It’s always so obvious when pro-gun advocates pretend to care about minorities in service of their agenda. You’re not fooling us.
The fact that gun control laws are unfairly applied should logically be an inducement to call for smarter laws and better application thereof because those laws save lives. And the statistic you SHOULD be concerned with, were you concern genuine, is this one.
http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparebar.jsp?ind=115&cat=2
PoC are overwhelmingly in more danger from gun violence than Caucasians. The only place where guns are less dangerous to People of Color than Caucasians are those where the number of PoC is so low as to make them statistically non-existent.
In addition the home protection section of pro-gun rhetoric is unceasingly racist.
Look, you want to keep your guns.That’s fine. I get that. That would be an honest set of reasons. But stop pretending that advocating against gun control stems from even the tiniest concern about PoC. That claim insults our intelligence.
Isobel DeBrujah | Dec 28, 2012 | Reply
The liberal media has long used their First Amendment rights to destroy our Second Amendment rights. They have, in my opinion, lost the right to have the First Amendment. I say this because the liberal media has proven that, without a doubt, they are not interested in the rights of others. They are not interested in “the truth”. They just want to sensationalize and spread violence, hate and crime. The liberal media wants to be the ones to tell you how you can and cannot live. The liberal media has shown that they are nothing more than the mouthpiece of the left, the anti gun sycophants that do not want to be bothered by “the truth”. They will not stop till they have completely destroyed our rights and freedoms and replaced themselves as the moral judge, jury and executioner.
It is said, in various ways, that the Second Amendment protects the First Amendment. Since they are hell bent on destroying the Second Amendment, it is time for us to say enough is enough.
It is time to begin attacking the First Amendment, because if they succeed in destroying the Second Amendment, the First Amendment and all the rest will soon after fall also. That, I think is inevitable. The Obamatopia they so desperately want will not be a free society, but a socialist society that history has shown will punish everyone while the corrupt Party members live in opulence. The Party will murder millions to control us, just look at history; USSR, NAZI Germany, China, Cuba and Indo-China, just to name a few. The citizens in those societies live(d) in misery, fear and poverty with no hope for a future worth living.
We need to attack the First Amendment at every corner and every opportunity. That is the only way to get the leftist media and the leftist Democrats to understand that the Second Amendment it just as important as the First Amendment.
We also need to push for term limits for all politicians and eliminate all the perks they give themselves, including owning and carrying firearms while they take away our 2nd Amendment and/or have armed bodyguards at our expense. They need to live by the same laws they impose on everyone else. No more lavish pensions, no more living high on the hog while the rest of us suffer.
This sounds draconian, but we are in the fight of our lives and tough times call for tough measures.
Hans Boyd | Dec 28, 2012 | Reply
“This is how gun laws actually work—those caught violating them go to prison. For the mere act of owning an illegal weapon—not necessarily for using it, not for threatening anyone with it, not for being irresponsible with it—people who have harmed no one are locked up in prison for years at a time.”
Indeed. Another data point: the only crimes ever “solved” by the existence of the Canadian gun registry were crimes CREATED by the existence of the Canadian gun registry — namely, “failure to register.”
Henry Bowman | Dec 29, 2012 | Reply
INCONVENIENT FACT: According to no less an authority than the peer-reviewed Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, countries with stringent gun control laws have higher murder and suicide rates than those without.
DOCUMENTATION: “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?” A Review of International and Some Domestic Evidence by Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser, Volume 30, Number 2 of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, pages 649-694. (To download a PDF copy of the journal article, simply Google the title. It is available on the web free of charge.)
QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: “If you are surprised by our findings, so are we. We did not begin this research with any intent to “exonerate” handguns, but there it is — a negative finding, to be sure, but a negative finding is nevertheless a positive contribution. It directs us where not to aim public health resources.”
INDIRECTION: The trick hoplophobes always use is to say that America has higher gun-murder rates than other countries, but many of those “murders” are criminals killed in the act of committing violent crimes. Compare absolute murder rates, and the result is “more guns, less murder.” (Source: GunFacts.info);
SECOND INCONVENIENT FACT: According to DOJ crime statistics, guns are used by US citizens 2.5 million times per year to prevent violent crimes like rape, robbery, home-invasion and carjacking, 99% of the time without a shot being fired. (Source: GunFacts.info)
THIRD INCONVENIENT FACT: “Assault weapons” (AKA semiautomatic rifles) are used in less than 1% of gun crimes. (Source: GunFacts.info)
QUESTION: If gun-free zones make people safe, then why don’t we declare the immediate vicinity of the President and Vice-President to be gun-free zones and send the Secret Service home? Or are gun-free zones good enough for our kids, but not good enough for our overlords?
METAPHOR: America has more private gun ownership than most other countries, so naturally there are more gun murders. America also has more hospitals than most other countries, so naturally we have more people dying in hospitals. Does that mean we should outlaw hospitals?
JoeThePimpernel | Jan 2, 2013 | Reply
“The left will NEVER EVER be against gun control...”
Yes, tell us more about how the left will never ever be against gun control.
(That’s from a radical Leftist group protesting a California gun control act — specifically, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense protesting the Mulford Act, soon to be signed by then-Governor Ronald Reagan, in case you didn’t get all that from the photograph.)
Rad Geek | Jan 18, 2013 | Reply
This society is one big cage masked with illusions that we do have some sort of liberty. So, we all just play along and fit into our roles: student, teacher, doctor, prisoner... all the same... parts of a whole. “Terrorists” and “criminals” never ask for permission or wait for a permit to commit murder and they do not use registered legal weapons that would point to their name, so what is this “gun control” fiasco really masking... perhaps a new war that they want to diverge our attention from viewing
CloudSue | Feb 16, 2013 | Reply