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Gun Control: A Failed American Experiment (The United States has had gun control from its founding)
American Thinker ^ | 01/26/2013 | Timothy Birdnow

Posted on 01/26/2013 8:14:01 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The United States has had gun control from its founding. And the results have been dreadful. Constitutional attorney Edwin Viera Jr.points out that: Georgia's Slavery Act of 1765, for example, explained itself on the rather blatant theory of legalistic oppression that

"Slavery has been introduced and allowed in His Majesty's Colonies in America and * * * Power over such Slaves ought to be settled and limited by positive Laws, so that the Slaves may be kept in due Subjection and Obedience * * * [.][5]"

[SNIP]

Georgia was hardly alone in this, and the pre-colonial powers were fully aware of the need to disarm slaves. The French Black Code of 1751 banned the possession of weapons by slaves in Louisiana, for instance, authorizing the offending slave be shot on sight.In Virginia Nat Turner's Rebellion of 1831 led to strict gun control laws for slaves and even for free blacks. Tennessee changed its constitution in 1834 limiting the right to keep and bear arms to whites only

[SNIP]

Similar restrictions were put in place over both slave and freedman in Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, and elsewhere.

So why did slavery flourish in the United States? One reason undoubtedly is because the slaves were denied the tools to resist.

John Lott made that very point to the horror of Soledad O'Brien on CNN.

And life as a freedman was perilous, thanks in no small part to the ban on gun ownership by free blacks in many states. Often freedmen were seized by bounty hunters or unscrupulous slaveholders as runaways, and without a means to resist, the free blacks were powerless to stop it.

It is no coincidence that the places with the strictest gun laws today are often the places with the highest crime rates

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; edwinvierajr; georgia; guncontrol; secondamendment; slaveryact; virginia; youwillnotdisarmus

1 posted on 01/26/2013 8:14:06 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
When the communists manage to get our guns confiscated, the end of America is guaranteed.
2 posted on 01/26/2013 8:29:47 AM PST by Logical me
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To: SeekAndFind
Yep, that's a piece of information I drop on liberal anti-gun idiots... Gun control laws are racist. All gun control law can trace their history to keeping guns out the hands of blacks.
3 posted on 01/26/2013 8:31:44 AM PST by Traveler59 ( Truth is a journey, not a destination.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Second Amendment was NEVER about what type of arms citizens might own or about what the technological developments of the future might bring. It was not about hunting. It was not about home defense. It was not about target shooting. It was about the ability of citizens to oppose and resist the oppression of a tyrannical government.


4 posted on 01/26/2013 8:32:11 AM PST by isthisnickcool (Sharia? No thanks!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Dodge City, ca. 1878


5 posted on 01/26/2013 8:36:30 AM PST by x
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To: x

What’s your point? Kansans were inundated with wild gang bangers in the 1860s and 1870s fresh off of trail drives from Texas. These signs were for the strangers who were shooting up the towns.


6 posted on 01/26/2013 8:50:23 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: SeekAndFind
slaves were denied the tools to resist.

John Lott made that very point to the horror of Soledad O'Brien on CNN.

Beautiful picture. I'd like to have seen it.

7 posted on 01/26/2013 8:50:39 AM PST by Hardastarboard (The Liberal ruling class hates me. The feeling is mutual.)
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To: Vaquero
What’s your point?

I don't know if I have one. It was an interesting find -- something you see reflected in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven but not elsewhere in the popular culture. I guess if there's a point, it's that not all gun ordinances were directed against slaves or minorities.

Kansans were inundated with wild gang bangers in the 1860s and 1870s fresh off of trail drives from Texas. These signs were for the strangers who were shooting up the towns.

That is true (though I don't know if any gun laws affected the citizens of the town).

But what if we were to ban "strangers from out of town" from carrying guns today? How would people react? Would that be a reasonable measure? An infringement of gun rights? An invitation to prejudice and profiling? Would it be a good thing or a bad thing? Would it work?

8 posted on 01/26/2013 9:05:08 AM PST by x
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To: SeekAndFind
Guns and American history are best distilled down to two words: Lexington & Concord
9 posted on 01/26/2013 9:22:35 AM PST by DTogo (High time to bring back The Sons of Liberty !!)
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To: SeekAndFind

See also Clayton E. Cramer’s “The racist roots of gun control.”


10 posted on 01/26/2013 9:38:14 AM PST by Southern Partisan
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To: SeekAndFind

BTTT!


11 posted on 01/28/2013 9:08:29 AM PST by neverdem ( Xin loi min oi)
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To: Vaquero

****These signs were for the strangers who were shooting up the towns.***

This is true and the law was not for the local people. There was such a law in Wichita. The sheriff arrested a Texas cowboy for carrying and, that night, his friends, armed to the teeth confronted the sheriff.

Someone rang an alarm bell and the cowboys were confronted with local citizens, all armed, backing the sheriff.

It was said that for months, discarded handguns were being found in weed patches where the cowboys dropped them so they would not get arrested.

The above is from THE GUNFIGHTER by Joseph Rosa. University of Oklahoma press. 1969.


12 posted on 01/29/2013 10:01:03 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Click my name! See new paintings!)
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To: SeekAndFind
1765 was a different country. If it's OK to introduce different countries, it's worth noting that the independent pirates working out of Chesapeake Bay in the 1500s were armed to the teeth and had no restrictions whatsoever on firearms.

The Spanish zone of control saw just all sorts of Europeans running about with firearms ~ no restrictions of any kind.

By my accounting America already had just short of 300 years of experience with uncontrolled, unregulated firearms by the time the United States came along. We have not yet reached that exalted estate with the current US Constitution and form of government.

13 posted on 01/29/2013 11:36:00 AM PST by muawiyah
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