By Frances Rice
In 2010, the US Supreme Court decided a case that highlighted
how gun
control laws are rooted in the racist past of the Democratic Party that enacted
"Black Codes," which prohibited newly freed slaves from exercising
their Second Amendment right to own guns for self-defense.
The case of McDonald v.
City of Chicago was filed by black Chicago residents led by Otis McDonald who just
wanted to have the right to protect himself from criminals who terrorized him
in his home with frequent break-ins. The Court ruled that the Second Amendment
right to keep and bear arms applies to state and local governments.
At the heart of the McDonald
case is the
Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution that was pushed through by
Republicans after the Civil War, which codified that black Americans have the same
right under the Second Amendment to bear arms as white Americans.
The only current black US Supreme Court member, Justice
Clarence Thomas, who was appointed by Republican President George H. W. Bush,
courageously delved into the racist origins of gun control laws to demonstrate
that such laws have no place in a nation of free people.
The liberal justices on the Court, including Justice Sonia
Sotomayor who was appointed by Democrat President Barack Obama, voted against
the black plaintiff and his fellow Chicago residents.
The McDonald case provides a bird eye's view of the
history of Democratic Party racism.
Referenced in the Court's opinion is the
1856 Republican Party Platform that includes language about the "right of
the people to keep and bear arms."
A key source used by the Court is the book "Reconstruction:
America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877" by Dr. Eric Foner.
Dr. Foner's book reveals how, before the Civil War ended, the Southern States, which were controlled by Democrats for over 100 years, enacted "Slave Codes" that prohibited slaves from
owning firearms.
After Republican President Abraham Lincoln issued the
1863 Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves in the rebelling States, and
after Republicans pushed through the Thirteenth Amendment freeing all the
remaining slaves, Democrats in the South persisted in keeping the newly freed
slaves from owning guns, the means to protect themselves.
The Supreme Court in the McDonald decision wrote about how, after the Civil War, the
Southern States controlled by Democrats passed "Black Codes" to
systematically disarm blacks.
Included in this mass disarmament were the over 180,000 blacks who returned
to the South after serving in the Union Army.
In response to the "Black Codes," the
Republican-controlled Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
But the Democrats would not be deterred.
Very soon after the 1866 law was enacted, Alabama,
followed by other Southern States, again passed more "Black Codes" that
made it illegal for blacks to own firearms.
Cited by the US Supreme Court in the McDonald case as an example of a discriminatory black code is
the Mississippi law that stated:
"[N]o
freedman, free negro or mulatto, not in the military service of the United
States government, and not licensed so to do by the board of police of his or
her county, shall keep or carry fire-arms of any kind, or any ammunition, dirk
or bowie knife."
In one Southern town, according to the US Supreme Court, the
marshal confiscated the weapons of the returning black Union soldiers and, at
every opportunity, promptly shot black people.
The Court's McDonald
decision records that:
"Throughout
the South, armed parties, often consisting of ex-Confederate soldiers serving
in the state militias, forcibly took firearms from newly freed slaves".
In his book about Reconstruction, Dr. Foner revealed that
in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan was started as a Tennessee social club.
According to Dr. Foner, the Klan became a military force
serving the interests of the Democratic Party and spread into other Southern
States, launching a "reign of terror" against Republican leaders,
black and white. Over 3,000 Republicans were killed by the Klan, 1,000 of whom were white.
The Klan would "order the colored men to give up
their arms; saying that everybody would be Kukluxed in whose house fire-arms
were found.”
In the McDonald
decision, the Court pointed out how the Republican-controlled Congress, while
debating the Fourteenth Amendment, referred to the right to keep and bear arms
as a fundamental right deserving of protection.
Republican Senator Samuel Pomeroy described three
"indispensable" "safeguards of liberty under our form of
Government", one of which was the right to keep and bear arms.
Pomeroy said:
"Every man . . . should have the right
to bear arms for the defense of himself and family and his homestead. And if
the cabin door of the freedman is broken open and the intruder enters for
purposes as vile as were known to slavery, then should a well-loaded musket be
in the hand of the occupant to send the polluted wretch to another world, where
his wretchedness will forever remain complete.”
Pomeroy's words reflect exactly the sentiment expressed
by Otis McDonald and other black plaintiffs who filed a law suit against the
Democrat-controlled City of Chicago that had confiscated their weapons, leaving
them to the mercy of intruders who had broken open his door and entered his
home for vile purposes.
In this episode, Michael reviews the history of American
gun control laws and describes the founding of the NRA.
Knowles discusses how:
”Cynical Democrat politicians who failed
at every level to prevent the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, are
now excusing everybody who had anything to do with preventing the shooting and
placing all of the blame on the NRA, a civil rights organization that had
absolutely nothing to do with the shooting."
Knowles further states:
“This is par for the course for
Democrats, who have long pushed gun control to oppress blacks and other
minorities.”
About the video, Knowles says:
“We will analyze the racist
history of gun control and the purpose of the Second Amendment.”
