Forum Post: Who Goes to Prison Due to Gun Control?
Posted 11 years ago on Dec. 26, 2012, 9:15 p.m. EST by darrenlobo
(204)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
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.
http://blog.independent.org/2012/12/21/who-goes-to-prison-due-to-gun-control/
So touching that you GOP types are suddenly all concerned about the rights of African Americans.
I like that. Why should you stop at nasty when you can be nasty AND shamelessly hypocritical?
Who is with the GOP? Certainly not me, the Independent Inst, or the author of the article. I've got to say commenters on this post sure have active imaginations.
If I am a legal gun dealer and the ATF comes in to inspect my records and 1000 guns are "missing" - I will be guilty of a MISDEMEANOR
who goes to jail - whoever the NRA wants to go to jail
elect people who are not beholden to the nra -
they are usually called Democrats
Think it would be more like a "felony" for each incident - 1000 incidents - 1000 felonies - Long jail sentence there for sure - has nothing to do with the NRA - just try doing it and see what happnes.
It was a felony UNTIL the nra stepped in and
got it changed to a misdemeanor - look it up.
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The rise of gun-happy music goes hand in hand with the rise of the prison complex system.
Fill the rest of the cells - one year for OWNING an unregistered gun
if you need more space, legalize drugs
make a $200/day habit into a $200/year habit
Like fuckin' clockwork.
Clockwork - Orange?
Now that you mention it............
LOL
Let me see if I read this correctly -
This is how gun laws actually work—those caught violating them go to prison.
So I guess we don't want to send people to prison for having in their possession an illegal firearm that they robbed from some law abiding citizen
"For the mere act of owning an illegal weapon" people are locked up in prison for years at a time. These laws disproportionately harm the poor and minorities -
So if a person has an illegal weapon and uses it in a crime it can't be traced. However even though it was acquired illegally it should be ok for that person to own it. And as a result, these laws harm the poor and minorities because they robbed a house and now have an illegal firearm so it should be ok for them to own them.
"It makes sense that blacks and others living in the inner city would rely more on private, illegal guns for self-defense."
Do they have a desire to own a firearm, can't afford one so they go out into a rural neighborhood, break into a house and steal one because they can't defend themselves due to all the crime they and others are involved in in their own neighborhod?
People are being punished for what they own It also makes sense that minorities would be disproportionately hurt by these laws.
So we don't want to punish criminals for owning illegal firearms - right? And when they commit a crime that is untraceable because they killed someone with a firearm they robbed it's ok.
It is easier for police to go after those in poor neighborhoods than to search middle-class folks in nice neighborhoods.
Maybe its because of the person who was caught selling pot/drugs got caught with an illegal firearm.
Jurors approved by prosecutors tend to believe police testimony over the word of minority defendants
So I guess the defending attorney has no say in the Juror pool and who should be on the jury. And I guess the jurors who do find someone of color who owns an illegal firearm are racists.
Please, if you're going to create a strawman try not to get too crazy. No one is talking about theft of anything being ok. Obviously, thieves are to be brought to justice whatever they steal.
Well everyone likes to paint everything as "racists" when it comes to blacks and how laws apply to them.
How about instead of letting emotions get in the way, look at the facts first. Then after that a rational decision can be made.
Doesn't the article present the facts of how gun laws are applied?