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Persuasive Essay On Gun Control

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Yet there is even more to the story, since the very founding of the United States of America, the United States has banned African Americans and minority’s from possessing firearms. Throughout most of American history, gun control was openly stated as a method for keeping African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities "in their place.” This was so that whites could feel safe. In the United States with the fear of “blacks” owning guns they created statues that were designed for blacks only. This was to keep them in line and prevent them from revolting. “In Maryland, these prohibitions went so far as to prohibit free blacks from owning dogs without a license, and authorizing any white to kill an unlicensed dog owned by a free black, for fear that blacks would use dogs as weapons. Mississippi went further, and prohibited any ownership of a dog by a black person” (Wilson, 2016). Laws such as the black codes passed in 1865-66 which counteracted the 2nd amendment showed the fear many whites had especially in the south had towards blacks. These laws were designed to prevent African Americans from carrying guns to sustain control over them. These were former slaves that were know free and had just the right as any to own a gun, yet they were barred yet again due to them not being white. This continued into the civil rights era and in fact got worse, the system did not allow African Americans to even posses them.
States like California passed legislation to strip away gun rights from organizations. Groups such as the Black Panthers that are considered a terrorist organization were protecting themselves and other African Americans from the system that didn’t even want them to possess firearms because they were perceived as a threat to the white majority. Law makers didn’t want these types of groups or groups from any other minority from possessing guns that could go against the police or even them. Organization such as the Black Panthers were involved in cop watching to protect their community’s form the racist acts and violence that cops were committing in their community’s. States and congress eventually targeted small hand guns and guns used in crime or used by minorities. Ronald Regan the Governor at the time

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