The Klan's Favorite Law

Gun control in the postwar South

David B. Kopel | February 15, 2005

(Page 2 of 2)

The Radical Republican Congress observed the South with dismay. The Republicans intended to use federal power to force freedom on the South. One of the Radical Republicans' most important tools was the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which required states to respect basic human rights. While the vague language of the amendment has produced disagreement about exactly what is covered, the Congressional backers of the amendment seem to have intended, at the least, protecting the core freedoms listed in the national Bill of Rights. Announced Representative Clarke of Kansas: "I find in the Constitution an article which declared 'the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' For myself, I shall insist that the reconstructed rebels of Mississippi respect the Constitution in their local laws."

The earlier Freedman's Bureau Bill had also been squarely aimed at protecting the right to bear arms. The bill guaranteed federal protection of "the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and estate, including the constitutional right of bearing arms."

The Amendment was quickly emasculated by the United States Supreme Court in The Slaughter-House Cases and United States v. Cruikshank, The Supreme Court understood the social realities of the South. The Cruikshank decision gave the green light to the Klan, unofficial white militias, and other racist groups to forcibly disarm the freedmen and impose white supremacy.

One state at a time, white racists took control of government by using armed violence and the threat of violence to control balloting on election day. Freedmen and their white allies also resorted to arms. But white Republican governors were usually afraid that employing the black militias fully would set off an even broader race war.

The white South, while defeated on the battlefield in 1865, had continued armed resistance to Northern control for over a decade. When the North, an occupying power, grew weary of the struggle and abandoned its black and Republican allies in the South, the white South was again the master of its destiny.

In deference to the Fourteenth Amendment, some states did cloak their laws in neutral, non-racial terms. For example, the Tennessee legislature barred the sale of any handguns except the "Army and Navy model." The ex-Confederate soldiers already had their high quality "Army and Navy" guns. But cash-poor freedmen could barely afford lower-cost, simpler firearms not of the "Army and Navy" quality. Arkansas enacted a nearly identical law in 1881, and other Southern states followed suit, including Alabama (1893), Texas (1907), and Virginia (1925).

As Jim Crow intensified, other Southern states enacted gun registration and handgun permit laws. Registration came to Mississippi (1906), Georgia (1913), and North Carolina (1917). Handgun permits were passed in North Carolina (1917), Missouri (1919), and Arkansas (1923).

As one Florida judge explained, the licensing laws were "passed for the purpose of disarming the negro laborers... [and] never intended to be applied to the white population."

That gun control has a very unsavory past does not, in itself, prove that all modern gun control proposals are a bad idea. But it does offer reasons to be especially cautious about the dangers of disarming people who cannot necessarily count on their local government to protect them.

Comments

Pingback| 12.10.09 @ 2:48PM

Big Government » Blog Archive » The Right to Bear Arms: Does the Second Amendment App links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…Black Code, for example, declared “that no freedman, free Negro, or mulatto…shall keep or carry firearms of any kind.” In other words, America’s original gun control laws were designed to disarm African Americans and leave them at the mercy of predatory state governments. So the Radical Republicans of the 39th Congress responded with the Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1868, and which was…

Pingback| 12.16.09 @ 9:56AM

Cold Fury » It was nice while it lasted links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…1866 Black Code, for example, declared “that no freedman, free Negro, or mulatto…shall keep or carry firearms of any kind.” In other words, America’s original gun control laws were designed to disarm African Americans and leave them at the mercy of predatory state governments. So the Radical Republicans of the 39th Congress responded with the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868, and which was explicitly…

Pingback| 2.9.10 @ 5:44AM

Civil Rights and Armed Self-Defense - www.hostzi.com - deep web news radio links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…this was confirmed by a former prominent leader of the White Knights of the KKK when we had an interesting dinner together at Jackson. Go here to read the entire thing. Its well worth your time. And gohere for Kopels classic Reason article explaining why gun control was the Klans favorite law. Read More… [Source: Hit & Run ] Be the first to comment - What do you think?   Posted by admin -…

Pingback| 4.25.10 @ 5:47PM

Obit watch. « Whipped Cream Difficulties links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…interested in the subject, David Kopel did an excellent two-part article for Reason on the racial roots of gun control; the second part goes into more detail on the civil rights era struggles. Part one is here; part two is here. This entry was posted on Sunday, April 25th, 2010 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Guns, Obits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response,…