Disclaimer, I'm not a racist, 88 our whatever. I lived 40 years in Chicagoland, often in integrated areas.


There's an aspect of the threatened AWB that I believe no one has touched upon yet; the racial and class aspect.

First, visit a typical gun show and who do you see, middle-class and working class caucasians, mostly men. Stop in to your local gun shop and you'll see the exact same demographic. Visit suburban or rural gun ranges and you'll see the same. Look at the pictures from last saturday's "Gun Appreciation Day" rallies at various state capitols and you'll see a sea of middle-class, vanilla faces. Out of all the pics, I counted exactly ONE african american. I am not saying that there are no gun owners who are also people of color. What I am saying is the the Gun Culture is predominantly white.


Second, consider the price of an AR-15 rifle. Even a bare bones AR starts around $800.00. Add an optic, magazines and a few hundred rounds of ammunition, and even a basic AR setup can easily top $1000.00. The AR-15 rifle is clearly a weapon that is out of reach for those in the lower economic class. Riding a wave of all time popularity,  the AR-15 is clearly the rifle of the middle class.

Taken together, I see the threatened AWB as a law that is clearly aimed at the white middle class, almost to the exclusion of other groups. The proposed law is obviously targeted at "the angry white man" demographic, a group which not only values the Second Ammendment, but all forms of individual liberty. This demographic is also among the staunchest opponents of higher taxes, "progressive values", socialized medicine and Progressivism/Socialism in general.

I don't believe for an instant the Feinstein's new AWB bill was written after the tragedy in Connecticut. The bill has been on the shelf since the last AWB's sunset, it's authors and supporters eagerly waiting for the opportune moment to unveil it to the public as the solution to massacre and mayhem.

The REAL goal of the threatened, new and improved AWB, I believe is to disarm those people who oppose the growth of Socialism in America, those who would form the core of an armed resistance movement; the white, middle class.

ckmorley

Good right up but, No Shit!

The rear racial aspects are this:

Everyday 28 black males are killed by another black male using a firearm and we do nothing about it. However, Sandy Hook happened in a middle class white neighborhood and it's all over the news and continues to be all over the news. Why is that?

ARs aren't any more expensive than TVs.  ARs don't need optics.  

The AR is not out of reach of anyone that's willing to work to have one.

Why is that especially with the racist administration, (including Heir Holder), that is in place now?

Good point.  And I keep on spamming folks with this, but it is the best way to make an anti's head just about explode since they don't know how to handle it:

https://www.google.com/search?q=no+guns+for+negroes

I believe that educated, middle class african americans realize that the is no solution for Inner City violence that can be introduced from the outside. The Inner City community itself has to grow up, accept responsibility for itself, stop making welfare babies and reject the thug culture.

Things that are earned, meaning someone worked to get them, are valued.  If you have to work more to get something odds are you will appreciate it even more.  Anyone can get an AR that isn't a felon (past/present).  Some people can just go buy one because they have the money, others might take months or years to be able to save enough for it.  Lower or lower-middle income groups that have saved up and purchased one value them a lot more than me I'm willing to bet.  Not as a right, but as an object.  Owning whatever gun I want as a Constitutionally protected right is very important to me, and the same goes for me wanting that right for anyone that can legally get one as well.

If more people armed themselves in crime ridden areas I bet crime would go down within a year.  The criminals power would be immediately diminished.  Take guns away and criminals power only increases.

Good write up but please refer to white Americans as European Americans.
Other wise just say black...

"I have black friends."

Today, middle class black men can regularly afford the luxuries that were once reserved for upper middle+ class whites.  These luxuries were also once out of the reach of middle/low middle class whites.  Guns are one such luxury.  Remember how your father/grandfather had a relatively pedestrian S&W or Colt revolver that was treated like a fabrege egg?



Here in integrated central VA, we are segregated by economics more than anything else.  There are black men in every gun store around, both as employees and patrons.  Sure, old white guys dominate gun shows at 9:00 am, but that's only because they've already been up for 3-4 hours.

Same reason why when a cute, white girl is kidnapped, it's all over the news.

I know they don't need optics, I was making a generalization based upon a common AR configuration.
AR's are pretty much out of reach to people making $5/hour at Burger World

Yes, they want to ban semi auto rifles to get at the white people.





Is that 28 in one shooting? No. 1-2 people getting murdered hardly breaks new regardless of the race. The bigger the shooting the more attention it gets. Add little kids into the mix and it gets even more attention. The Aurora shooting was kept in the media for a while, but not nearly as much as Sandy Hook. Why? Probably because of the death toll difference as well as the fact that most victims were young kids.

So people look at race for every little thing.

good thoughts here sir. If anyone really wants to know what BHO is up to, read his book "Dreams of my Father. Then read Ed Klein's book "The Amateur"

BHO makes it clear what he wants the US to become. And making all people equal (bringing down the white man) is his ultimate goal.

ARs were not nearly as expensive in the past.  People that save their money can have virtually anything they want.  Prices will come back down.  

There are reliable firearms in all price ranges.  

I am a member at a very diverse gun range.  Name me a demographic, and I shoot with them.  There are still parts of America where people work hard, save, and buy what they want.

those areas seem to shrink more and more every year.

those areas seem to shrink more and more every year.

It's not just white middle class people... It's ANYBODY who loves LIBERTY.

Let me turn liberal logic on its head for a minute:

The end of face to face private gun sales is also racially discriminatory.   A transaction through an ffl dealer requires valid photo id. I have learned from the debate on voter id laws that minorities are less likely to possess valid photo id and are disproportionately harmed by such laws and thus less likely to exercise their voting rights.  Could it be that outlawing face to face private gun sales is a ploy to prevent minorities from exercising their 2nd Amendment rights by mandating the use of photo id's that these poor citizens do not possess?  

Just like how every liberal gun-grabber "grew up around guns and hunting."

Uh, huh.  Sure you did.

And you may have, in your mind.  But to anyone who knows what a 'gun and hunting household' actually looks like, you're just a poser who thinks shooting a .22LR a handful of times through your childhood gives you some cred.


In the same way, all of the people who say, "I have black friends." as if it's some counterpoint to an accusation of racism are completely missing the mark.
Maybe you do have black friends, but it's safe money to bet they're not the type of folks who are representative of the kind of 'black' we're talking about.

Hey, I have black friends myself.  They're all educated professionals and they "talk like white people."  
I don't associate with the type of "black" that people who would accuse me of racism are talking about.  

There's "Bill Cosby black," and then there's "50 Cent black," if you know what I'm saying.

The former neither needs nor wants a racial puppeteer to speak on their behalf.
The latter can't tie the strings around their hands quickly enough.

Blacks get their guns from the black market, much cheaper.

Like I said earlier, over medicated white teen boys with assault rifles and mega-clipz are the new boogeymen.

Because it doesn't happen every day?

Because school shootings are rare and ghetto shootings are just another day in the ghetto.

To add another racial aspect about government and firearms ownership:

Many states are trying to pass legislation, or already have passed it, stating that to vote, a person must present photo ID.  The Obama Administration states this is an undue burden on minorities and the elderly.  On the flip side he "doesn't want to impede law abiding gun owners" but is calling for much more stringent background checks.   The FFL must have Photo ID to do this process, there fore if the voter ID is an unfair restriction on minorities and the elderly, isn't it also an unfair burden when it comes to law abiding citizens  purchasing guns??

Why does Obama want to prevent Minorities and the elderly from being able to defend themselves?


ETA: DORR beat me to this point.  

The Obama admin and those like him have seen and do consider things like:

-gun ownership
-self sufficiency
-individual freedoms
-religion
-wealth

to be "troublesome". Intentional or not, these things to tend to be found in the "White male" circle.
Intentional or not you're absolutley correct, it does become an issue of racial and class warfare.



I had this very same thought the other day when (i think it was) J.D. Wells had a caller blasting voter ID laws as an infringement on voting rights but didnt see any of the hoops gun owners have to jump through as such and only encouraged more.