Are blacks their own worst enemies?

By Felicity Bower

Is there really a covert movement underway to keep African Americans disarmed? Should the United Negro College Fund have a position on such a thing?

Is there historical proof to back up this radical notion -- which ties gun bans to slavery, and gun possession to freedom from slavery?

Were the anti-black Jim Crow laws the start of gun control, and do they exist to this day?

Is this a hot potato or what?
Should free speech even protect a discussion like this? Yes, yes and yes, is part of the premise of a controversial video production now underway by Wisconsin-based Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), a group that knows something about civilian disarmament and the holocaust it can enable.

The group is seeking donations to complete the professionally produced film, publicize its efforts, and explain what it plans to do, at http://www.jpfo.org. The video is sympathetic to the plight of blacks in America.

Arms in the hands of Jews are a danger to public safety, reads a recent law review article in the St. Thomas Law Review, quoting a police report from Germany in 1935. JPFO is suggesting similar thinking exists regarding blacks in America today. Does such thinking exist? Who believes that? Did the recently overturned ban on firearms in San Francisco public housing, for example, disproportionately target poor blacks who live in the projects?

Historically, from well before the civil war, black slaves were indeed denied the right to keep and bear arms, that's plain fact. You can't let slaves have guns and expect them to stay slaves, was common-sense wisdom at the time. Rights denial is thoroughly documented through the antebellum South.

As recently as 1941, Florida Supreme Court Justice Rivers H. Buford (1878-1959), ruling about the state's gun-control laws (Watson v. Stone, 4 So. 2nd 703), stated, The original Act of 1893 was passed when there was a great influx of Negro laborers into the state... The Act was passed for the purpose of disarming the Negro laborers... The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population, and in practice has never been so applied.

The principle that black Americans and guns do not mix persisted in both overt and subtle ways through the late 20th century civil-rights movement (armed Black Panthers were outcasts to �mainstream� black leadership), and is alive and well in the modern day, according to the documentary.

Malcolm X, a culture hero today but a pariah at the height of his career, tellingly remarked about Dr. Martin Luther King's appeal for solely peaceful demonstrations, that, Concerning non-violence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.

Now, in urban ghettos, the victim mentality, welfare dependency and even -- according to black experts the producers have interviewed -- efforts by the leadership of people-of-color rainbow movements, insidious efforts are afoot to keep blacks unarmed, defenseless and helpless victims. A mindset opposing self reliance, self defense and personal responsibility against crime infuses much of what passes for civil rights for blacks, they say.

Blacks, disproportionately victims of violent crime by armed thugs, are encouraged not to defend themselves -- by community organizers and other local leaders. In a startling contradiction, they are told to rely on the very police who are all too often perpetrators of violence against the community, and who the courts have repeatedly declared have no legal duty to protect any individual.

Gunshot demographic maps are stunning evidence of the hidden racial nature of this rampant violent crime http://www.gunlaws.com/GunshotDemographics.htm.

The JPFO film contends in part that black leaders would prefer to blame guns instead of the true culprit -- the government's war-on-drugs narco economy and violence it spawns -- because in some cases the narco economy is the only significant economy the community has. Leaders push for gun bans and gun control, attracting power and support, but distracting attention and diverting efforts that would really help the people they serve.

The gritty 1997 Hollywood hit Hoodlum, starring black actor Lawrence Fishburne, makes this very point sharply when, as a prosperous gangster (in the numbers racket), he contends that the numbers game is the only business in the community that blacks are able to control themselves.

In stark contrast, white people, often competent marksmen, are encouraged to keep and bear arms, gain proficiency in the use of arms, obtain carry permits, train their young and keep adequate supplies of firearms and ammunition comfortably at home. It is seen as a fundamental civil and human right.

That's a message and social norm scarcely found in black communities. Entire political classes promote this culture of self sufficiency for whites that blacks are discouraged from or denied.

Should such inequality continue? Is it just? Are people who support urban or other gun bans unknowingly aiding a racist agenda? Does gun control, at its core, have a racist bias, and are its loudest advocates unwittingly abetting racism?

The video was released in 2009. Details are available at http://www.jpfo.org.