Real-Deal Systemic Racism

Court followers, gun rights advocates, and many others who play in the political sand box are watching, with a keen eye and varying degrees of hope or trepidation, a Supreme Court case heard this past October. The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, challenges the "may-issue" concealed carry permit doctrine in New York State, where two plaintiffs were denied concealed carry permits for self-defense purposes. New York is one of 8 states that has this "may issue" doctrine, wherein the government can choose to reject a request for a carry permit. In New York, an applicant must show "proper cause," i.e. a special need over and above that of ordinary citizens to get such a permit. The plaintiffs assert that this violates their Second Amendment rights, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

Needless to say, many consider this a watershed moment. While gun rights have been trending positively at the state level for four decades, with 3/4 of the populace living either in a "shall-issue" state where, absent specific disqualifiers, any citizen must be given a carry permit upon application, or a "Constitutional-Carry" state, where, again absent specific disqualifiers, a citizen can carry without a permit, it remains that a minority of states arbitrarily deny gun rights to their residents. A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs could potentially secure *all* Americans' gun rights against government infringement.

A tell-tale as to the monumental nature of this case is the number of amicus briefs filed in conjunction. The current average is about 16 per case, but NYSRPA v Bruen has more than 80.

One in particular stands out in the current hyper-charged environment re race relations. The brief, by "The Black Attorneys of Legal Aid, the Bronx Defenders, and Brooklyn Defender Services," asserts that:

New York’s licensing requirements criminalize the exercise of the fundamental Second Amendment right, with rare exception.

As a result, each year, we represent hundreds of indigent people whom New York criminally charges for exercising their right to keep and bear arms. For our clients, New York’s licensing regime renders the Second Amendment a legal fiction. Worse, virtually all our clients whom New York prosecutes for exercising their Second Amendment right are Black or Hispanic. And that is no accident. New York enacted its firearm licensing requirements to criminalize gun ownership by racial and ethnic minorities. That remains the effect of its enforcement by police and prosecutors today.

It goes on to cover both the history of New York's licensing laws and their practical outcome. Read the whole thing here.

Just as the crack cocaine laws passed in the 1980s (spearheaded by none other than then-Senator Joe Biden) had a massively disproportional impact on the black community (it took a quarter century for politicians to undo those laws), New York's implementation of substantial restrictions on gun rights has had a substantially disproportional impact on minorities.

Do-gooder progressives who seek out systemic racism under every rock and behind every tree have an overt and obvious example of it staring them in the face.

Of course, the twin facts of New York being a "blue" state (mostly because of a "blue" city) and the issue at hand being gun control ensure that the aforementioned do-gooders will either look away or contort themselves into some spurious pretzel logic to wave away both the "racism" and the "systemic" aspects of this matter.

Moreso, this is by no means the only example of systemic racism against individual rights. The history of gun rights infringement is a series of racist actions, from antebellum restrictions against blacks owning guns, to laws restricting the rights of freed slaves in the Reconstruction South, to New York City's century old Sullivan law, to Martin Luther King being denied a gun permit... here's a laundry list for your perusal.

It is quite heartening to see advocates for minority rights taking a positive stand against government infringement of gun rights. For too long, we've been told that blacks and other minorities belong to the Democratic Party, and that the policies they should support are those that the Democrats specify. That legal groups, such as those who signed on to the amicus briefs, and advocacy organizations, such as the National African American Gun Association and the Black Gun Owners Association, are breaking from the Left's dismissive attitude toward gun rights, is a sign that not all is lost in our battle to preserve the liberties enshrined by the Constitution.

Next time someone says "systemic racism," check with them on this issue. If you get a surprise response, I’d love to hear it.