Sarah and Jim "Crow" Brady

Sarah and Jim "Crow" Brady - Gun control laws have always been aimed at blacks. It goes back to the very first gun control laws, after the Civil War - where the Klan-controlled government tried to disarm the freedmen and Union Army veterans in the Galveston, making them easier victims. The fight against the law led to the 14th Amendment.

Other gun control acts since then have similarly attempted to disarm minorities first and foremost.

Rarely has this been acknowledged in the major media, though. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, however, has this:

No one tracks the number of felons living in Milwaukee County, much less the racial breakdown. But the state Department of Corrections maintains a database of felons on probation and parole. At the end of last year, there were 10,606 in the county - 67% black, 30% white. Bill Clausius, a department spokesman, said the racial breakdown remains fairly constant.

CEASEFIRE "manifests the most insidious flaws of the criminal justice system for two centuries," said federal public defender Dean Strang. "It says, 'We're afraid of guns, we're afraid of black men, and we're really afraid of black men with guns.' "

Strang said part of the problem is that prosecutors want to send the most likely candidates for long sentences - people with repeat convictions involving drugs or violence - to federal court. Those people are more often black than white.

The suburban lawmaker's biggest nightmare - running into a black kid with a gun on the way between, say, the Ordway and the parking ramp.

Posted by Mitch at January 26, 2003 11:05 PM