NO KIDDING: Illinois’ concealed carry law ‘disarms’ poor blacks

Silence from the Ku Klux Klan, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the Aryan Nations and Americans for Responsible Solutions as to Illinois’ new concealed carry law keeping poor blacks and other minorities disarmed through the high cost of legal concealed carry.

We tip our hat to the Drudge Report on a Washington Times story (video autoplays so turn your sound off) this morning covering the racial disparity of carry licenses that had us saying, “You just now figuring this out?”

American gun grabbers have long used gun control as race control, in that gun control proponents kept blacks and other people they viewed as undesirables from gun ownership through gun control laws.

Following the Civil War, they were known as the “Army and Navy Laws” which proscribed sale of any handguns other than the very large (and very expensive) guns made for the army or navy at the time.

More recently, these same people used laws against “Saturday Night Specials” to keep blacks and other poor folks with limited extra money from owning affordable handguns for self-protection and defense of the home.  How did they do it?  There were many rules and regulations passed, but Chicago used the arbitrary “melting point” laws to ban small and affordable handguns.

And this trend continued with the new Illinois Concealed Carry law.  In order to be granted a carry license, an individual needs up to 16-hours of training (typically the market price for this ranges from $150-350) plus travel expenses, lodging, food and ammunition.  Some trainers require registrants to to bring their own guns, others may charge additional fees to use loaner guns.  The license itself costs $153 and change, and until the first of July, required a computer, Internet access and a credit card – things poor folks sometimes don’t have.

Is it any wonder why poor folks have low rates of concealed carry license issuance?

While the Ku Klux Klan, the Brady Campaign, Moms Demand Action, the Aryan Nations and Americans for Responsible Solutions might not express a lot of sorrow that law-abiding, but poor, inner-city blacks and other minorities can’t afford the civil right of self-defense through firearm ownership and a concealed carry licenses, that doesn’t make it right, ethical or moral.

In fact, it’s only gun rights groups including the NRA and state and regional grassroots gun rights groups who most vigorously defend the firearm ownership rights of poor and disenfranchised members of our society.  Can anyone recall the last time the Michael Bloomberg, Gabby Giffords or Sarah Brady stood up for poor peoples’ right to keep and bear arms?

Data divulges racial disparity in Chicago’s issuance of gun permits

Wealthier whites get 90 percent of licenses in Illinois

(Washington Times) – …If you live in 60624, the ZIP code where the shooting took place, you don’t expect your streets to be safe. In the last 30 days, that neighborhood has recorded more homicides, robberies, assaults, thefts and narcotics charges combined than any other ZIP code in Cook County when measured on a per capita basis. Its population is 98 percent black and averages a median income just above the poverty line.

It also is one of the ZIP codes that registers the fewest active concealed carry firearms permits per capita in the county, according to concealed carry numbers obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by The Washington Times.

Ditto for the crime-ridden neighborhoods of Englewood and West Englewood. Combined with West Garfield Park, out of their 114,933 total residents, only 193 concealed carry licenses have been issued — less than 0.17 percent of the population.

It’s a completely different story in affluent Palos Park, located in southwestern Cook County. The 60464 ZIP code boasts a negligible crime rate: Only one homicide has been committed in 10 years, according to the most recent state police data. Ninety-six percent of its residents are white, earning an average income of $121,000.

It also has the most concealed carry licenses in Cook County this year, with 1.24 percent of its residents authorized to carry a gun.

…If the same data trends occurred in banking and insurance, there might be outcries of “redlining,” denying a group of people access to goods or services because of the color of their skin or income levels. But there’s little public concern expressed so far about the possibility that poor blacks are being disenfranchised from the right to carry a concealed weapon.

“You really need to ask whether or not politicians are consciously trying to disarm certain groups of people,” said Dr. John Lott, a Second Amendment expert and president of the Crime Prevention Center. “Why do they want a law that primarily disarms blacks and gives guns to only well-to-do whites? Don’t they think it should be equal for everyone to protect their lives?”

…“In these gangbang neighborhoods, people can’t afford the license. They’re making choices between food and medicine, and they can’t even guarantee they’ll get even that,” said Shawn Gowder, 49, who lives in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the South Side, where two homicides have taken place in the last 30 days. “We need to arm ourselves and protect ourselves from these gangbangers, but we just can’t afford to do it.”

Illinois also has the longest training requirements of right-to-carry states, requiring potential licensees to take a 16-hour course that includes range time. There are no gun ranges within the city of Chicago, and carrying an unlicensed gun on public transportation is a crime.

…“There are a lot of systematic and economic barriers that make it difficult for South Side of Chicago residents, many of whom are African-American, to obtain concealed carry permits,” said George Mitchell, president of the NAACP Illinois State Conference. “Some of the barriers include the high costs, time commitment, bureaucracy and the community’s distrust of the police.”

There is lots more…