GeorgiaCarry.org has posted a copy of their brief (PDF) in DC vs. Heller, and it’s a good read.
“[T]he simple truth-born of experience is that tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people. Our own sorry history bears this out: Disarmament was the tool of choice for subjugating both slaves and free blacks in the South. In Florida, patrols searched blacks’ homes for weapons, confiscated those found and punished their owners without judicial process.”
—Silveira v. Lockyer, 328 F.3d 567, 569 (9th Cir. 2003)
The brief was written by John Monroe, and researched by Mike Menkus.
“Florida likewise passed a law making it ‘unlawful for any Negro, mulatto, or person of color to own, use, or keep in possession or under control any bowie knife, dirk, sword, firearms or ammunition of any kind, unless by license of the county judge.’ The penalty for violators was an hour in the pillory or 39 stripes.”
–W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America (1962).
Compare this with what we’re told about guns from our Masters on the Hill in modern times.
“If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them . . . Mr. and Mrs. America, turn ’em all in, I would have done it.”
–Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on 60 Minutes, February 5, 1995.
Ms. Feinstein is one of only a select few San Francisco residents granted Concealed Carry Permits. California uses a “may issue” system, in which after qualifying and proving “need” for a permit, the issuing authority may still choose who they do and don’t grant permits to. The rich, white and connected get permits, while everyone else is left to counter armed criminals with their bare hands.
Regarding her own hypocrisy in having a permit, Ms. Feinstein said,
“I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that’s what I did. I was trained in firearms. I’d walk to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon. I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out, I was going to take them with me.“
I’m sure Ms. Feinstein’s less privileged constituents are well acquainted with the “sense of helplessness” she describes.
“I actually don’t know what a barrel shroud is. I think it’s a shoulder thing that goes up.”
–Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) on MSNBC, April 18, 2007.
Ms. McCarthy mentions barrel shrouds in her own legislation, seeking to renew and strengthen the failed 1994 Assault Weapons Ban.
A barrel shroud, in fact, is simply a device that surrounds the barrel of a rifle and keeps you from burning your hands should you inadvertently touch it. It doesn’t make a weapon any more or less lethal. Of course, that doesn’t matter. What matters to Ms. McCarthy is that she continue to be protected by armed security while the peons are left defenseless.
Gun control has always been about protecting the wealthy elite from those elements of society they deem to be “undesirable.” It has no place in a country that claims to be the cradle of freedom.
02/09/08: It appears that much of the information used in the Georgia Carry brief came from this 1993 paper, authored by Clayton Cramer. It has been brought to my attention that they failed to cite Mr. Cramer’s paper in the brief. Though he doesn’t call it plagiarism, he mentions that they used numerous sources researched by him without attribution.
John Monroe’s response is here. He admits to reading the original article but claims nothing of substance was taken from it, referring to it as “persuasive material.”
The brief is still an interesting read, but I’d also encourage people to parse Mr. Cramer’s original work and draw their own conclusions.