This Opinion Piece was written by Michael Schwartz, the Executive Director of San Diego County Gun Owners.
San Diego, California – – (AmmoLand.com)- One of the many new changes that the year 2020 brought was the mainstream use of the term “Institutional Racism.” The phrase is heated, controversial, and its acceptance is a partisan divide (like everything these days). It is the burden of each reader to decide if institutional racism exists, but it is clear that there is a direct line connecting the results of extreme gun laws and the conditions in society described as institutional racism.
What is institutional racism, or what is the term institutional racism referring to?
The term “institutional racism” appears to have first been used in an official capacity in 1967 by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton. In the book Black Power: The Politics of Liberation, the term was described as “less overt, far more subtle” and “originates in the operation of established and respected forces in the society, and thus receives far less public condemnation than [individual racism].” Institutional racism has generally come to be used as racism that is “embedded as normal practice within society or an organization.” Dictionary.com defines institutional racism as “a policy, system of government, etc., that is associated with or originated in such a doctrine, and that favors members of the dominant racial or ethnic group, or has a neutral effect on their life experiences, while discriminating against or harming members of other groups, ultimately serving to preserve the social status, economic advantage, or political power of the dominant group.”
In summary, institutional racism is a process set up by some kind of institution that has a severe, debilitating negative impact on a particular racial group.
So, what does this have to do with gun laws?
Long-term incarceration and living life as a felon, without question, has a debilitating negative impact. Despite self-defense being a natural and civil right, violations of restrictive gun laws carry harsh penalties. People of color, and especially blacks, are disproportionately incarcerated and gun violations make up a disproportionately large number of convictions of those incarcerated.
Let’s examine.
- In 2018, of the 69,425 total, 56.2% of federal firearms convictions were black and 96.3% were men whose average age was 32.
- In 2016, “Black offenders were convicted of a firearms offense carrying a mandatory minimum and subject to that penalty more often than any other racial group (52.6% and 53.8%, respectively).”
- In 2017, the California Department of Corrections reported that 28.5% of the state’s male prisoners were African American when only 5.6% of California’s population is black and male.
- Over 20% of prisoners in just federal prisons (as opposed to state and local prisons and jails) have weapons offenses.
- In California, 3,036 out of every 100,000 African Americans are in jail compared to 453 whites and 757 Hispanics out of 100,000.
The statistics paint a clear picture. Black men, across California and federally, are disproportionately serving time in jail and disproportionately charged with crimes related to firearms. California is one of the most severely restrictive states when it comes to banning many kinds of rifles, shotguns, pistols, ammunition, and firearms accessories. California is well-known to have more laws governing gun ownership and use than any other state in the country. Each law carries penalties like hefty fines and long-term incarceration, which means there are more opportunities to break a gun law than anywhere else in the country.
The “institution” causing this racism is the legislature, and they are fed by anti-gun groups like Brady Org and Moms Demand Action.
The elected officials passing and supporting California’s restrictive gun laws are creating institutional racism. The more laws passed intended to turn people into felons for possessing firearms, the more institutional racism grows. Terms like “keeping guns off the street” and “keeping guns out of the wrong hands” are little more than dog whistles for racist policies that target and destroy the lives of people of color; especially young, black men. As a result, families and communities are being destroyed.
Those who dismiss institutional racism do so too quickly and those who base many political philosophies on institutional racism apply it selectively. The intersection of restrictive gun laws and the minority communities gun laws destroy is the opportunity for non-partisan cooperation to help reimagine public policy. If one side puts away its bias against gun ownership and the other side puts away its bias against institutional racism, enormous strides will be made in eradicating such a horrible source of destroyed communities.
The institutional racism that the California legislature has baked into the Penal Code is an area where all sides should be able to work together.
The first step towards this solution is to identify who continues to support this brand of institutional racism that has put so many people of color behind bars and separated families.
San Diego County Gun Owners has made it easy. Look at our link showing all the city council members and elected county level officials. Anyone who has a “thumbs down” by their name is guilty of supporting these callous and atrocious acts against minority communities. Any elected official with an “undecided” next to their name isn’t much better. Their silence is consent. Take these elected officials to task with emails, phone calls, and especially with your vote.
San Diego County Gun Owners (SDCGO) is a political organization that focuses on expanding and restoring Second Amendment rights within San Diego County. SDCGO was formed due to an aggressive and successful legislation
and regulatory effort to significantly limit or eliminate the firearms industry and the general ownership and use of firearms and the firearms industry in California at the municipal, county, and state level. SDCGO’s solution is a local, non-partisan, volunteer group with a full-time staff that does four things to get the right people elected on local San Diego councils and boards:
- Second Amendment Advocacy at the city/county level
- Second Amendment Community Organizing
- Political Fundraising
- Working with the local gun industry on the first 3
Of the countless number of people who use the phrase “systemic racism,” I have yet to find one of them who can identify this “system” by name. Vagueness is one of the sharpest weapons a communist carries.
There is no “systemic racism”. One of the top objectives of the communists who are trying to take over our country is to get everyone distrusting, hating and fighting everyone else. I refuse to play that game. The whole point here is to get the “gun people” to at least put a toe or two into the racist waters. This is exactly like “enhanced background checks”. If they can get us to at least buy into the idea that racism is endemic to our government system, then they’ve got us. This whole concept is a LIE. They are trying to… Read more »
SDCGO, you had a logic gap
from: Blacks are incarcerated for firearm violations at a higher rate than other races
to: firearm laws are racist
Can you please explain your logic?
Is it your contention that Blacks violate firearm laws at the same rate as other races but they are merely incarcerated at a higher rate?
The statistics cited discuss percentages “convicted” and “incarcerated” by race, they say noting about the percentage of crimes COMMITTED by race.
Or the underlying causes in our society. But you are correct, most crime is by blacks.
This single paragraph, “Those who dismiss institutional racism do so too quickly and those who base many political philosophies on institutional racism apply it selectively. The intersection of restrictive gun laws and the minority communities gun laws destroy is the opportunity for non-partisan cooperation to help reimagine public policy. If one side puts away its bias against gun ownership and the other side puts away its bias against institutional racism, enormous strides will be made in eradicating such a horrible source of destroyed communities.”, pegged out my BULLSHIT meter.
So, two such articles in one week. Interesting.
I get a new digital BS meter, but it still doesn’t have enough zeros…
“In 2018, of the 69,425 total, 2% of federal firearms convictions were black and 96.3% were men whose average age was 32.”
Is that supposed to be 56.2% instead of 2%?
yes indeed
2% is a typo – go to the source data. The number should be 56.2%.
Here is how to illustrate “proof” of “systemic racism” to those who are bad at math or perhaps are simply very young. You will need 100 poker chips. You need 14 black poker chips to represent the 14% of the US population that is black. The rest of the poker chips (86), need to be the same one solid color to represent the rest of the population who are “other than black”, OTB. Ideally this would be White or Grey, but since we are using poker chips you will likely have to go with Gold, or Red, or Green, or… Read more »
Critical theory (CT) is designed to divide, anger and ultimately destroy society. It does this by ignoring the individual and putting all people into groups. You only have a group identity not an individual identity. Then CT pits those groups against each other in Marxian “oppressor/oppressed” categories. So when ”blacks” are incarcerated at higher numbers the individual cause of the incarceration is never considered. Rather, the foregone conclusion is the system must be racist. Of course, for systemic racism to exist there has to be laws and policies in effect to enforce the racism. Those don’t exist so you have… Read more »
Amen! Thank you for seeing through the bullshit of this article and CT. And the fact that it came from one of our own is incredibly concerning.
I’m sorry, but what a complete and utter load of crap this article is, just like the whole notion of “institutional racism.” Your entire argument that institutional racism exists is based on your supposition that… “People of color, and especially blacks, are disproportionately incarcerated and gun violations make up a disproportionately large number of convictions of those incarcerated.” You offer no objective evidence of racism beyond the very simple notion that because African Americans commit gun violations and are incarcerated at higher rates, that MUST be racism, when there are countless factors at play here that could account for the… Read more »
Great article, and many THANKS for adding Gab to your sharing options!
It’s real and not confined to Blacks. Asians have had to put up with it, too. Oh, and Indigenous people. Too many whites have been ignoring, even denying it forever. I’ve seen it first hand in the early 60s, and later in the late 90s. It didn’t go away in between those times. Well, us whites are soon to be a minority.
And the Irish, and the Germans, and the Italians, and the Polish, and the Russians, and, obviously, the Jews. Then their are the Christians, the firearm owners, the white males, the women, the Hispanics, gender confused, etc., etc., etc. When you create enough boxes, everyone is a minority and subjected to discrimination. I believe in being American and not labeling each other by thousands, or more, different names so as to put wedges between us. Where I grew-up as a kid, we all had different backgrounds, and all I knew would mock themselves about their various ethnicities, the “PC” bs… Read more »