While we may associate gun sup­porters with angry white men in leather jackets and gun control supporters with hippies and peace signs, these stereo­types are only a product of recent times. Throughout American history, gun con­trol proponents were the powerful and the racist, not liberals and peaceniks.
Recognizing the roots of gun control advocacy — the intentional disarming of a marginalized population and selective enforcement of gun legislation — means opening up a new case against gun con­trol, one based on the systemic discrimi­nation that inevitably comes with arms legislation. The conservative and libertar­ian case against gun control is a matter of individual liberty. But after recognizing that gun control is consistently used to discriminate against minorities, there’s a case to be made that progressives, too, should be wary of gun control: It’s hypocritical that progressives champion equality while supporting gun laws with consistently discriminatory enforcement.
Let’s look at contemporary gun con­trol. Stop-and-frisk originated as a Su­preme Court interpretation of gun con­trol policy, not drug control policy. It’s no surprise, then, that 9 out of 10 of those stopped were Black or Latinx. And there is still extremely selective enforcement of gun control laws. In 2015, 47.5 percent of those convicted of firearms charges were Black. This sentencing disparity is especially important because the average firearms sentence in 2014 was a hefty six years. If we consider the resource-heavy sting operations that the Bureau of Al­cohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducts — these stings being the most advanced and militarized form of gun control — it is telling that over 90 percent of those arrested are ethnic minorities.