Posted by Ex Instructor on September 13, 2003 at 10:06:59:
In Reply to: Re: Self Defense in Illinois?(repost from below) posted by New Bill Against Firearms on September 13, 2003 at 09:49:03:
In 1911, New York passed the Sullivan Law, which to this day requires a person to obtain a license, issued at the discretion of police officials, to possess a handgun. The law was aimed at preventing handgun ownership by Italians and Irish immigrants of the period, then considered untrustworthy by New York legislators with different bloodlines. The National Firearms Act (1934), as originally proposed, would have required registration of handguns. As passed, the law imposed that requirement on only fully-automatic firearms and short-barreled shotguns and rifles. While consideration had been given to banning those firearms altogether, President Roosevelt's Justice Department believed a ban would have violated the Second Amendment. In 1968, Congress passed the Gun Control Act, ostensibly in reaction to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. But even supporters of 'gun control' have recognized another purpose to the law. Robert Sherrill noted, 'The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed not to control guns but to control blacks . . . . Inasmuch as the legislation finally passed in 1968 had nothing to do with the guns used in the assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy, it seems reasonable to assume that the law was directed at that other threat of the 1960s, more omnipresent than the political assassin -- namely, the black rioter . . . . With the horrendous rioting of 1967 and 1968, Congress again was panicked toward passing some law that would shut off weapons access to blacks.' (Sherrill, The Saturday Night Special, New York: Charterhouse, 1973, pp. 280-283.) B. Bruce-Briggs, not a gun control advocate, similarly noted, 'It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the 'Saturday night special' is emphasized because it is cheap and is being sold to a particular class of people. The name is sufficient evidence -- the reference is to 'n-----town Saturday Night.'' ('The Great American Gun War,' The Public Interest, Fall 1976, p. 50.)