The legal/legislative issue of gun control continues to be a hotly debated topic for black Americans and will always be an important issue for all of America.
The subject matter is constantly in the media, with each report lending its own social and political spin. Most opinions produced or written in the African-American press argue for increased gun control.
The common jurisdictional component in all cases is the state of Florida. Those cases include the
State of Florida v. George Zimmerman, also known as the Trayvon Martin case,
State of Florida v. Marissa Alexander, with the most recent one being the
State of Florida v. Michael David Dunn, in which the victim is Jordan Russell Davis.
Also at issue is Florida Statute 776.013 commonly referred to as the
“Stand Your Ground” law. The statute is a defense strategy and option afforded to defendants in certain criminal proceedings when the accused defendants are charged criminally when using firearms that they otherwise allegedly are legally permitted to carry and possess.
Let me state at the outset that the families of the deceased victims in these cases, Trayvon Martin and
Jordan Russell Davis, have my condolences. Reading news reports of how these young black, American males lost their life makes me angry. I am a black American, a male, and a resident of the State of Florida, living in Orlando.
I supported Barack Obama’s run for president in 2008 and 2012 and was part of the Obama legal team for poll watching on Election Day in 2008 and for early voting in 2012, trying to insure no voting irregularities occurred on my watch.
And, while performing my sworn duties as a poll watcher, I had legally and properly concealed a Ruger SP 101 .357 Magnum with 5 rounds of hollow points in my Honda Element along with a Beretta Cheetah .380 semi-automatic with 13 rounds of hollow points for protection, just in case I needed to defend myself from any criminal tyranny, bigoted or otherwise.
I make no apologies for my zeal and advocacy for a strong 2nd Amendment. I’m equally as zealous concerning 9th Amendment privacy issues, freedoms for women giving them the right to control their bodies, contraception, and which affords same-sex couples privacy rights along with the equal protections contained in the 14th Amendment.
I know I can be presumed a threat or suspicious person because of my skin color and gender. After all, I am a black-American male, well educated earning my B.S. at Illinois State University, an M.S.W. from the University of Pennsylvania and also attended Rutgers Law School-Camden. I understand the history of bigotry in America, but refuse to let it hold me back in any way, and I run own my own businesses.
Yet, I am still considered a target. In fact, no matter how old you become, being a black American male, walking outside in the environment, is always rife with inherent risks.
However, it is because of the aforementioned that I am also a strong 2nd Amendment advocate. I am the type of man who, because of the history of bigotry in America, and its racist roots of gun control, refuse to ever abdicate any right to the state, for any reason whatsoever, including my right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.
I have in the past and shall continue to argue for no changes, no abolition or erosion of Florida Statute 776.013, or “Stand Your Ground”. Again, I am a black American. I am male.
Unfortunately the issue of the express constitutional right of the 2nd Amendment is confused by the lack of knowledge and history and the ability, rather the inability, fear and ignorance of some black Americans to realize that right to keep, bear and effectuate that right via the statutes of several states.
Because of its historically racist basis, the right to bear arms has been either historically usurped by bigoted state-sanctioned controls or has been intellectually, morally and emotionally usurped by the so-called teachings and suspect leadership of purported self-appointed leaders. This is true, whether the leaders be self-appointed or allegedly anointed, because of their so-called religious positions or piety, or have been compromised politically, though elected by the people.
Consequently, why would I or anyone, give back a right that black Americans have died for access to or have been lynched as a result of the inability to embrace and effectuate that right?
Do you think that any of the lynched martyrs of the black American experience would be deceased if they had brandished a Beretta M9, semi-automatic, hand gun with two magazines filled with 15 rounds of 9 millimeter, hollow point ammunition to defend themselves from lynch mob bigots?
I have often asked African-Americans what other express constitutional right they would like to see either abolished or repealed? I would have been taken aback had anyone answered the erosion or abolition of the 13th Amendment, which outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude.
In conclusion, the following passage taken from a law review article written by my criminal law professor Robert J. Cottrol formerly of Rutgers Law School-Camden further states my position.
The history of blacks, firearms regulations, and the right to bear arms should cause us to ask new questions regarding the Second Amendment. These questions will pose problems both for advocates of stricter gun controls and for those who argue against them. Much of the contemporary crime that concerns Americans is in poor black neighborhoods and a case can be made that greater firearms restrictions might alleviate this tragedy. But another, perhaps stronger case can be made that a society with a dismal record of protecting a people has a dubious claim on the right to disarm them. Perhaps a re-examination of this history can lead us to a modern realization of what the framers of the Second Amendment understood: that it is unwise to place the means of protection totally in the hands of the state, and that self-defense is also a civil right. [Georgetown Law Journal, Robert J. Cottrol & Raymond T. Diamond. Originally published as 80 GEO. L.J. 1991, 309-361 (1991).]
A licensed attorney in Orlando, Florida, Joseph Haynes Davis was legal counsel to Obama for America in 2008 and 2012 for election poll monitoring in the Orlando metropolitan area. Joseph Haynes Davis, the younger brother of the late trumpeter Miles Davis, and is also a broadcaster with over 30 years of broadcast media experience as an air personality, program director, political talk show host, and operations manager at radio stations in a number of markets throughout the United States.
Source:
The Grio
