Racist Gun Control: North Carolina’s Living Jim Crow

Racist gun control laws are alive in North Carolina in 2018. Don’t believe me? Keep reading.

The Carolinas are stereotypically southern. Carolina BBQ, sweet tea, and hush-puppies are highlights of the local cuisine. South Carolina was the first to secede from the union and North Carolina shortly after was known as “The Volunteer State” from how many men they sent to fight in that war. Both states even voted red in the last election, but Gun-toting would not be the single part of these points one would assume to be contradictory, but it is especially in the “Old North State”.

Jim Crow Laws & Purple Politics

North Carolina has had a controversial past with gun control and Jim Crow laws, that some who live in the state may not even know about. Some may think this is attributed to the current “purple” state of politics in North Carolina, but it has more to do with the fabled Jim Crow laws that riddled the south during the time around the American Civil War.

A Pistol Purchase Permit, PP permit (yeah I know laugh it up), or concealed weapons license are the only two ways of buying a pistol in the state, unless you’re willing to go through the arduous process of finding a relative willing to pass one down to you or someone willing to sell a gun without one of the two aforementioned documents.

What is a Pistol Purchase Permit?

So what is a Pistol Purchase Permit, how does it work and why is it racist? Back in the days when the Democratic Party was the party of the white farmer or business owner and the Republican party was the ne’er-do-well party that subjected the south to post-war poverty and freed the slaves, North Carolina was a Blue state, through and through. During this time after the civil war and before the mid 20th century, the Klan was in full force and made sure Democrats held power in both the state’s congress and local city and county governments. Not a pretty picture for us to look back on but this was the reality not only North Carolina was in at the time but many states in the south.

Holding Power By Excluding Those They Demmed “Undesirable”

One of the ways the Klan and Democrats held power was through gun control, just not on the guns of white men. This Jim Crow Law did (and still does) give full power to the locally elected sheriff on who to give the permits to and who not to. As where today the Pistol Purchase Permit is nothing more than a simple background check and a slip of paper after passing before you go to buy a gun, back then it was a vetting system, if you were black, Republican or even a known dissenter of the local Klan chapter, this was reason enough to make sure your second amendment rights were ignored.

Are Those Days Behind Us?

“Obviously those days are past right?” said the optimist, but really? The answer is both yes and no. Some parts of the laws pertaining to this era of gun control have been repealed as can be seen in this Carolina Journal article. As said before today its just a background check you take before you go to get your handgun, and a nominal fee for the sheriff processing it, which varies from county to county. Although, the troubling part of this is that the Sheriff has full authority over this process, from how much the permit itself costs to how many can be given at once. You can get 5 to 10 permits with each background check in most counties, but here is where it gets draconian.

Holding Rights Hostage

There is at least one county I will not name that only allows one permit EVER for each resident, and the cost is between 50-100 dollars, depending on how much the county is behind on payroll. This is wrong to hold someone’s rights over their heads like this or force someone to either move counties or go through the long process of getting a CCW in order to by-pass it.

All of this along with the fact that more blues continue to move into places like Greensboro, Charlotte, and Raleigh, one could see how the status of having what is considered a right to all Americans in the nation controlled by one sheriff in one county a complete farce.

Do Something About It!

If you love mountains visit Mt. Mitchel, if you love the oceans the outer-banks are some of the most stunningly beautiful beaches in the country, and if you live in NC you may already know these things, but make it a point to keep the state beautiful in both natural beauty and the beauty that comes with acknowledging every individual’s right to self defense. Contact congressmen to the NC state senate, if you’re from out of state give Gov. Roy Cooper’s office a call. This law brings out everything bad about the state’s past, and its a past most people would rather leave forgotten.

For more information, I recommend reading this article by Deric Lostutter from TruthVoice