/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2874612]

Are there any books that show how gun rights became a "conservative" issue?

The earliest notable gun rights advocates in the United States were members of the Black Panthers. A group called the Pink Pistols exists which is an LGBT pro-gun organization with slogans like "armed gays don't get bashed." Minorities, women, gay people, etc., are more likely to be assaulted, and thus, if they were willing to carry, would benefit more from guns being legal. The only way in which conservatives seem to benefit more from owning guns is in the ability to hunt, and all but the most obscenely strict gun control laws would still allow hunting.

So why is it that the majority of United States citizens see gun control as inherently "liberal" and gun rights advocacy as inherently "conservative?"

Historically, when did this change happen? Is it possible to pinpoint an event or movement? Are there any books which attempt to do so?

[Anonymous No.2874626]

imo it's mostly a question of regionalism or sectionalism. the most prominent and vociferous supporters of gun rights tend to be rural, and the most prominent and vociferous opponents of gun rights tend to be urban african-americans (the rather radical black panthers excepted) or people interested in problems of same. and as the first group is conservative and (since the 50s or 60s) a mainstay of the republican party, and the second group is a mainstay of the democratic party, that's just the way things worked out.

i don't have a book about it though.

[Anonymous No.2874631]

>>2874626
Disappointing. I'd enjoy reading it. I read somewhere that there's a pattern where gun laws become stricter after a lot of leftists and minorities become armed because the state fears revolt from the left more than the right.

[Anonymous No.2874640]

>>2874631
i think that is an interesting discussion to have and an interesting road to go down. and it may have some relevance for the state of gun laws in the early period, in the 60s and 70s. but in contemporary america, i don't think it's at all an explanation for the way the gun debate functions, really.

[Anonymous No.2874647]

>>2874640
Well, of course it doesn't now. The NRA is the largest gun rights lobby and the people in charge don't really care about "winning" their cause because then they become obsolete. So they stay nice and comfy pandering to the Republican party people who already support them, creating fear that the government will take away your shotgun without ever attempting to push their agenda forward in any meaningful way. It's brilliant and diabolical.

[Anonymous No.2874649]

but gun control is good

[Anonymous No.2874652]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/09/the-secret-history-of-guns/8608/

it's not a book, but it's a start, although it's not thorough before the 60s (but then, gun control wasn't an issue before the 60s.)

[Anonymous No.2874651]

>>2874649
Too bad I'm not talking about whether it's good or bad.

[Anonymous No.2874658]

>>2874647
yes, it's rather stupid and depressing isn't it? of course it's mostly the same for any issue on any side, with a very few exceptions. but that's american politics.

[Anonymous No.2874667]

“Who in the hell do you think you are?” an officer responded.
“Who in the hell do you think you are?,” Newton replied indignantly. He told the officer that he and his friends had a legal right to have their firearms.
Newton got out of the car, still holding his rifle.
“What are you going to do with that gun?” asked one of the stunned policemen.
“What are you going to do with your gun?,” Newton replied.
By this time, the scene had drawn a crowd of onlookers. An officer told the bystanders to move on, but Newton shouted at them to stay. California law, he yelled, gave civilians a right to observe a police officer making an arrest, so long as they didn’t interfere. Newton played it up for the crowd. In a loud voice, he told the police officers, “If you try to shoot at me or if you try to take this gun, I’m going to shoot back at you, swine.” Although normally a black man with Newton’s attitude would quickly find himself handcuffed in the back of a police car, enough people had gathered on the street to discourage the officers from doing anything rash. Because they hadn’t committed any crime, the Panthers were allowed to go on their way.

The people who’d witnessed the scene were dumbstruck. Not even Bobby Seale could believe it. Right then, he said, he knew that Newton was the “baddest motherfucker in the world.” Newton’s message was clear: “The gun is where it’s at and about and in.” After the February incident, the Panthers began a regular practice of policing the police. Thanks to an army of new recruits inspired to join up when they heard about Newton’s bravado, groups of armed Panthers would drive around following police cars. When the police stopped a black person, the Panthers would stand off to the side and shout out legal advice.

>America
>not the greatest nation on earth

[Anonymous No.2874670]

>>2874667
Fuck yes.

[Anonymous No.2874672]

>>2874667
say what you will about the man's politics, but Huey Newton was a fucking badass

[Anonymous No.2874674]

>>2874667
NEED BIOGRAPHY NAO

[Anonymous No.2874754]

>>2874631
>a lot of leftists and minorities become armed
I don´t see that happening. The heyday of revolutionary communism that was willing to actually FIGHT for better tomorrows is over. The contemporary leftists are a bunch of pussies who oppose war and death penalty and are afraid of guns like vampires of holy water.

[Anonymous No.2874779]

>>2874754
Anarcho-communists and syndicalists get arrested all the time. Especially in Greece, but also basically everywhere else. The contemporary left is invisible because the center-left ignore them and the center-right try to conflate them with the center-left.

[Anonymous No.2874781]

>>2874779
>Anarcho-communists and syndicalists get arrested all the time

not much in america

[Anonymous No.2874821]

America has recently developed a habit of fucking over the working class by claiming that doing so is "progressive". Gun rights is one example. The notion that wanting to do something to curb illegal immigration (and thus open up more unskilled jobs for unemployed Americans) is racism is another.

[Anonymous No.2874845]

>>2874667

Holy shit, Huey Newton had balls of fucking steel.

[Anonymous No.2874848]

>>2874781

That's because there's so few of them.

[Anonymous No.2874849]

>>2874649
What kind of gun control, how strict, implemented by what policies, pertaining to which guns?

[Anonymous No.2875262]

The right has been obsessed with personal autonomy/authority for a long, long time. Gun rights are usually portrayed in rightist propaganda as a way to bring reliable personal control in world full of chaos (usually caused by ethnic minorities). I would guess that's part of the appeal.

www.boingboing.net/images/NR-F8_PERILFINAL.pdf
Just skim through this and tell me they're not scared as hell. Guns are, like so many other things in right wing ideology, a device to allay fear.

[Anonymous No.2875423]

Probably happened around the 1970s/'80s with Regan's rise to power and the return of traditional conservatism and rejection of the welfare state that attracted ex-dixiecrats and fundamentalists like Pat Robertson.

[Anonymous No.2876567]

>>2875262
I have a strong urge to remake that image with the gun-wielder as a black woman, her wife and their child inside.

I wonder how the NRA's supporters would feel about the image in that case.

[Anonymous No.2876589]

>2012
>believing in the false liberal/conservative dichotomy

it comes down to weather you believe people are safer with guns or without them, not if you're conservative or liberal.

[Anonymous No.2876600]

>>2876589
Yeah. OP is asking why people associate gun rights with conservatism.