Book Review: The Second
In Carol Anderson’s previous book, White Rage, she made the case for why the fight against voting rights for Black people was really a fight for white supremacy. Similarly in Anderson’s latest book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America, the author argues that the Second Amendment isn’t about protecting gun rights as NRA members like to espouse; it was designed to control and terrorize African Americans. Through her thorough research, Anderson says that gun laws and anti-Blackness were part of the founding of this country.
When the Haitian Revolution happened in 1791, as well as other successful anti-slavery insurrections, white slaveowners freaked out about enslaved people wanting to kill them. The Second Amendment wasn’t created for a “well-regulated militia.” It was originally a bribe to get anti-Federalists to ratify the Constitution and soothe the worries of Southern planters about slavery’s future. The Second Amendment was created to be a slave control device.
In some states at the time, Black militias, including Black slave catchers, were not allowed to carry guns. There was an argument against Black soldiers who fought valiantly in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars having access to guns. Even in southern states that didn’t have enough militiamen to fight in these wars, Black soldiers were banned from fighting simply because they would access guns. During World War I, some white people thought it would be dangerous to arm Black people and to the “racial harmony” in the country. However, it was also common at this time for Black people, including Black soldiers, to be shot and beaten because of white rage.
Nonetheless, more gun laws have been created over the years to control African Americans. When the Black Panthers carried weapons, the Oakland Police was frustrated because they couldn’t legally arrest them, as the Panthers were always operating within the laws. This all changed when California, with the support of the NRA, created Assembly Bill 1591, which made it illegal to carry loaded weapons in public and effectively outlawed the Panthers.
Anderson also talks about the hypocrisy of many of the laws still enacted today like stand your ground, open carry, and the castle doctrine, and how they affected the cases of Kyle Rittenhouse, Trayvon Martin, and Breona Taylor.
This book is an excellent primer on a current issue that has a long, unresolved history.
The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America by Carol Anderson, published by Bloomsbury. Buy it here.