It is no secret that some states are not friendly to gun owners, it can even be said that some states hate gun owners, this becomes an issue when trying to defeat anti-2A legislation but a recent victory in Nevada may offer us a roadmap to the future of the 2A fight.
Nevada Senate Bill 452 was set to ban firearms from casinos and this legislation almost sure to pass until an unlikely alliance formed to take on the bill. The bill was opposed by Republicans for being anti-2A(shocker), the bill was opposed by Democrats because they believed it would cause racial profiling at casinos, this bill also drew the ire of police unions.
This unlikely alliance resulted in the death of the bill.
While the death of Senate Bill 452 would only be a minor victory for 2A on any other day but the fact that Democrats could not stomach the legislation is something special. This means that there is a path forward where anti-gun legislation can be shut down even in anti-gun states.
Democrats opposed this bill because it may have had a disproportionate impact on the African Americans, in effect this bill was killed as a result of identity politics. Considering gun control was initially put forward as a means to keep firearms out of the hands of African Americans, pro-2A legislators could tie this dark history of gun control to modern efforts and articulate their opposition through this lens as a way to push Democrats over to their side.
From Bearing Arms:
Now, I’m not a fan of identity politics, but let’s also face the fact that gun control is inherently racist. It was racist from the start and it continues to be racist. From the early days of gun control to the campaign to eliminate “Saturday night specials” which would deny guns to poor Americans, which are disproportionally black and beyond, gun control hits minorities far harder than it does white folks.
Pointing that out simply can’t hurt. Especially when new laws are proposed.
It’s not enough to call out the issues with the bills, we need to point out how they’ll impact groups Democrats seem to prefer to cater to. Do that enough and then those minorities will start asking those questions. These laws impact them, too, after all, and if anti-gun politicians start to recognize that those same people are potential gun buyers, it might just change the equation on guns.
And if not, it can’t really hurt, now can it?
This small victory in Nevada may pave the way for future success on the 2A front.
