License to be Carried

Since August 26, 2012, I have happily lived in Maryland. Technically I was supposed to get a new driver license within 60 days but since I mainly used it to buy drinks I figured the state wasn't going to come after me. As a state long admired from afar, Maryland always held a special place in my heart even though I had never been there. I think a lot of it has to do with the flag.

Anyway. I consider myself politically objective. Without deluding myself into thinking I’m not aligned to a particular political party, I weigh the pros and cons of positions within my party affiliation. I dislike some of its excesses, deplore its deficiencies, and occasionally contribute to the larger debate in my own small way. In this case it was in the form of a letter to the editor in the Capital Gazette, Annapolis’ newspaper of record. At present Maryland is considering enacting one of the strictest set of gun laws in the country. It is not yet finished but it is expected to include: an assault rifle ban, a stronger mandate to keep guns away from criminals and the mentally unfit, and more invasive hoops to jump through to carry a concealed weapon—including fingerprinting. My girlfriend, Esther, whose wit and patience in this difficult political time are a treasure, quipped that she needed finger printing to work with elementary and middle schoolers to co-instruct an after school drama club once a week.

The trend among conservative writers to the paper is to compare the tightening regulation to civil rights matters, namely voting. They freely compare stringent licensing requirements, an inconvenience to be sure, to poll taxes, literacy tests, voter ID laws, and other franchise limiting policies to control the electorate. These comparisons are asinine at best and offensive or racist at worst; the fact that persons were rhetorically equating the nullification and interposition of a century old law enfranchising blacks to gun control angered me to my core. The last straw came when Joe Regula of Severna Park, who frequently writes the paper about a single topic (every community has one of those guys I think), wrote the following.

“Recognition—Will all the rhetoric regarding gun violence and the need to ban certain types of guns, fingerprint, and license all in the name of gun safety and curb gun violence, I’d like to share my thoughts on the subject.

Violence gun crimes are committed by a majority of blacks and a minority of whites. The Capital and other newspapers report on violent gun crimes with descriptions of suspects, neighborhood locations and race (in most cases). Tough to admit. Blacks do have high crime rates. Is gun control legislation a way of solving violent gun crimes? I don’t think so.

The Asians are too busy completing their college degree programs and working within their families to grow a business and support their entire family.

The blacks that have high expectations and goals are quite successful, but are in the minority as compared to the larger population. Ben Carson and Kweisi Mfume are role models to emulate, to name a few.
Where are the black preachers, black educators, and black politicians speaking out on the increase of black violence and black on black shootings and stabbings.[sic] Stemming the tide of gun violence must begin with recognizing it. Quite frankly, summits, seminars, nightly vigils and wearing T-shirts “ain’t” reducing the number of violent gun crimes.

I believe race is a two-way street. The whites on Wall Street were singled out for putting the country in dire financial straits. Black politicians feel the white race needs to do more for equal rights for blacks. The whites need to open their doors in accepting blacks in their clubs and organizations. Not a problem. We did it.

Now is the time for blacks to step up and speak to the increasing gun violence within their race, culture and communities. All other races would welcome this effort and support this stance.”

JOE REGULA
Severna Park

–I simmered over this piece for the rest of the day and wrote my reply in the morning. It appeared in the Sunday paper two weeks later.

“Gun Violence–Joe Regula’s letter (The Sunday Capital, March 17) racializing gun violence has many, many flaws – too many for a response in this forum without stooping to his level.

He may see himself as a speaker of the truth trapped in a politically correct world but this is merely an excuse. Rather than view gun violence as a consequence of societal changes like de-industrialization of urban centers, white flight and redlining, centuries of job discrimination, and drugs, Regula overtly claims that whites have done all they can to solve black problems and it is time for black leaders to pick up the slack and resolve their own issues.

By singling out blacks for gun violence and, as he added, “the whites on Wall Street” for gambling with our economy, Regula demonstrates a quaint belief that the interests and problems of blacks and whites are separate. Sadly it would now be unconstitutional to confiscate guns from blacks like Maryland did in 1833.

His baffling attitude aside, he is bemoaning the interests of urban voters against rural ones. One wants greater accountability for the purchase of objects whose entire purpose is to put holes in flesh so the body loses oxygen while the other one does not like to be inconvenienced with increased licensing to solve social problems that their community does not have yet is dangerous enough to warrant a concealed weapon.
The state does not want to take Regula’s gun away, nor could it. It wants to ensure straw purchasers in Severna Park or violent criminals or potential criminals without a conceal-carry permit think long and hard before they do anything with that weapon. In two words – universal accountability.”

ALEX ROBERT CHAMPION
Annapolis

I only regret that the editors allowed but 500 words with which to give my country.


Alex Champion--Maryland State Archives