To say that states were not worried about armed slaves, or to say its obvious non whites couldn't have the right to bear arms doesn't pass the laugh test, when some had the right to vote would appear to be a logical fallacy also.
In the post Civil War era, freed black slaves were given the right to vote, though many could not read or write. In early voting after the war, many southern blacks were beaten by groups of whites to keep them from voting. When state governors were forced to do something, the tactics changed. Polls were set up and large signs reading "Whites only" added. When a free black inquired as to where he was supposed to go for voting, locals were unhelpful ("I ain't black so I don' t know."). Other places established a "Poll tax" to be paid in order to vote. This tax could have been as high as $1 (often a week's wages for a black). Such taxes have been ruled unconstitutional.
In many towns in the south, a white store owner would
refuse to sell firearms to blacks wanting to buy. In some cases, if a black man had the $12-$18 to afford a Colt revolver, someone would fetch the town marshal. The law would harrass the former slave about where he "stole" that much money or demanding proof that he'd earned it (ever try to prove how you earned cash?).
1870 Tennessee First "Saturday Night Special" economic handgun ban passed.
In the first legislative session in which they gained control, white supremacists passed "
An Act to Preserve the Peace and Prevent Homicide," which banned the sale of all handguns
except the expensive "Army and Navy model handgun" which whites already owned or could afford to buy, and blacks could not.
("Gun Control: White Man's Law," William R. Tonso, Reason, December 1985) Upheld in Andrews v. State, 50 Tenn. (3 Heisk.) 165, 172 (1871) (GMU CR LJ, p. 74)
1882 Arkansas
Arkansas followed Tennessee's lead by enacting a virtually identical "Saturday Night Special" law banning the sale of any pistols other than expensive "army or navy" model revolvers, which most whites had or could afford, thereby disarming blacks.
Statute was upheld in Dabbs v. State, 39 Ark. 353 (1882) (GMU CR LJ, p. 74)
1893 Alabama First all-gun economic ban passed.
Alabama placed "`extremely heavy business and/or transactional taxes'" on the sale of handguns in an attempt "to put handguns out of the reach of blacks and poor whites."
("Gun Control: White Man's Law," William R. Tonso, Reason,December 1985)
This law was copied in 1907 in Texas.
("Gun Control: White Man's Law," William R. Tonso, Reason, December 1985)
1941 Florida Judge admits gun law passed to disarm black laborers.
In concurring opinion narrowly construing a Florida gun control law passed in 1893, Justice Buford stated the 1893 law "was passed when there was a great influx of Negro laborers in this State....The same condition existed when the Act was amended in 1901 and
the Act was passed for the purpose of disarming the Negro laborers....
The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population and in practice has never been so applied...".
Watson v. Stone,148 Fla. 516, 524, 4 So.2d 700, 703 (1941) (GMU CR LJ, p. 69)
I think it shows amazing inflexibility of thought to fail to recognize that words mean different things in different contexts, people see contexts differently, some phrases may be weighed more heavily than others, and instead just accuse your opposition of moral vacuity.
Some words do mean different things in different contexts. "Badger" is one. It can refer to an animal, someone from Wisconsin or a harassing activity against another.
In the context of Constitutional law, the courts have held that words should be given their normal meanings as in common use at the time a document was written. Words are analyzed in the context they were used,
as of the time they were written.
Take "militia". Go ask any 50 people on the street what a "militia" is. Less informed dimwits will refer to it as "some bunch of radical white supremists in Montana" while some others might refer to the National Guard. Yet at the time the 2nd Amendment was drafted, neither of these groups existed. But the founders defined Militia anyway, in the Militia Act of 1792.
On the issue of Constitutional construction and how things ought to be read, I'll defer to one of the most expert of Constitutional scholars;
"On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." --Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823. ME 15:449
"Strained constructions... loosen all the bands of the Constitution." --Thomas Jefferson to George Ticknor, 1817. FE 10:81
