Campus Carry and the Black Community

In mid-June, Texas Governor, Greg Abbot visited Red’s Indoor Range to sign a highly controversial law that allows concealed guns on college campuses known as campus carry. However some black students say that with the heightened tension between police and the black community, the new law fosters white privilege and promotes the criminalization of black people.

Loyce Gayo is an African American Diaspora Studies senior at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) from Houston, Texas. Recently Gayo wrote an article for the Daily Texan discussing what has largely been swept under the rug: “white privilege and the criminalization of Black people”

“If a black student were to have a gun on campus, it would be looked at as ‘oh this is a thug’ or ‘this is someone that is going to engage in criminal activity’. If there was someone white carrying on campus it would be ‘ oh they are carrying [a gun] for their protection,” says Gayo.

The association between criminality and Blacks carrying guns may be in part because the United States has a long history of passing laws that have not allowed gun ownership for Blacks. Since before the Civil War, African Americans were prevented from ever owning and carrying guns. After the Nat Turner rebellions in 1835, Tennessee amended their state constitution from allowing all free men the right to bear arms to strictly “free white men.” Thirty years later, Southern states enacted laws known as Black Codes prohibiting gun ownership by blacks.

Once ownership rights were achieved, a complicated history of gun control and restriction ultimately limited Black gun ownership. During the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther party was under intense surveillance by the FBI for promoting blacks using guns as self-defense. And, now, though Blacks are technically free to carry guns, a long history and prevailing stereotypes make the choice one of risk and possible danger.

In mid-June, Texas Governor, Greg Abbot visited Red’s Indoor Range to sign a highly controversial law that allows concealed guns on college campuses known as campus carry. However some black students say that with the heightened tension between police and the black community, the new law fosters white privilege and promotes the criminalization of black people.

Loyce Gayo is an African American Diaspora Studies senior at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) from Houston, Texas. Recently Gayo wrote an article for the Daily Texan discussing what has largely been swept under the rug: “white privilege and the criminalization of Black people”

“If a black student were to have a gun on campus, it would be looked at as ‘oh this is a thug’ or ‘this is someone that is going to engage in criminal activity’. If there was someone white carrying on campus it would be ‘ oh they are carrying [a gun] for their protection,” says Gayo.

The association between criminality and Blacks carrying guns may be in part because the United States has a long history of passing laws that have not allowed gun ownership for Blacks. Since before the Civil War, African Americans were prevented from ever owning and carrying guns. After the Nat Turner rebellions in 1835, Tennessee amended their state constitution from allowing all free men the right to bear arms to strictly “free white men.” Thirty years later, Southern states enacted laws known as Black Codes prohibiting gun ownership by blacks.

Once ownership rights were achieved, a complicated history of gun control and restriction ultimately limited Black gun ownership. During the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther party was under intense surveillance by the FBI for promoting blacks using guns as self-defense. And, now, though Blacks are technically free to carry guns, a long history and prevailing stereotypes make the choice one of risk and possible danger.