I just finished reading this entire thread and must say that this is the most off-the-wall comment I have read thus far. I am Southern, born and bred, and haven't ever heard anything so far fetched. Most of the activities of the Klan I ever heard of were conducted at night and not in black churches. If it were only blacks who were restricted from taking guns to church, then why did the restriction apply to white churches also? Dude, I don't mean to flame you but this is way out in left field! Any way, you have a good day now, ya' heah?:laugh:
You didn't flame me. Your response was reasonable, valid, and IMHO quite understandable. I made a statement without citation and, unfortunately, at this moment any references I could come up with are loaned out and unavailable until at least after the holidays. So I cannot in the least resent your response to my weak claim.
I do ask, however, that you look at the time period during which these laws were passed. And look at the regions where the first of these laws were passed. Contrary to popular revisionism, the north during and after Reconstruction was (and remains in far too many cases) quite racist, just not as overt. Instead of passing laws, for instance, against Negroes (the term at the time) owning guns, laws were passed requiring a permit from the local sheriff. Usually language was included requiring one to be of good moral character and able to provide references from members of the community of good repute. During testimony in 2007 to repeal Missouri's permit to acquire a concealable weapon, citizens told how that law was used to effectively prevent any blacks from legally purchasing handguns in St. Louis as recently as the nineteen-seventies. At the time of passage the legislatures and the citizens understood that the laws would be selectively applied and enforced.
The South may have had overt segregation laws. But much of the North resented the influx of freed slaves and could be much more violent on a local level to freedmen trying to settle there.
I concede that does not directly address the question of bans on guns in churches. But, again, I refer you to the times when most such laws were passed, the Reconstruction era. What other motive or behavior existed at that time that would have caused so many state and local governments to pass such laws, to reverse a practice that in colonial times sometimes required by law that those attending church be armed?
I may be wrong. It certainly won't be the first time. I take no offense at being corrected. I'm just throwing this out for consideration.
