Gun/Control: The Criminalization of Black Gun Ownership in America

With tens of thousands of Americans dying every year from gun-related violence, firearm regulation is at the center of American political debate. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on this conversation by expanding an individual's right to bear arms under the Second Amendment in New York Rife & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen (2022).

In this episode, we use critical race theory as a tool to explore the history of the Second Amendment, firearm ownership, and gun control policies in the United States. How are firearm regulations bound up in the legal and ideological infrastructure of white supremacy? What does the history of the Second Amendment tell us about race and racism in this country?