Gun Control and the Color of the Law
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GUN CONTROL AND THE COLOR OF
THE LAW
Alicia L. Granset
There is a world of difference between thirty million unarmed,
submissive Black people and thirty million Black people armed
with freedom and defense guns and the strategic methods of
liberation.
- Huey P. Newton, June 20, 19671
Introduction:
In August of 2017, then-St. Paul, Minnesota mayoral
candidate Melvin Carter's home was burglarized. A lockbox
containing two firearms he had inherited from his father, a retired
St. Paul police officer, was stolen.2 In response, the St. Paul Police
Federation (a police union) wrote an open letter to the community
asking the Black candidate a series of questions regarding his gun
storage practices: where he had gotten the firearms, whether he had
taken a gun safety course, and why he had waited to report the
break-in.3 The letter was followed by a mailer from the Political
Action Committee (PAC) Building a Better St. Paul-primarily
funded by the St. Paul Police Federation-which claimed that
[o]ver 100 shots have been fired since August 15 when Melvin
Carter's guns went missing-despite there being no allegation that
Carter's guns had, in fact, fired a single shot.4 The Carter campaign
t. J.D. Candidate 2019, University of Minnesota Law School.
1. Huey P. Newton, In Defense of Self-Defense, in THE HUEY NEWTON READER
137 (David Hilliard & Donald Weise eds., 2002).
2. See Melvin Carter, Opinion, Melvin Carter: Feeling at Home in Our City
Starts with Feeling Safe at Home, PIONEER PRESS (Sept. 14, 2017), https://www.twin
cities.com/2017/09/14/melvin-carter-feeling-at-home-in-our-city-starts-with-feeling-
safe-at-home/.
3. Frederick Melo, Police Union Criticizes Carter over Gun Theft from His
Home; Campaign Decries Racist Attack', PIONEER PRESS (Oct. 24, 2017), https://ww
w.twincities.com/2017/10/24/police-union-blasts-mayoral-candidate-melvin-carter/;
Chao Xiong, St. Paul Police Union, Melvin Carter Campaign Spar over Guns Stolen
from His Home, STAR TRIBUNE (Oct. 24, 2017, 10:42 PM), http://www.startribune.co
m/st-paul-police-union-presses-mayoral-candidate-melvin-carter-on-stolen-guns-ca
mpaign-fires-back/452889993/.
4. Nick Woltman, et al., Coleman, Harris Call on Police Union Board Members
to Resign Following Campaign Mailer, PIONEER PRESS (Nov. 9, 2017, 9:48 AM), http](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/lieq37&div=18&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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