PA Bill Number: SB945
Title: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals.
Description: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals. ...
Last Action: Third consideration and final passage (199-0)
Last Action Date: Apr 17, 2024
UK Government Blasted For Racist Weapons Policy :: 07/17/2020
Anti-gunners often point to the United Kingdom as some kind of beacon of sane thought on firearms. They routinely argue that we’re doing it all wrong and we should follow the lead of England.
Meanwhile, we’re also living in a world where just about everything is supposedly racist, even in England.
What do these two things have in common with one another? Well, it seems “enlightened” anti-gun England is just as racist about weapons policy as American anti-gunners have been.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has been accused of racism over security guidelines which state people should not bring “knives, replica guns, hammers or wrenches” to hearings, and for searching visitors on arrival.
Similar physical security checks and bag searches are not in operation at the Infected Blood Inquiry, another high profile UK public inquiry where the majority of participants are white, HuffPost UK has learned.
But at the Grenfell hearings, where many of those impacted are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds (BAME), far tougher security checks are in place.
Bag searches are carried out on entry and security guidance includes a detailed section on “weapons” and other items that cannot be brought into the building.
Yvette Williams, of the Justice4Grenfell campaign group, said the differences were indicative of racial stereotyping of BAME and working class people presenting a greater risk.
“I think it plays into racial stereotypes. It plays into class politics as well,” she said.
“There’s a feeling that we need a higher level of security rather than the demographic who they assume are part of the contaminated blood inquiry.
“It plays to stereotypes that we’re more of a risk, we’re more likely to be aggressive, we’re more likely to have a criminal element. We don’t have the same level of behaviours as the upper middle classes.”
Of course, it’s also possible that Williams is reading too much into this. We’ve seen people believe they’re being persecuted when nothing of the sort is going on, but instead, there is an innocent explanation for everything.
I mean, different organizations and different people come up with different policies. It’s not like all these inquiries answer to the same person or anything, right?
The disparity in security checks exists despite the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and the Infected Blood Inquiry being sponsored and overseen by the same group of officials at the Cabinet Office and headed by the same senior civil servant.
Well, the British government has argued that the inquiries themselves come up with the rules, but you’d think someone would have to approve them or something.
Of course, this shouldn’t be surprising. Most gun control laws in this country have their roots in an effort to disarm minorities so they wouldn’t be able to withstand oppression by racist governments. Why should England be any different?
In fairness, this might be precisely what they claim. The people responsible for the Grenfell Tower Inquiry may have included the same policy–an idiotic policy, to be sure–if they were in charge of the blood inquiry.
Somehow, I doubt it, though.
Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. He's also the host of Unloaded TV on YouTube. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/07/15/uk-blasted-for-racist-policy/
