Gun rights opponents should recall that until modern times, U.S. gun laws tended to discriminate against certain classes of Americans based on race or other factors. These statutes are rightfully in the dustbin of history, but now there’s a new challenge faced by Second Amendment supporters.
A CBS News Chicago report revealed that multiple Black motorists accuse the city’s beleaguered police department of arresting drivers without cause.
According to the outlet, Black gun owners are being pulled over for minor traffic violations and then hit with felony charges even when they produce their FOID and CCL licenses.
Gun owners should not face discrimination for exercising their 2A rights
The primary case headed to court involves 46-year-old Louis McWilliams of Tinley Park, a local cheesecake business owner.
The proprietor took the necessary class and passed it, received his CCL, and purchased a 9mm pistol for his personal safety. “I played by the book,” McWilliams told CBS. “I did things the right way.”
Chicago businessman fights for the rights of all gun owners
Police stopped him on the way to a business meeting in April 2024 for not having the mandatory front license plate. As a good citizen should, he told the officer that he had a concealed weapon and produced his license—on video!
And that should have been that.
Only, McWilliams was handcuffed and taken to jail when officers claimed they could not locate his gun license in the state database. Prosecutors leveled two felony gun charges at the businessman, forcing him to spend unnecessary time in court and rack up legal fees.
Finally, the charges were dropped. But that did not end McWilliams’ pursuit of justice, and he is now suing the City of Chicago and the police officers who arrested him despite having the proper license.
The lawful gun owner told CBS, “I feel like my rights were violated.”
His case and others drew the attention of the National African American Gun Association (NAAGA). President Phil Smith expressed his “outrage, anger, [and] frustration” at what appears to be blatant discrimination against law-abiding gun owners.
“Those are the conversations and statements that are going in my head when I hear about another Black person being stopped illegally, being arrested illegally, when they’ve had all their stuff together,” Smith declared.
The NAAGA president rightly noted that Black Americans are not second-class citizens. And the Second Amendment is not a second-class right which may be arbitrarily withdrawn for the flimsiest of excuses.
Smith believes that, with enough legal action against the Chicago PD, wiser heads will prevail. “File a lawsuit and follow through on the lawsuit. If a police chief has four or five lawsuits, $4 or $5 million with different law enforcement officers, they’re going to get a call from somebody to say, ‘Hey, start treating those people differently.’”
It is important to note that the Second Amendment community is a big tent. Gun rights supporters know that justice denied to another law-abiding citizen is wrong and must be fought to protect fundamental freedoms for everyone.
It is also interesting that this damaging report originated in the mainstream media. It doesn’t take much observation to conclude that these sources are rabidly anti-gun rights, so the CBS News Chicago report is an outlier.
It is unusual, to say the least.
Whatever their motivation, the outlet provided all gun owners an excellent service by revealing the injustice faced by some in Chicago’s Black population. Everyone in the 2A community should be concerned when misguided officers target innocent citizens.
It is indefensible that good people like McWilliams cannot freely exercise their right to keep and bear arms. The facts bear out that he should never have been arrested and dragged into court after following the law to the letter.
This is a hard lesson the City of Chicago needs to learn.
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