You know, if we were to follow the logic that people use against the high penalties for crack cocaine, this law would be racist. Of course, as Glenn points out, that would be nothing new in gun-control laws. It has a long-established history of being employed to keep the “negras” from being too uppity.

And of course, it’s also, historically, the basis for things like the minimum wage and Davis-Bacon — to keep people of darker hue from competing for white folks’ jobs. Amusingly, it is another demonstration of Jonah Goldberg’s thesis that so-called progressives are unfamiliar with their own intellectual history.

One other point. Ironically, Barack Obama no doubt supports such laws, since he has talked about how laws for places like Iowa aren’t applicable in Chicago. But I doubt that he sees the irony.