Restrictions On Slaves, Freed Negroes & Roman Catholics
The State of Maryland offers a good example of how "gun control" has been used to keep people in their place. Maryland was first settled by English colonists in 1631. Within a few decades, numerous plantations had been established which required a substantial amount of manpower. Much of the labor was provided by African slaves who, doubtless, would have preferred to be free. A rebellion of armed slaves could have laid waste to the plantation system, jeopardizing the economic viability of the entire colony. This possibility was not lost upon wealthy planters. To help keep slaves "in their place" the colonial assembly (comprised largely of slave owners) passed Maryland's very first gun control law. Chapter XLIV, Section XXXII of the Acts of 1715 provided:
That no negro or other slave within this province shall be permitted to carry any gun, or any other offensive weapon, from off their master's land, without license from their said master; and if any negro or other slave shall presume to do so, he shall be liable to be carried before a justice of the peace, and be whipped, and his gun or other offensive weapon shall be forfeited to him that shall seize the same and carry such negro so offending before a justice of the peace.
And the first real push for laws against the concealed carry of weapons came in the post civil war south, where laws were passed to keep freed slaves disarmed.