'Like it’s a purge': Fear grips Black residents in Indianapolis ahead of new gun law


After record-breaking homicide years in Indianapolis in 2020 and 2021, overwhelmingly endured by Black neighborhoods, Indiana state legislators voted in March to pass a bill easing gun control restrictions.
Signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb the same month, House Bill 1296 – dubbed the "permitless carry bill" – removes the requirement of otherwise legal gun carriers in the state to have a handgun permit. The law becomes effective Friday.

Knowing that violent crime disproportionately impacts Black neighborhoods, residents worry these relaxed gun laws may only make the problem worse.


Many said they await this day with anxiety. And fear.

Just over four weeks after Holcomb signed the permitless carry bill into law, 18 Hoosiers were shot and killed. Among the dead, 15 were Black victims.

Terry Allen’s 19-year-old grandson was one of them. She recalled that fateful April evening painfully, having arrived at the scene of the crime after his body was already gone.

“A part of my life, a part of my heart, is gone,” Allen, 53, said. “I’ll never be able to see his beautiful smile ever again.”

He was her firstborn grandson but not the first family member Allen said she’s lost to gun violence; experiences that have her in shock over the state’s decision to ease gun access.

“It scares me,” Allen said. “I think it’s one of the worst things they ever came up with. It seems to me like it’s a purge.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/li...de6f2329aa29d6