This blog contains excerpts from the book “Fighting Back” from Eric Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America.
we all know about the famous “I Have A Dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 in front of the Lincoln Memorial. While his speech is well-known, what is not so widely known is Dr. King’s views on Firearms.
Dr. King believed in firearms for protection. People who visited Dr. King’s home described it as an arsenal. In fact, one visitor to his home sat in a recliner and a gun fell off the wall and almost hit him. After Dr. King’s home was bombed in 1956, King applied for a concealed carry permit in Alabama. But he was denied. This rejection underscores the danger of gun control. It turns rights into privileges, allowing prejudiced officials to revoke rights of decent people at will.
One commentator said it best:
“Even though King’s house had just been bombed, his application for a concealed carry permit was still rejected. Few people in the U.S. needed a permit to carry more than Reverend King did in 1956, but since the local police had discretion in their decision-making, King, who no doubt, met the requirements of the law, was rejected nonetheless. This was the norm when the applicant was black.”
These handgun licensing laws in the late 1800s and early 1900s were at the heart of enforcing discrimination. They were clearly calculated to keep black Americans disarmed. On paper, they seemed “equal” because everyone had to ask for permission, until a Florida judge let the proverbial cat out of the bag by stating that such laws were “passed for the purpose of disarming negro laborers [and were] never intended to be applied to the white population.”
One black journalist, Ida Wells, documented many of the lynchings that took place in the 19th Century. “The only time blacks actually escaped a lynch mob was when they had a gun and used it in self-defense.”
During the Civil Rights era of the ‘50s and ‘60s, Southern Democrat police departments would often look the other way when blacks were being abused. Former Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, tells the story of how her father would take his shotgun, and along with other armed blacks in the neighborhood, would form nightly patrols to protect the town’s people from the KKK. And because of seeing these patrols is the reason Rice is such a strong opponent of gun control.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the march on Selma, Alabama in 1965. If you haven’t heard about it, shame on your school for not teaching it. The march was intended to bring attention to the mistreatment of blacks that was occurring. The police formed a picket line at the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma. The police fired tear gas into the crowd, clubbed them, bull whipped them, hosed them down, and used dogs on them. The date, March 7, 1965 became known as Bloody Sunday.
Another peaceful student protest was scheduled a few days later in Jonesboro, Louisiana. But the Deacons for Defense, a group of four (4) armed black men, were determined not to have another Bloody Sunday. The police arrived and called for firetrucks. As the firefighters were unraveling their hoses in an attempt to hose down the protesting students, one of the Deacons was heard telling the others to shoot as soon as the water was turned on. The police officers retreated and ordered the firemen to roll up their hoses and depart. The Deacons successfully and peacefully used their weapons to prevent official violence against law-abiding students.
Law-abiding citizens were being forcibly disarmed. That’s been the history of gun control. It’s a tool that has be used time and again to control people. And despite the bullshit rhetoric that “gun control makes people safer”, that is simply not the case. Governments act in the self-interests of the ruling class and don’t always act in the best interests of their citizens, which is why we have the Second Amendment, guaranteeing the right of people to bear arms, without infringement.
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