Martin Luther King Jr. and his guns

[Cesiumsponge]

Since it was MLK Jr day earlier this week and everyone kept going on and on about the peaceful nature of the Civil Rights era, I thought I'd contrast that populist belief with something a bit more rooted in reality. By way of Adam Winkler, professor of constitutional law at the UCLA School of Law writing on Huffington Post:

Most people think King would be the last person to own a gun. Yet in the mid-1950s, as the civil rights movement heated up, King kept firearms for self-protection. In fact, he even applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon...King applied for a concealed carry permit in Alabama. The local police had discretion to determine who was a suitable person to carry firearms. King, a clergyman whose life was threatened daily, surely met the requirements of the law, but he was rejected nevertheless.

There was also the Deacons for Defense and Justice, which isn't talked about, as well as dozens, if not hundreds of grassroots groups that used the presense of firearms to prevent being intimidated. There is also colorful individuals like T.R.M. Howard, founder of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership in Mississippi who kept a Thompson SMG or John R. Salter. Anyone have more citations, sources, or stories on this era? The history books we had in school 15 years ago didn't cover anything about armed protests or black militias. It barely covered Malcom X and focused almost entirely on (certain aspects of) MLK Jr. It was very whitewashed and a biased presentation. It didn't cover how Charleton Heston marched with MLK Jr. and was one of the only white non-policemen standing up on stage with him during speeches. Looking back at it, public school education on history in my school district was a complete travesty.

Emmy-winning scientific documentary maker Kris Koenig is going to cover the Deacons for Defense among many others in his upcoming documentary titled Assaulted, on the fundamentals of the Second Amendment. I cannot wait for the documentary to come out. I am going to make everyone I know watch it and it'll probably be one of the only credible pro-2A documentaries we have out there. Unfortunately it sounded like he burned a lot of bridges by going against the Hollywood grain.

 

[Lucifer_Sam]

Well, something very interesting from that time period I've read is that the NRA was responsible for helping civil rights protesters get gun permits, ones that were in the same position of Martin Luther King, or in similar potions with guns being refused due to race or political activity. I think Ann Coulter, for one, says this happened. I'd like to have it confirmed or denied. It certainly takes the bite out of the accusations of "white rassists NRA" that the left loves to rant about.

Also takes the bite out of pacifism aspect--the lefts implication that pacifism is a more effective and civilized philosophy. King used pacifism as a political tool, like Gandhi. Both would have fought if they felt it would have been politically advantageous. King obviously did not hold with pacifism as a personal philosophy if he was a gun owner.

It didn't cover how Charleton Heston marched with MLK Jr. and was one of the only white non-policemen standing up on stage with him during speeches.

Didn't about know that. Its in keeping with the NRA bit.

 

[Cesiumsponge]

Heston did all this before it was popular for Hollywood to stand up for equal rights. Why? Because white sympathizers were being lynched alongside blacks. Heston risked his butt doing what he did, marching with MLK Jr and protesting segregation. Hollywood ONLY joined on that bandwagon years later once the threat of great bodily injury dissipated and public opinion started to change. They weren't going to risk breaking a nail or getting hung from a branch to make a statement.


Yet somehow, a lot of liberals have painted Charleton Heston as a paranoid racist posterchild of the NRA. The cognitive dissonance I run into is staggering. The current serving members on the NRA Board of Directors has black members (women too!). I just fail to see how the NRA is racist when it historically tried to arm blacks against racist southern Democrats and the KKK.

 

[Cosmoline]

There are some unfortunate knuckle-draggers who are hangers-on to the movement, to be sure. And the other side is very quick to point them out as they did with the group sponsoring Gun Appreciation Day. We don't do a good enough job kicking such people very hard in soft parts. Nor do we do enough to welcome non-traditional types into the gun culture. Rest assured, if we are just a club for disgruntled old white guys we WILL lose our rights. And we'd deserve to.

But historically gun control has always been first and foremost a way the dominant group can control disfavored groups. Freedmen in the south after the Civil War or unemployed factory workers in the UK.

 

[Ivy Mike]

You also never hear about groups of Black Panthers informing black citizens about their right to own firearms and their monitoring of police officers on duty. The Panthers would stand a safe distance away during a traffic stop and shout legal advice. This made them extremely unpopular in 1960s L.A...with the cops anyway.

 

[bobmcd]

Also, the NRA board of directors is more "diverse" than the current Cabinet.

 

[BCCL]

 

[BCCL]

In the book "Bearing The Cross:Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference", it tells about the meeting at MLK Jr.'s home, in which a Quaker pacifist that was involved with the civil rights movement, sat on MLK Jr.'s couch, felt something under him, and checked under the cushion and found he was sitting on MLK Jr.' revolver.

Anti-gun liberals HATE when I show that to them.

 

[22-rimfire]

MLK demonstrates that people who want a gun for personal protection WILL have a gun regardless of race.