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KKK & NRA Partnership LIE
Next, the cartoon equates the NRA with the KKK. As seen above, a Klansman and NRA member (shown with a sinister evil grin) skip up a hill together hand and hand to burn a cross. The dialog is very tricky here, as it doesn't exactly say it outright, but through fast talking, suggests that the NRA was founded in 1871, "the same year that the Klan became an illegal terrorist organization."
But actually, the Klan was founded in
1866 in Tennessee, and quickly became a terrorist organization.
The NRA was founded in 1871 -- by act of the New York Legislature, at request of former
Union officers (you remember the Union right?...the side led by the Republican guy that fought against slavery? K. Just checkin).
The narrator sarcastically says this was just a coincidence while showing the 2 groups meld. The point is an attempt to reveal a strategy to promote "gun rights" for white people and to outlaw gun possession by black people as a way to uphold racism without letting an openly terrorist organization like the KKK flourish.
Yes, in 1871, the Klan became an illegal terrorist organization (the Klan was, of course, composed of men who fought on the losing, pro-slavery side of the Civil War). but the reason why totally goes against Moore's entire thesis here. Turns out that in 1871 there was congressional passage of the
Ku Klux Klan Act, which criminalized interference with civil rights, and empowered the President to use troops to hinder the Klan and suppress it by denying Klansmen the writ of habeas corpus.
The president also signed the Enforcement Act of 1870, which made it a federal crime for the Ku Klux Klan or similar conspiracies to interfere with the civil rights of freedmen — including their Second Amendment right to arms.
The Klan Act and Enforcement Act were signed into law by President Ulysess S. Grant. And
Grant used their provisions vigorously. Grant dispatched federal troops into South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida in efforts to destroy the Klan and to protect black voting rights. David Kopel even reminds us that in an April 1872 report to Congress, Grant pointed out the continuing problem in some southern counties of the Ku Klux Klan attempting "to deprive colored citizens of their right to bear arms and the right of a free ballot." Under his leadership over 5,000 arrests were made and the Klan was dealt a serious (if all too short-lived) blow.
As David Hardy notes: Grant's vigor in disrupting the Klan earned him unpopularity among many whites, but
Frederick Douglass praised him, and an associate of Douglass wrote that African-Americans "will ever cherish a grateful remembrance of his name, fame and great services." Douglass himself justly called Grant "the benefactor of an enslaved and despised race, a race who will ever cherish a grateful remembrance of his name, fame and great services."
So what's all this got to do with the
NRA being a racist organization or not? Well, after Grant left the White House, the NRA elected him as its eighth president... So where is the support and connection from the white NRA that Moore tells us about? No where to be found. What about after Grant maybe? -Nope. After Grant's term, the NRA elected General Philip Sheridan, who had
removed the governors of Texas and Louisiana for failure to suppress the KKK.
Racist NRA History LIE
Thus Moore's depiction of a racist NRA beginning is total opposite from the truth. Moore goes to lengths to marry the 2 groups. Although it all happens very fast, we see a Klansmen becoming an NRA member and an NRA character helping to light a burning cross (shown to the right). This sequence is attempting to create the impression either that NRA and the Klan were parallel groups or that when the Klan was outlawed its members formed the NRA. Both inferences are completely wrong.
The 1871 founders of the National Rifle Association were diametrically opposed to the Confederates who founded the KKK. The NRA founders were
Union officers who had fought on the anti-slavery side of the Civil War (you know - the side that won). Dismayed by the poor quality of Union marksmanship during the war, the NRA's founders aimed to improve the shooting skills of the American public at large. The first NRA president was Ambrose E. Burnside, who had served as commander of the Army of the Potomac.
Actually, not only was the NRA
founded by former Union officers, but eight of its first ten presidents were Union
veterans. As Dave Kopel explains: "These included Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, a hero of Gettysburg, and Gen. Phillip Sheridan, the famous Union cavalry commander. During Reconstruction, Gen. Sheridan served as military governor of Louisiana and Texas, and removed hundreds of local officials (including the governors of both states, and the chief justice of the Texas supreme court) from office for failing to respect the rights of freedmen and for failing to enforce laws for their protection."
During the 1950s and 1960s, groups of blacks organized as
NRA chapters in order to obtain surplus military rifles to fight off Klansmen.
