Anti-Gunners Embarrassed: MLK Day Protests Fall Flat

Authors Current Events S.H. Blannelberry
Anti-Gunners Embarrassed: MLK Day Protests Fall Flat

(Photo: Wikipedia)

Anti-gunners will use any opportunity to advance their agenda — both national tragedies and national celebrations.

The most recent example comes from Moms Demand Action Founder Shannon Watts, who took to Twitter on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day to suggest that King fought for all civil rights except the one located in the Second Amendment.

There’s just one problem: Dr. King applied for a concealed carry permit in Alabama in 1956 to protect himself after his wife and daughter’s home was fire bombed. Law enforcement officials denied his request, but, as NRA spokesman Colion Noir explains, he still surrounded himself with people who carried guns.

Dr. King’s home was also described by one of his advisors as an “arsenal.”

It’s ironic, then, that Moms Demand Action leaders and volunteers seem to believe Dr. King would have championed their cause. Not only is the anti-gun agenda an anti-civil rights agenda, but Dr. King himself was by all accounts supportive of the right to bear arms.

The revisionist history Watts is peddling couldn’t be further from the truth. As African-American Professor Nicholas Johnson outlines in his book Negroes and the Gun, there is a long and storied history within, what he calls, the “Black tradition of arms.”

The first gun control policies were designed to keep African Americans from owning guns. These laws ensured that the black population would be kept in a state of servitude by denying them the legal ability to effectively defend themselves.

So, once African-Americans gained the right to own firearms, they used these tools to protect their homes and their families.

Johnson explains how in 1946 armed African American men stopped plans to lynch Thurgood Marshall. At Rosa Parks’ activist meetings on Huffman Street, the attendees carried weapons for self-defense. Another famous activist named Daisy Bates kept “Old Betsey” at the ready. Her memoir shows that she often carried a gun and once actually fired it at a man who had launched a firebomb at her home.

Like Dr. King, all of these individuals understood the difference between self-defense and aggressive violence. They owned and carried firearms while advocating for peaceful protest because they knew that responsible Americans can be trusted with guns. The ability to own and carry a firearm is a civil liberty granted to all Americans, and they weren’t about to relinquish their right to self-defense.

Modern anti-gunners don’t understand this distinction. They believe that “peace” equals “no guns,” so when Dr. King advocates for peace he must also be advocating for gun control.

History demonstrates the flaws of this way of thinking. Gun ownership gives the weak, the downtrodden, the marginalized the opportunity to live in peace and security. Dr. King knew this to be true, and the record of African-American gun ownership demonstrates that gun rights truly are civil rights as well.

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  • Mike H. October 23, 2017, 5:44 pm

    Maybe if these Moms that demand action would try being women and paint their selves up a bit , they could stay at home in the bedroom and get all the action they want! Then they could forget all about our guns!

  • Patriot January 22, 2017, 10:31 am

    I wish this was not the case but I am sure it is. The Dems and gun controllers, such as politicians Smith and Stewart, are out for vengeance and harassment after the democrats lost the election and to deny Second Amendment rights as usual. They will say and do all they can to degrade those who believe in the Second Amendment. They cannot accept losing an election. This is already obvious on the TV fake news media. The TV fake news media has been showing video of the crowd at the inauguration and the video shows a much smaller crowd than another video shows of the much larger crowd that was actually there in order to diminish the popularity of President Trump. Their effort to ostracize believers of the Second Amendment will continue as though nothing has changed. Americans who understand and approve the Second Amendment should use every opportunity to criticize the biased news media and biased Dems. It is obvious that politicians such as Smith and Stewart are examples of people who believe in disarming the people who need to have a way of protecting themselves. The gun controllers will not slack off and will continue to do as they have done for many years and that is to use any means to win their gun control issue. Hopefully, Trump and the Republicans and the soon to be updated Supreme Court will definitively stop the obnoxious gun controllers. Regretfully, we need to emphatically continue the fight to stop the obnoxious biased fake news media and obnoxious biased gun control Dems and obnoxious biased gun control supporters and financiers such as Soros and Bloomberg. These people will never understand the reason for the Second Amendment.

  • AK January 20, 2017, 4:39 pm

    If Shannon Watts Demands Action I am sure some of would be willing to meet the need, once or twice.

  • elgavilansegoviano January 20, 2017, 12:18 pm

    ……..The only ones, that Never wanted Blacks in the USA to own weapons for self defense, were the Racist DemoCrats that have always wanted to have them as slaves, and vulnerable throughout History!!,……Long Live the Republic, and Long Live the second Amendment!!,…..

  • david ross January 20, 2017, 11:35 am

    Yes, MLK applied for a CCP. And was denied.

    But what the author twists the facts and fails to address why MLK applied for a CCP, and that is… MLK’s life was in constant danger. That is why he had bodyguards with guns, too. And guns in his house..

    Constant danger.

    MLK preached nonviolence and had little interest in guns. If his life was not in danger I suspect he would not have applied for a CCP, had bodyguards with guns, or kept guns in his house. Bottom line: King kept firearms for self-protection because his life was in danger, including from those who denied him a CCP.

    On the other hand, pretty much all of us who conceal carry are not being targeted by multiple groups, our lives are not in danger, and we are pretty much safe in our homes and on the street. We carry to prevent, but are not in constant danger like King was.

    King was supportive of the right to bear arms. But that’s not why he owned guns. Big difference.

    • taxx73 January 20, 2017, 4:10 pm

      Learn your history. I have read many accounts on MLK that have claimed he was a collector and enthusiast of firearms and that his collection was valued in the thousands.
      LEAVE OUR RIGHTS ALONE!!!!

    • Tom Horn January 20, 2017, 8:20 pm

      What? So, you’re saying King believed in a person’s right to self defense, only after danger reaches a certain level? Firearms aren’t for occasional danger?

  • DIYinSTL January 20, 2017, 10:13 am

    Anyone interested in the subject should also read “Negroes With Guns” by Robert F. Williams. In the early 1960’s when local civil rights issues raised confrontation to the point that the community was abandoned by the NAACP for fear of bad press, the NRA stepped up and gave them support. You won’t hear Ms. Watts or the media make reference to that fact either.

  • Thomas Jefferson January 20, 2017, 8:46 am

    You are mistaken when you say, “The ability to own and carry a firearm is a civil liberty granted to all Americans, and they weren’t about to relinquish their right to self-defense”.
    Civil Rights are for SLAVES.
    UNALIENABLE RIGHTS are from GOD, and are INHERENT. They pre-date any form of government of man.
    It would have been correct for you to say, “The ability to own and carry a firearm is a GOD-GIVEN, UNALIENABLE RIGHT that government (elected servants) have absolutely no authority over whatsoever!”

    • Mister Ronald January 20, 2017, 9:32 am

      I’m guessing we all know that the N.R.A. was successful at protecting the Negro’s right to have a firearm. The N.R.A. is the oldest and most successful civil rights group in America and protects the 2nd. amendment rights of all Americans.
      Back in those awful day’s in History, The freed Slaves were targets of the bigots and had “NO” way of protecting their family’s because they had no right to owning a firearm according to the Caucasian people.that seemed to be in charge of everything.
      The N.R.A. stepped in and change all of that.

  • Fred Ziffle January 20, 2017, 8:40 am

    Observing “progressives” charging onward in mouth-frothing hysteria while being entirely wrong is one of my personal favorites. I just don’t seem to tire of witnessing it. Its almost as satisfying as a consistently tight shot group (well, almost as satisfying.)

  • Jim January 20, 2017, 6:45 am

    Shannon Watts hates blacks and wants to keep the black population in a state of servitude by denying them the legal ability to effectively defend themselves. Just like the Democrat party she wants blacks to be controlled and it’s much easier to control people who have no means of defense.

  • Will Drider January 19, 2017, 11:13 pm

    Excellent on all fronts.

  • DRAINO January 19, 2017, 5:56 pm

    I love it when MLK gets thrown in the faces of those mindless liberals that have twisted his words and his good name into something so perverse as a liberal icon. I know he is rolling in his grave at the insanity of the progressive liberal democrats of today.

    • Gingerbaker January 20, 2017, 5:54 am

      Draino

      Does a “progressive liberal democrat ” who is NOT insane exist in your Universe?

      Just wondering….

      • Fred Ziffle January 20, 2017, 8:35 am

        “Does a “progressive liberal democrat ” who is NOT insane exist in your Universe?
        Just wondering….”

        Nope. NOT in anyone’s universe.
        You’re welcome, happy I could be of assistance.

      • DRAINO January 20, 2017, 1:27 pm

        Well, Democrats didn’t used to be as liberal and wacko as they are today. There used to be such a thing as a conservative Democrat, but I believe they have all gone the way of the Dodo bird. They are MUCH more radical today…..and have become more progressively insane…..to hopefully clarify 🙂 Their mindset is self defeating, if followed to conclusion….how is that NOT insane????

        AMERICANISM!!!!! NOT Globalism!!!!!

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