Guns, a secret history: how both sides of the debate distort the past

GUNS, THE SECRET HISTORY: The Atlantic's Adam Winkler presents one of the great ironies in the American pro-gun movement: no group has more ardently supported the right to carry a loaded gun in public than the Black Panthers. The founding fathers? They supported gun control, as did Ronald Reagan, whom the NRA endorsed in his campaign for president. In the debate over guns, he writes, both sides have a distorted view of history and the law, and there's no resolution in sight.

Civil-rights activists, even those committed to nonviolent resistance, had long appreciated the value of guns for self-protection. Martin Luther King Jr. applied for a permit to carry a concealed firearm in 1956, after his house was bombed. His application was denied, but from then on, armed supporters guarded his home. One adviser, Glenn Smiley, described the King home as “an arsenal.” William Worthy, a black reporter who covered the civil-rights movement, almost sat on a loaded gun in a living-room armchair during a visit to King’s parsonage. The Panthers, however, took it to an extreme, carrying their guns in public, displaying them for everyone—especially the police—to see. Newton had discovered, during classes at San Francisco Law School, that California law allowed people to carry guns in public so long as they were visible, and not pointed at anyone in a threatening way.

Read the whole thing. It's worth it.