Thread: MLK and His Guns

MLK and His Guns

Adam Winkler

Professor of Law, UCLA
January 18, 2011

One issue on everyone's mind this Martin Luther King Jr. day was gun control. King's calls for resolving our differences through peaceful nonviolence are especially poignant after Jared Loughner gunned down six people and wounded several others in Tucson. Amid the clamor for new gun laws, its appropriate to remember King's complicated history with guns.

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.

A recipient of constant death threats, King had armed supporters take turns guarding his home and family. He had good reason to fear that the Klan in Alabama was targeting him for assassination.

William Worthy, a journalist who covered the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, reported that once, during a visit to King's parsonage, he went to sit down on an armchair in the living room and, to his surprise, almost sat on a loaded gun. Glenn Smiley, an adviser to King, described King's home as "an arsenal."

As I found researching my new book, Gunfight, in 1956, after King's house was bombed, 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. At the time, the police used any wiggle room in the law to discriminate against African Americans.

Ironically, the concealed carry permit law in Alabama was promoted by the National Rifle Association thirty years earlier. Today, the gun rights hardliners fight to eliminate permits for concealed carry, as Arizona has done.

Eventually, King gave up any hope of armed self-defense and embraced nonviolence more completely. Others in the civil rights movement, however, embraced the gun.

One of the most indelible images of the 1960s is a photograph from Life magazine of Malcolm X looking out a window with a long M-1 carbine in his hands, the rifle pointed up to the sky. For blacks unhappy with the progress achieved by King's marches, the gun became a symbol of the "by any means necessary" philosophy.

The Black Panthers took Malcolm X's approach to the extreme, openly carrying guns as they patrolled for police abuses on the streets of Oakland. They even made guns part of their official uniform, along with the black beret and leather jacket. Every member learned about Marxism and firearms safety.

California passed a law to disarm the Panthers and then Congress, after King was assassinated by James Early Ray, passed the Gun Control Act of 1968 -- the first major federal gun control since the 1930s. These laws fueled the rise of the modern gun rights movement, which self-consciously borrowed tactics from the civil rights movement.

One lesson the gun advocates took was from the early King and his more aggressive followers: If the police can't (or won't) to protect you, a gun may be your last line of defense. Inspired by that idea, the gun lobby has grown so strong that even after the Tucson mass murder there is almost no likelihood of new gun laws being passed.
Whether a broader acceptance of the King's later pacifism would have made us safer than choosing guns, we will never know.
Adam Winkler: MLK and His Guns

Republicans claim majority in Alabama House and Senate for 1st time in 136 years

Published: Tuesday, November 02, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- TheAlabama Republican Party on Tuesday evening declared that its candidates had captured a majority of seats in Alabama's House and Senate, ending 136 years of Democratic control.

It marks the first time since 1874 -- the post-Civil War period known as Reconstruction -- that the Republicans have held control of the state Legislature. The Republicans cited unofficial results showing that the GOP will have 60 of 105 seats in the Alabama House and 22 of 35 seats in the Senate.

State Republican Party Chairman Rep. Mike Hubbard of Auburn issued the following statement:

“I could not be more pleased with today’s historic results,” Hubbard said. “There are many people who played an integral role in helping us to achieve this goal, including Gov. Bob Riley, our hardworking staff who implemented our Campaign 2010 strategy, our donors who believed we would be successful and the candidates who made the decision to be a part of this historic election cycle.

“This is more than just an historic day for the Alabama Republican Party, it is a victory for all Alabamians who believe in cutting wasteful spending, ending corruption and creating a business-friendly Alabama that will foster job growth,” Hubbard added. “We look forward to working with Governor-elect Bentley and his administration to change the culture legislature in Montgomery.”

Gov. Bob Riley issued the following statement on what he, too, said was a turning point in Alabama history:

“This is a pivotal day in the history of our state,” Riley said. “For years, we tried to pass reforms to make government more open and accountable to the people, but every year Democrats killed reform. Tonight, the people of Alabama have spoken and the obstacles to reform have been removed.”

"During the 2006 campaign, Republicans and Democrats running for the Legislature campaigned on promises to pass ethics reforms if elected to office. However, Republican attempts to make good on those promises were thwarted at every turn by the Democrats."

Riley said he believes voters could tell which party was committed to positive reforms and which was "clinging to the old, tired politics of the past."

“Today’s vote is a clarion call from Alabamians that they are tired of the backroom deals and broken promises of the Democrats in the Legislature,” he said. “The people want results-driven, reform-minded conservatives to lead this state in the right direction. I’m confident they will not be disappointed.”

Republicans claim majority in Alabama House and Senate for 1st time in 136 years | al.com