Joe Huffman often makes the point that gun banners are bigots. We need to make them as reviled as the KKK.
All well and good, but there are methods that work and methods that don’t. Want an example of one that failed?
Well, in 1967 the Black Panthers marched into the State Capitol in Sacramento to demonstrate against a bill that would have restricts their rights to exercise open carry of loaded firearms.
As part of this demonstration, they openly carried loaded firearms, to demonstrate that They Were Not Slaves. They were Free Men, who were Not to be Debarred the Use of Arms, etc., etc.
Now, Second Amendment aside, at that time, California law allowed loaded open carry. Their actions were perfectly lawful.
A group of thirty young black men and women, dressed in black leather jackets, berets, and dark glasses, crosses the lawn to the steps of the state capitol. Many of them are armed with shotguns, though they are careful to keep the weapons pointed towards the sky. As they approach the entrance to the capitol building, Governor Ronald Reagan, speaking to a cluster of schoolchildren nearby, catches sight of their advance, turns on his heel, and runs. Still marching in tight formation, the group reaches the steps, faces the crowd, and listens attentively as their leader, Bobby Seale, reads Executive Mandate Number One of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense to the startled audience. The mandate, addressed to “the American people in general and the black people in particular,” details the “terror, brutality, murder, and repression of black people” practiced by “the racist power structure of America,” and concludes that “the time has come for black people to arm themselves against this terror before it is too late.” Cameras flash as Seale finishes reading and the defiant group proceeds into the building. One wrong turn, and the delegation stumbles onto the Assembly floor, currently in debate over the Mulford Act, aimed to prohibit citizens from carrying loaded firearms on their persons or in their vehicles. Chaos ensues: legislators dive under desks, screaming, “Don’t shoot!” and security guards hurriedly surround the party, grabbing at weapons and herding everyone into the hallway. All the while cameramen and reporters run back and forth, grinning in anticipation of tomorrow’s headlines. “Who are you?” one manages to shout before the assembly is led into an elevator. Sixteen-year-old “little” Bobby Hutton is the first to reply, and his words remain an echo in the hallway just before the doors slide shut with a soft hiss:
“We’re the Black Panthers.
We’re black people with guns.
What about it?”
What was the legislature’s reaction?
They banned loaded open carry. I don’t know what were the chances the Mulford Act would be passed before the demonstration, but it was an absolute certainty afterward. Thanks to these misguided jerks, for more than forty years in California, only unloaded open carry is permitted. There’s progress on getting that fixed, but it’s taken all that time to get to this point.
I cannot think of a more literal example of “scaring the white people.”
Just sayin.’