• PersnickityPenguin
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    8 months ago

    It’s pretty well known that the Black Panthers movement back in the 1960s and '70s that promoted black people to open carry weapons was a huge motivation for Republicans, the NRA and Ronald Reagan to pass gun control legislation.

    Yes that’s right, I said the NRA supported gun control regulation:

    “Many of these gun laws specifically and explicitly restricted Black persons’ ability to possess and carry firearms. A more recent and salient historical example is the Mulford Act of 1967, which outlawed the open carrying of loaded firearms. The Mulford Act was signed into law by California’s Republican governor Ronald Reagan with the support of the National Rifle Association. Although it is not explicitly stated in the act, the passage of this particular gun control law was motivated by the open carrying of loaded firearms by members of the Black Panther Party who were conducting patrols in Oakland neighborhoods to protect Black residents from police brutality (Anderson, 2021; Cottrol & Diamond, 1991; Winkler, 2011).”

    https://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-269

    And

    “The law, AB 1591—better known as the Mulford Act and named for its author, Alameda County Republican Assemblymember Don Mulford—banned the carrying of firearms in public, making it a felony to do so without a government-issued license.”

    https://californialocal.com/localnews/statewide/ca/article/show/4412-california-gun-control-reagan-black-panthers/

    I think there’s some documentaries about it as well.