Friday, January 30, 2015

Is It Time For The Huey P. Newton Gun Club To Visit Austin?

“no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” - See more at: http://disinfo.com/2011/08/the-black-panthers-and-the-gun-rights-movement/#sthash.1hCCErCD.dpuf
"I see no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying a loaded weapon."
California Governor Ronald Reagan (R), May 2, 1967


There have been loud calls by the Tea Klux Klan and the conservafools that run our state legislature (boo hiss) to enact Open Carry laws here in the Lone Star State because believe it or not, my home state is one of just six in the nation that do not allow you to carry modern weapons without a permit..  

And with racist idiots like the Fort Worth based Open Carry Texas walking around doing nekulturny crap like threatening state legislators that  are lukewarm to the idea, that's a good thing.  I'm not in favor of an open carry law unless there is a provision in it to do instant background checks that weed out people who shouldn't have access to weapons whose sole purpose is to kill mass quantities of human beings on a battlefield in the first place.

But with GOP control of both houses and a new GOP governor, if they propose and file it, if it has enough support it'll probably pass.

http://disinfo.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Big-Man-Elbert-Howard-Black-Panther-Party-founding-member-oakland-1968.jpg
But I'm seeing something in our past history that might change their conservaminds about just how great an idea open carry is, and it's based on events that happened in California back on May 2, 1967.

To protest the Mulford Act, a bill that was being proposed to repeal the law that allowed for the open carry of loaded weapons on California streets, on that day 24 Black Panther Party men and six Black Panther Party women armed with .357 Magnums, 12-gauge shotguns, and .45 caliber pistols arrived on the Cali capitol's West lawn, climbed up the capitol steps, and marched through the capitol building before Bobby Seale read Executive Mandate Number 1, a statement about Black people arming themselves against the anti-Black terror aimed at us before it was too late.

The Panthers opposed the Mulford Act because it targeted their armed police patrols designed to end the epidemic of police brutality and inform people of the constitutional rights,.  Members of the BPP would listen to police calls on a short wave radio, rush to the scene of the arrest with law books in hand and inform the person being arrested of their constitutional rights. BPP members carried publicly displayed loaded weapons on these patrols while being careful to stand no closer than ten feet from the arrest so as not be accused of interfering with the arrest.

Of course the sight of Black peeps with guns marching through the Capitol building combined with their police patrols, and Malcolm X's statements concerning  Black people exercising their 2nd Amendment rights scared the crap out of the powers that be, and they reacted in California by passing the Mulford Act  and they, along with the NRA pushing for increased gun control.

I noted that Open Carry Texas attempts to try to hold an armed march through Houston's historic predominately Black Fifth Ward neighborhood on MLK Day and Juneteenth and South Dallas ceased and desisted after the Huey P Newton Gun Club marched through South Dallas last August and members of the Houston New Black Panther Party chapter confronted the Open Carry Texas bigots at a meeting informing them they were not welcome in our neighborhoods while showing of their assault rifles

Maybe it's time for the Huey P. Newton Gun club to take a drive down I-35 south and do some lobbying for their 2nd Amendment rights as other Black 2nd Amendment advocates join them in Austin for a rally at the Capitol

Any bets on how fast the Lone Star Republicans will drop the idea of open carry when they realize that open carry laws cuts both ways and we Black folks also own guns?    

And how fast would they back off of Open Carry laws if those same Black open carry advocates marched through the ritzy Dallas area enclave of Highland Park, Houston's River Oaks and San Antonio's Alamo Heights or some ring suburban neighborhoods?

Maybe then and only then will those Republicans see the error of their conservaways and ponder the  wisdom of Saint Ronald of Reagan's words about guns 48 years ago.

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