As noted by Ammo.com, the NRA has been involved in promoting the civil rights of blacks for nearly as long as the organization has been in existence, since the late 1870s.
“First, the narrative of the NRA as some sort of crypto-racist organization is simply false. In the first place, the NRA is a single-issue organization,” the web site noted in an analysis of gun rights in the Civil Rights era.
To prove the point, former Democratic politicians like Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada managed a “B” rating from the NRA as well as campaign donations because he consistently voted against circumventing gun rights, though he voted along party lines on just about every other issue.
Moreover, “the NRA has historically opposed laws that were virtually tailor made to deny African-Americans the right to keep and bear arms,” Ammo.com noted further.
As for defending the civil rights of blacks, Leftists have claimed that the NRA was supportive of disarming the Black Panthers in the 1960s. That’s true; but there was a reason for it.
The NRA has always been an organization that supports the rule of law and law enforcement. As noted by the History Channel, dozens of members of the militant Black Panthers group showed up armed with shotguns, rifles, and handguns on the steps of the California capital to essentially call for all blacks to arm themselves (for revolution if need be, which went without saying).
California’s response was to pass the “Mulford Act, a state bill prohibiting the open carry of loaded firearms, along with an addendum prohibiting loaded firearms in the state Capitol,” the History Channel reported.
Did the NRA support that bill? Yes, because the NRA does not support armed insurrection or violent revolution, which is what the Black Panthers often advocated. It had nothing to do with their skin color and is no different than the NRA opposing armed Left-wing anarchists with Antifa who agitate for violent revolution.
The NRA has always supported equal gun rights for all Americans
Some have claimed that the NRA also trained blacks in firearms use so they could opposed the KKK. While there is some controversy surrounding such claims, what is known is that a) the KKK was an anti-black, racist domestic terrorist organization founded by Democrats; and b) blacks had every right to fear them and to consider being armed to combat them. (Related: Actor James Woods drops a truth bomb about the NRA and mass shootings.)
As Ammo.com notes, the KKK (and Democrats) are responsible for a host of gun control laws today:
Many gun control laws to this day stem from the KKK's fear of armed and independent minorities. The Rosewood Massacre in 1923 – a bloodbath led by a white mob that resulted in the destruction of an entire black community in Florida – was a clear example of how an armed black people could prevent future KKK raids.
Finally, the NRA is highly supportive of one of the leading (and growing) black gun rights groups, the National African American Gun Association. In a recent blog post, the NRA celebrated the group by interviewing its founder, Philip Smith, who started the group after moving to Georgia from California.
“I started the National African American Gun Association (NAG) in February 2015 in honor of Black History Month. It reflects the African American community's unique 400-year history with firearms and our goal is to become the organization that the African American community can turn to for questions, news, and education regarding firearms,” he said.
The Left’s claim that the NRA is a terrorist organization and that it has always opposed allowing blacks to be armed is as false as their claim that President Donald Trump is a racist.
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