Did you know that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Once attempted to buy
a firearm for the purpose of self-defense? Bet many of you did not.
Let us discuss.
What happened: Dr. King, before he was the leader of his
movement for the equality of all races once attempted to own a gun. He
wanted it for the sole purpose of protecting his family from the mobs that
would sometimes lynch people of color and those who sympathized with
them. Basically, it was the same logic that most people have when buying a
gun for personal protection, to defend oneself and family. However, the Alabama
authorities denied Dr. King the ability to purchase a gun. Their logic
was that it was to protect Dr. King who was black and thus he did not need a
firearm. Of course we know this to be a biased opinion based on racism
and thus Dr. King was denied the right to self-defense.
Implications: This can mean several things.
1) That Dr. King while not a violent man
recognized the right to protect oneself and by de facto logic the second
amendment of the Constitution.
2) This may have impacted his development
into a national leader on civil rights by him renouncing violence as he may
have thought that by even having the gun at that point it would be yet another
excuse by authorities to arrest him or even call him a hypocrite.
Conclusion: Whichever of the two implications
you believe in (or both as I do), it shows Dr. King had an understanding of the
power of the gun representing the potential for violence in comparison to his nonviolent
civil rights movement. So with this, does it change your opinion on who
Dr. King is and what you think of him as a person? For me, it did as I
gained a certain level of respect and admiration (more than I already had) as
he is someone who knew the difference between the power of the gun and the
power of peoples voices.
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