NRA Uses MLK Day To Push Guns
The NRA brings on a black man, Colion Noir, who it refers to as “an NRA news commentator,” to talk about how much Martin Luther King, Jr. loved guns.
Noir begins with a message that is unlikely to resonate strongly with the NRA’s many members, saying if King were alive today he would “look at our current president and smile, not because of his politics, but because of what his presence in the White House represents.” After explaining that President Barack Obama would have been “arrested or even beaten for drinking from the wrong water fountain” 50 years ago, he adds, “notwithstanding some of President Obama’s policies on gun control, that’s a hell of a lot of progress if you ask me.”
Quickly, Noir shifts his message to gun control, pointing out the fact that he was granted a concealed handgun license, while historical record shows that King applied for one and was denied. “Let’s not forget, the first forms of gun control were created to keep people like me from having guns,” he says, invoking his shared race with King.
Noir goes on to try to reconcile King’s “non-violent” reputation with his apparent desire to protect himself with a gun. “When Dr. King was denied [the firearm license],” he says, “he did the next best thing and surrounded himself with people with guns.” Presuming to know what King believed, he adds, “In my heart, based on Dr. King’s own actions, I don’t believe that Dr. King would ever advocate leaving a family, or anyone for that matter, defenseless in the face of violent life threatening danger.”
Imagine if a gun had never gotten into the hands of James Earl Ray.
