Gun advocates should be able to speak out about their cause all they want. But having already scheduled Gun Appreciation Day right on top of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, we think the least they could do is to keep the civil rights giant's name out of the conversation — and especially out of arguments this absurd.
The "guns could have prevented slavery" line of reasoning that one advocate, Larry Ward, presented recently has to be one of the most laughable and desperate talking points in recent memory. From Ebony:
Pro-gun advocate Larry Ward has been making the rounds on cable news programs this week to promote his "Gun Appreciation Day" event and to criticize the Obama administration's plans to introduce new legislation in the wake of the tragic elementary school massacre in Newtown, CT.
While Ward has largely been ridiculed for holding such an event, and for scheduling it on Martin Luther King's holiday, in spite of the late civil rights leader's legacy of non-violence, he has remained defiant …
"I think Martin Luther King, Jr. would agree with me if he were alive today that if African Americans had been given the right to keep and bear arms from day one of the country's founding, perhaps slavery might not have been a chapter in our history," Ward added.
Read more at Ebony.
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