[Itse]

Originally Posted by peter12

Blacks and gays were some of the earliest, and strongest proponents of open-carry.

Originally Posted by Dan02

I'll take facts I've pulled out of my ass for $1000 Alex.

I haven't been actively reading this thread so so I'm late to comment on this, but nobody commented on this yet and peter12 obviously can't defend his point anymore, so I want to point out that peter12 did not completely pull this out of his ass.

For some history, in 1966 the Black Panthers started armed citizens patrols in Oakland to essentially protect the black community from police brutality. (This was pretty much the start of the movement.) In response to this California created the Mulford Act banning open carry, a law that still stands. This got national attention when the Panthers marched on California capitol in protest, openly armed. I don't know what the local gay community thought about this at that time, but I would expect at least parts of it sided with the Panthers, as the problem of police brutality was a serious problem for the gay community back then.

Obviously the Black Panthers lost much of their popular support in the seventies, but their remains still have the same attitudes.



Of note; the Huey P. Newton Gun Club in Texas is the only current one I've read about.

I can't comment on how common black and gay support for open carry was back in the day. The sixties were a very different time in this regard.

For further reading:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug01/bar...therchap1.html

...the sight of the cocky and confrontational Newton, winking at officers from behind his weapon and challenging white authority awed most blacks. Such confrontations with police were common in the early days of the party, as Newton, his law book in one hand and shotgun in the other, capitalized on every opportunity to demonstrate his command of the streets in front of an audience:

[Newton]watched the shaky officer approach, surrendering his license as required but refusing to yield any information not demanded by statute.
“What are you doing with the guns?” the patrolman asked, torn between obvious fear and hostility.

“What are you doing with your gun?” Newton countered…

Visibly tense and on edge, the police [began] to toss hostile questions at Newton…he answered jibe for jibe, seeming to enjoy the long-delayed meeting, knowing that one such confrontation might be worth a hundred members for the party. He was in his element, playing to the crowd as he asserted his right to bear arms, announcing his intention to open fire if the police should draw their guns or try to disarm his men illegally. In the end, the police were beaten.

The guns thus figured in the Panthers’ “staging” of the revolution in three important ways: black men were finally on equal footing with the police, able to defend themselves from brutality; police were intimidated and backed off; and the community of black onlookers was empowered by the individual act of defiance.