County GOP Auctions Rifle In MLK's Honor

[CreekDog]

If one is going to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., I think it's wrong to do it with a gun. He is probably best known for non-violence and having been shot by a gun.

But like other things, this is more about conservatives and Republicans, and gun advocates creating the Martin Luther King, Jr. that they wish existed, without regard to the one that actually did.

Pro-union
Advocated for government solutions to poverty
Non-violence to solve issues of inequality and injustice
Anti-war
Civil Disobedience (yes, he broke laws and got arrested to further justice)

These people aren't honoring Dr. King, they are honoring their own hobbies and revisionist histories.

Josh Marshall – January 13, 2014, 11:14 PM EST3577

The geniuses who run the Multnomah County Republican Party in Multnomah County, Oregon are honoring Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln by raffling off a rifle in their honor.

From the MCP website ...

Portland, OR January 13, 2014: Multnomah Country Republicans recognize the incredible time of year we are in. In successive months to start the year, we celebrate the legacy of two great Republicans who demonstrated leadership and courage that all of us still lean on today: Martin Luther King, Jr and Abraham Lincoln. In celebrating these two men, and the denial of the rights they fought so hard against, the Multnomah County Republican Party announces that we have started our third raffle for an AR-15 rifle (or handgun of the winner’s choice). The drawing will be held at our Lincoln Day Dinner on February 15th, 2014. Tickets are once again $10 apiece, or 12 for $100, and there is a hard cap of 500 tickets in the raffle.

Notably, both honorees are associated with gun violence. In fact, Dr. King was shot to death with a 30-06 Remington Game-master.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/county-gop-auctions-off-rifle-in-mlks-honor

[hlthe2b]

1. THey know damned well what they are doing and I'd bet it has nothing to do with "honoring", but

rather, sending a dog whistle to their most rabidly racist supporters.

[CreekDog]

2. i agree

i'm sure there are other reasons in addition to that too.

[Scuba]

10. Stochastic terrorism.

[CreekDog]

8. to be fair, the rally will have one black person in attendance

well, if a photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. counts as attending.

[jsr]

9. Precisely.

[NuclearDem]

3. "celebrate the legacy of two great Republicans...Martin Luther King, Jr..."

[geckosfeet]

4. MLK applied for a gun permit but was turned down - they were afraid of him.

So he hired armed guards.
MLK and His Guns

Most people think King would be the last person to own a gun. Yet in the mid-1950s, as the civil rights movement heated up, King kept firearms for self-protection. In fact, he even applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

A recipient of constant death threats, King had armed supporters take turns guarding his home and family. He had good reason to fear that the Klan in Alabama was targeting him for assassination.

I suppose that we can all agree that he was shot to death though.

[KamaAina]

5. I'd be surprised if the Multnomah County Repuke Party had a dozen members

that's Portlandia and its close-in 'burbs.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Are they going to auction off a noose in memory of Nathan Hale?

[SecularMotion]

7. Martin Luther King and Today's Gun Advocates

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated 45 years ago yesterday, and one of the interesting little sidelights to the debate over guns that you might not be aware of is that gun advocates claim King as one of their own. You see, King had armed guards protect his family, and at one point applied for a permit in Alabama to carry a concealed weapon himself. He was turned down, since in the Jim Crow days the state of Alabama wasn't about to let black men carry guns.

You can find references to these facts on all kinds of pro-gun web sites, as nonsensical as it may seem. Gun advocates want to claim King as part of their cause, but also want to completely repudiate everything he believed about the power of nonviolence, which is kind of like Exxon saying John Muir would have favored drilling for oil in Yosemite because he sometimes rode in cars. The reason Martin Luther King sought armed protection was there were significant numbers of people who wanted to kill him, and eventually one of them succeeded. If you're a target for assassination, you should go ahead and buy a gun. But most of us aren't.

http://prospect.org/article/martin-luther-king-and-todays-gun-advocates