In this May 2, 1967 file photo taken by Walt Zeboski, armed members of the Black Panthers Party stand in the corridor of the Capitol in Sacramento today, May 2, 1967. They were protesting a bill before an Assembly committee restricting the carrying of arms in public. (AP Photo/Walt Zeboski, File)
History has a funny way of coming back around. Both the Black Panthers and these [Michigan] protestors were exercising their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble. Both were exercising their Second Amendment right to bear arms — except only the Panthers were doing so in a way that matched the issue being protested. The Michigan demonstrators were using their rifles, apparently, to stop a pandemic.
Just to be clear: There may not be a vaccine or even a proven treatment for Covid-19 yet, but an AK-47 is not effective either.
Protesters with rifles watch outside the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., Wednesday, April 15, 2020. Flag-waving, honking protesters drove past the Michigan Capitol on Wednesday to show their displeasure with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s orders to keep people at home and businesses locked during the new coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
So what was this demonstration really about? Exercising their Second Amendment rights? Making America Great Again? Reminding people whose country they believe it belongs to?
More importantly, why was America not more fearful of the displays? That’s not a rhetorical question, because it has an answer: Armed protest is a lot easier to swallow when it’s White and conservative.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
