ATLANTA, GA – The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in order to invoke social equality, is calling for defensive use of firearms as a response to the police brutality culture seen by many as ripping apart black communities across the country. As reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, SCLC Georgia chapter president Reverend Samuel Mosteller was the initiating voice rallying behind this initiative.
Mosteller was quoted as saying the following: “You stand there, [police] shoot. You run, they shoot. We’re going to have to take a different tack.” It only seems logical, therefore, for the most direct defensive response is to shoot back. Martin Luther King always said nonviolent defense was the best tactic toward social change; sometimes, argues the SCLC, when combatting an armed and violent enemy force, that requires appropriate use of the Second Amendment. Especially for young blacks who feel like vulnerable targets for militarized, trigger-happy cops.
But this isn’t just Mosteller stepping out of bounds and claiming to speak for Dr. King without any proof as to the peaceful intent behind guns. Indeed, there is historical corroboration for such a claim. As noted by CounterCurrent News:
“William Worthy, a journalist well known for his coverage of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, once reported that during a visit to King’s home, he noticed so many weapons in the house that he described the residence as “an arsenal.” He even accidentally sat down on a loaded firearm tucked into an armchair.“
There we have it – straight from history. Dr. King wished for nonviolent activism, but did not see self-defense via weaponry as a contradiction to that philosophy. And just in case the full nuanced point of such an idea still isn’t perfectly clear, I’ll let Dr. King take it from here. Below is taken from his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech:
“It must be emphasized that nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards; it does resist. If one uses these methods because he is afraid or merely because he lacks the instruments of violence, he is not truly nonviolent. This is why Gandhi often said that if cowardice is the only alternative to violence, it is better to fight. He made this statement conscious of the fact that there is always another alternative: no individual or group need submit to any wrong, nor need they use violence to right the wrong; there is the way of nonviolent resistance.
“This is ultimately the way of the strong man. It is not a method of stagnant passivity. The phrase “passive resistance”; often gives the false impression that this is a sort of “do-nothing method” in which the resister quietly and passively accepts evil. But nothing is further from the truth. For while the nonviolent resister is passive in the sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his opponent, his mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade his opponent that he is wrong. The method is passive physically, but strongly active spiritually. It is not passive non-resistance to evil; it is active nonviolent resistance to evil.”
