Stephen Colbert mocks comparison of gun rights fight to civil rights movement (legal, deaths)

[Goodnight]

Honestly do we need a gun appreciation day with 30,000 deaths due to guns a year, and Martin Luther King whose approach was non-violence protest would have supported gun appreciation day.

Last Friday Larry Ward, chairman of national Gun Appreciation Day, defended his decision to schedule Gun Appreciation Day on the same weekend as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Ward claimed that MLK would have supported Gun Appreciation Day, a claim that Colbert draws into serious question with the following remark.

"Yes, Dr. Martin Luther King would be pro-gun just as surely as Jesus would be pro-nail.”

Stephen Colbert mocks comparison of gun rights fight to civil rights movement - National Political Buzz | Examiner.com

[Wayland Woman]

He hit a home run with that episode.

[swbtoo]

^^^ No home run there. He's too young and inexperienced to understand.

[Goodnight]

Originally Posted by southward bound

^^^ No home run there. He's too young and inexperienced to understand.

MLK was a gun supporter, what did we miss? Why not just move gun appreciation day to MLK day.

[lycos679]

I like Colbert, but he's full of it. Supporting gun control back then was just supporting racism.

Adam Winkler: MLK and His Guns

[jojajn]

Originally Posted by Goodnight

MLK was a gun supporter, what did we miss? Why not just move gun appreciation day to MLK day.

Wasn't MLK assassinated by a gun?

[Goodnight]

Originally Posted by lycos679

I like Colbert, but he's full of it. Supporting gun control back then was just supporting racism.

Adam Winkler: MLK and His Guns

Eventually, King gave up any hope of armed self-defense and embraced nonviolence more completely. Others in the civil rights movement, however, embraced the gun.

I can't see anyone that was killed by a gun being supportive, before or after.

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by jojajn

Wasn't MLK assassinated by a gun?

MLK was assassinated by James Earl Ray.

The gun was the tool, not the aggressor - this is a common disconnect amongst those who are reflexively “against guns”.

Carry the thought through fully & you’ll see the problem isn’t the gun, it’s who has the gun & how they use it. Some of the worst gun abusers are law-enforcement officers, they point guns at non-violent offenders, routinely violate basic gun-safety rules, shoot innocents without cause, they seem to have a fetish for shooting animals & our system of laws rewards bad behavior with exemptions to laws for them.

When you basically have *two* legal systems- one for cops & one for everyone else, you’re going to have problems & we certainly do. I’m fairly certain MLK would be against every podunk police force in the country having mraps & flash-bang grenades, as it was the actions of the police against black Americans that were the crux (and the impetus for) the civil rights movement.

Racists in that time period didn’t *need* to don their full KKK regalia to oppress people of color, when the powers-that-be had a uniformed police force to do their dirty work. That problem still exists & may well have worsened since MLK’s time.

[Floorist]

Who watches Colbert?

[Cape Cod Todd]

Originally Posted by Floorist

Who watches Colbert?

I don't he is an idiot.





Does anyone stop to think that guns might actually be used to protect people?

Yes they are used to intimidate and murder people round the world but how many deaths have been prevented by the presence of a firearm? There is no way of telling how many have been saved by a gun in the hands of a good person.



Guns can be used to take away someones Civil Rights but guns can also be used to protect those very Rights as well.