When the left liked guns

By Joseph Farah

Black Panther Party founders Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton standing in the street, armed with a Colt .45 and a shotgun

How do you know the left is firmly in charge of the political and cultural establishment in America?

Because now they want to ban guns.

As a former leftist revolutionary during my misguided youth, I recall with crystal clarity when the radical left of the 1960s brazenly bore arms in public, boasted about firearms training, stockpiled arms and ammo and even engaged in armed violence against police.

The Black Panther Party, originally, by the way, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, is a case in point. The organization, led by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, were often referred to in the ’60s as “the vanguard of the revolution.”

They were known for ambushing police. Newton himself, after being freed from prison for the killing of Oakland police officer John Frey, boasted of murdering him. James Forman, Black Panther Party “minister of foreign affairs,” called for blowing up police stations, killing Southern governors and mayors and murdering 500 cops. They took full advantage of the Second Amendment and California laws that permitted the carrying of loaded rifles and shotguns in public, as long as they were not concealed or pointed at anyone. In May 1967, the Panthers literally invaded, fully armed, the State Assembly of the California Legislature. Later they organized an armed march on the state Capitol when lawmakers introduced legislation banning the carrying of loaded weapons in public.

All of this made them the heroes of the left. So-called “civil rights attorneys” like Charles Garry and William Kunstler and the American Civil Liberties Union defended them for their brazen calls for armed struggle, armed attacks and armed intimidation tactics.

But that was then, and this is now.

Today, the left rules.

And now the left wants to disarm the citizenry – and there is nary a dissenter among its ranks.

Do you get the picture?

The revolutionary left of the 1960s and 1970s – including Barack Obama pals like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn – saw armed struggle as a means to an end. The end for them was control of the power structure. Now they have achieved it.

It wasn’t just a handful of radicals who took this position back then. Tom Hayden, who later married Jane Fonda and was elected to the California Assembly once invaded by the Black Panthers, was among those who preached about the absolute need for bearing arms and achieving some degree of expertise in their use.

These folks were the darlings and heroes and poster children of liberals everywhere.

The only difference between now and then is who is running things.

Just as V.I. Lenin sold the Bolsheviks on armed struggle, so, too, he was quick to confiscate the guns when he achieved tyrannical power in the Soviet Union.

It’s simply history repeating itself.

Those radicals of the ’60s and ’70s – and I regretfully and penitently admit to being one of them – literally blazed the trail for Barack Obama and the new, new left.

The New Left, as it was known back then, worshipped firearms.

The new, new left does, too – as long as it maintains a monopoly on them and state power.

Make no mistake about it: There are many misguided liberals today who really believe that banning guns will reduce violence in our society. But the hard left that steers their ship of state knows better. Now it’s about control – total control – and the elimination of all potential opposition.

I’m telling you this as someone who has been on both sides of the fence.

I was there. I believed. I saw. I witnessed.

Today I know better. I recognize we live in an imperfect society – like all worldly, fallen institutions and cultures.

And that’s why we need to defend ourselves from evil people – people like those who seek totalitarian control over our country and a monopoly on armed force. They will do almost anything to achieve it.

Don’t ever let them have it.

 

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Joseph Farah

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union. Read more of Joseph Farah's articles here.


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