Republican politicians, including California’s Ronald Reagan, swiftly moved to enact expansive new gun-control measures when Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense advocated carrying guns in public—as permitted by California law at the time. Reagan claimed that he saw “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” Fear of black people with guns also suffused a congressional report produced after a summer of urban unrest in 1967, which drew “the firm conclusion that effective firearms controls are an essential contribution to domestic peace
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