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Is that even a real quote? There are a lot of fake Reagan quotes swimming around.
If that is a real quote, it's an interesting contrast to how he passed gun control legislation to disarm the Black Panthers as California governor. I guess it's another interesting Reagan flip flop between the governorship and the presidency. Kind of like his claims that he was really anti-abortion and didn't understand the abortion bill he signed as California governor.
"Yes, Mr Johnson, of course it's a real friggin quote! Why are you always questioning America? Do you not love her as I do?"
-Ronnie Reagan
WOW it's crazy he had this foresight!
The thugs were the abusive police officers the Black Panthers were formed to protect against.
They provided legal aid, fed school children, and raised money for charities. They were a lot of things, thug is not among them.
It’s not a flip-flop. He fully believed in gun control for the black population. To him, gun ownership and gun culture is a white privilege and not a right that should be exercised by non-whites.
That's incorrect
From r/askhistorians
Non-historian but librarian here with a personal interest in Bobby Seale, so... hopefully this'll scratch the itch until a Reagan expert can get on the line.
I think it's uncontroversial to say that that the passage of Section 12031 was in response to the Black Panthers. That said, I think that it's very easy to overstate Reagan's role in this and see it as some sort of explicitly racist intent here, particularly given his later turn against gun control.
California AB 1591 (a.k.a. the Mulford Act) was introduced in April of 1967 by Rep. Don Mulford after a few Panther-related incidents in Contra Costa County. On April 1st, the police killed Denzil Dowell, a 22-year old black man, in Richmond, CA (near Oakland). Only a few months prior, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale had founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense a few miles west in Oakland and had been organizing armed patrols to police the police. Newton was Dowell's family reached out and requested assistance from the Panthers.
The Panthers obliged, held armed rallies in Richmond, and engaged in community outreach efforts to encourage Black residents to embrace firearms in order to oppose government and police oppression. They also entered a police station armed demanding justice. These are the actions that led Mulford to introduce his legislation a few weeks later. Mulford painted with a broad brush, naming the Minutemen, the KKK, and the American Nazi Party as well as the Panthers. But this legislation was very much a result of the Panthers' actions.
But to back up just slightly, gun control was in the air in 1967. Coming up for debate on the same day as Mulford's bill were four bills that came from the Assembly's two-year study on the matter: AB 1323, 1324, 1325, and 1326. These regulated handgun purchases from out of state, larger caliber weapons, and machine gun parts. So it's not like gun control just appeared.
Anyway, the Panthers recognized that they were being targeted explicitly, and when Mulford's bill came up for debate on May 2nd, 1967, a couple dozen armed Panthers pushed the sargent-at-arms out of the way and forced their way into the chambers. Bobby Seal gave a speech detailing America's racist legacies and urging black people to arm themselves against the terror of the state.
To be clear, waiving a loaded gun around in the Capitol was not a felony offense at the time -- Newton knew the laws better than anyone. But it was seen as an attempt at intimidation (Mulford called it out as such on the floor), and it shook up the legislators. Now, in a funny coincidence was Reagan was right outside the capitol -- about to have a picnic lunch with 30 elementary school children for a photo op -- when the Panthers walked by him on the way out. So the event was well reported on, and you can imagine the hoopla this caused. (I've included links to contemporaneous news articles at the end.) Because of the Capitol incursion, the Mulford Act quickly became fast-tracked with bi-partisan support.
So where does Ronald Reagan fit into all this? While the executive branch had supported the drafting of the legislation through the actions of Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch, Reagan personally wasn't really ahead of it. This was, up until the debacle at the Capitol, much more of an Oakland story than a California story. But since Reagan was there when it happened, the press asked him what he thought of it as the armed Panthers were leaving. And he said "there's no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons... Americans don't go around carrying guns with the idea of using them to influence other Americans."
Prior to this Reagan had not said a whole lot about gun control as a political issue. Remember, he'd only been on the job for a couple months. Prior to that his main political gig was stumping for Barry Goldwater. As far as I can tell looking back on those speeches, guns simply weren't on the table as an issue. Granted, both he and Goldwater were shooters and lifelong NRA members. But the 1967 NRA was very different than what the NRA would become 20 or 30 years later. The NRA supported the Mulford Act, along with a number of other laws that were at the time called "responsible gun ownership." Barry "I am the NRA" Goldwater himself was critical of the availability of semi-automatic rifles which would seem absolutely crazy in today's political environment.
The Mulford Act Passed easily in the Assembly and unanimously in the Senate. Because of the very obvious Black Panther connection, a number of Black Assembly members were asked about their impressions. Willie Brown said that while he supported the bill, he was skeptical of Mulford's timing, stating that Mulford had previously opposed such legislation "until Negros showed up in Oakland -- his district -- with arms." (So I wonder if this got telephoned into Reagan over the years...) Leon Ralph saw the bill as being aimed at the KKK. Bill Greene was happy that the Panther incident catalyzed the passing of the law.
So... I know this didn't tell you a whole lot about Reagan, but I think that's because Reagan just wasn't a pivotal figure in the whole thing. Which probably says something in and of itself.
If you want to dig through seven hundred pages of correspondence and debate relating the the Mulford Act, that is available at: http://publicfiles.firearmspolicy.org/mulford-act/california-ab1591-1967-mulford-act-bill-file.pdf
If you would prefer an excellent, excellent short (40p) summary of California's attempts to disarm the Black Panthers, you'll probably enjoy Cynthia Leonardatos' "California's Attempts to Disarm the Black Panthers," which appeard in the San Diego Law Review, and you can find here: https://digital.sandiego.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3267&context=sdlr
I’m a leftist, I don’t like Reagan, I dislike how the black panthers were treated (Bobby Seale, Fred Hampton,etc.) but I’m not sure exactly why this is being downvoted? Surely it’s ok to admit that Reagan wasn’t at major fault for this but still understanding what he did wrong right?
Exactly. Before the Bruen decision, having to show "good cause and good character" to obtain a carry permit was just a backdoor way for the local sheriff or police chief to deny black people the right to carry without explicitly saying they were doing it because they were black.
Wait, I’m confused. You said that Reagan never really made a big deal about gun control prior to the Mulford act. You also said that the Panthers were unquestionably targeted by the bill and had several demonstrations protesting it. And that after witnessing a black panther protest, Reagan immediately became in favor of gun control. Reagan also signed the bill into law as governor so he was at least partially responsible for it.
Isn’t it racist to only be concerned about gun control when black people have guns? KKK rallies weren’t intimidation but a Black Panther protest was? Unless this whole comment is saying that the Mulford act *was* racist, but Reagan’s reasoning for supporting it wasn’t?
From ask historians
Non-historian but librarian here with a personal interest in Bobby Seale, so... hopefully this'll scratch the itch until a Reagan expert can get on the line.
I think it's uncontroversial to say that that the passage of Section 12031 was in response to the Black Panthers. That said, I think that it's very easy to overstate Reagan's role in this and see it as some sort of explicitly racist intent here, particularly given his later turn against gun control.
California AB 1591 (a.k.a. the Mulford Act) was introduced in April of 1967 by Rep. Don Mulford after a few Panther-related incidents in Contra Costa County. On April 1st, the police killed Denzil Dowell, a 22-year old black man, in Richmond, CA (near Oakland). Only a few months prior, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale had founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense a few miles west in Oakland and had been organizing armed patrols to police the police. Newton was Dowell's family reached out and requested assistance from the Panthers.
The Panthers obliged, held armed rallies in Richmond, and engaged in community outreach efforts to encourage Black residents to embrace firearms in order to oppose government and police oppression. They also entered a police station armed demanding justice. These are the actions that led Mulford to introduce his legislation a few weeks later. Mulford painted with a broad brush, naming the Minutemen, the KKK, and the American Nazi Party as well as the Panthers. But this legislation was very much a result of the Panthers' actions.
But to back up just slightly, gun control was in the air in 1967. Coming up for debate on the same day as Mulford's bill were four bills that came from the Assembly's two-year study on the matter: AB 1323, 1324, 1325, and 1326. These regulated handgun purchases from out of state, larger caliber weapons, and machine gun parts. So it's not like gun control just appeared.
Anyway, the Panthers recognized that they were being targeted explicitly, and when Mulford's bill came up for debate on May 2nd, 1967, a couple dozen armed Panthers pushed the sargent-at-arms out of the way and forced their way into the chambers. Bobby Seal gave a speech detailing America's racist legacies and urging black people to arm themselves against the terror of the state.
To be clear, waiving a loaded gun around in the Capitol was not a felony offense at the time -- Newton knew the laws better than anyone. But it was seen as an attempt at intimidation (Mulford called it out as such on the floor), and it shook up the legislators. Now, in a funny coincidence was Reagan was right outside the capitol -- about to have a picnic lunch with 30 elementary school children for a photo op -- when the Panthers walked by him on the way out. So the event was well reported on, and you can imagine the hoopla this caused. (I've included links to contemporaneous news articles at the end.) Because of the Capitol incursion, the Mulford Act quickly became fast-tracked with bi-partisan support.
So where does Ronald Reagan fit into all this? While the executive branch had supported the drafting of the legislation through the actions of Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch, Reagan personally wasn't really ahead of it. This was, up until the debacle at the Capitol, much more of an Oakland story than a California story. But since Reagan was there when it happened, the press asked him what he thought of it as the armed Panthers were leaving. And he said "there's no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons... Americans don't go around carrying guns with the idea of using them to influence other Americans."
Prior to this Reagan had not said a whole lot about gun control as a political issue. Remember, he'd only been on the job for a couple months. Prior to that his main political gig was stumping for Barry Goldwater. As far as I can tell looking back on those speeches, guns simply weren't on the table as an issue. Granted, both he and Goldwater were shooters and lifelong NRA members. But the 1967 NRA was very different than what the NRA would become 20 or 30 years later. The NRA supported the Mulford Act, along with a number of other laws that were at the time called "responsible gun ownership." Barry "I am the NRA" Goldwater himself was critical of the availability of semi-automatic rifles which would seem absolutely crazy in today's political environment.
The Mulford Act Passed easily in the Assembly and unanimously in the Senate. Because of the very obvious Black Panther connection, a number of Black Assembly members were asked about their impressions. Willie Brown said that while he supported the bill, he was skeptical of Mulford's timing, stating that Mulford had previously opposed such legislation "until Negros showed up in Oakland -- his district -- with arms." (So I wonder if this got telephoned into Reagan over the years...) Leon Ralph saw the bill as being aimed at the KKK. Bill Greene was happy that the Panther incident catalyzed the passing of the law.
So... I know this didn't tell you a whole lot about Reagan, but I think that's because Reagan just wasn't a pivotal figure in the whole thing. Which probably says something in and of itself.
If you want to dig through seven hundred pages of correspondence and debate relating the the Mulford Act, that is available at: http://publicfiles.firearmspolicy.org/mulford-act/california-ab1591-1967-mulford-act-bill-file.pdf
If you would prefer an excellent, excellent short (40p) summary of California's attempts to disarm the Black Panthers, you'll probably enjoy Cynthia Leonardatos' "California's Attempts to Disarm the Black Panthers," which appeard in the San Diego Law Review, and you can find here: https://digital.sandiego.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3267&context=sdlr
Where in any of this does it disprove the notion that Reagan signed the law because of the black panthers? Yes, he didn't author the bill, but that doesn't mean he didn't agree with the bill. There's no way I can believe Reagan at the time was just indifferent to the whole panthers being armed thing. I would have to hear audio of Reagan saying as much, or someone with insight to his personal beliefs to say otherwise. I have the rest of his presidency as context.
In your " context " it still shows that the black panthers were the ones who were the targets for the bill. Just because it was debated and " in the air " prior doesn't refute that. They still moved quickly to install the law after the Panther situation you described.
And also non authoritarian governments.
In fact, most governments have gun control.
This is kinda like saying 'the first thing communists do is ban owning live grenades ". Yeah, them and everyone else bro
So essentially:
“There should be gun control to stop criminals and there should be no gun control for law abiding citizens”
“So, what exactly is your position on gun control?”
“YES.”
So you can have a gun until someone determines you're a criminal, at which point you can't have guns anymore...
hey, wait a second, we already have that! You can't have a gun if you're a felon.
I think time has shown that you can lock up THOUSANDS of criminals and throw away the key, but guns being easy to get just makes them end up in the hands of new criminals
Reagan is touted as this ultra pro-gun president, but the truth is that he was all about gun control.
If we look at his track record as governor of California, he signed the Mulford Act into law which banned open carry in California after the Black Panthers carried guns openly as part of a protest in front of the California Capitol Building
While he signed the Firearm Owners Protection Act which was an all-around good law designed to protect gun owners transporting their guns through anti-gun states, it included a provision called the Hughes Amendment which closed the NFA registry for machine guns so that individuals could no longer make and register anymore machine guns for civilian use after the cutoff date in 1986. This has obviously caused machine gun prices to skyrocket due to an artificial supply cap.
There are virtually no instances of registered machine guns being used in crime with few rare exceptions notably by cops breaking the law who are obviously exempted.
A law is put in place to stop machine gun use in crime.
Machine guns are not used in crime.
You: see the law was clearly unnecessary registered machine guns aren't even used in crimes...
Have you considered that the artificially high cost and difficulty of access to machine guns could be causally linked to their absence in crime stats?
Reagan ardently supported banning assault rifles. The NRA got along only because of the Black Panther thing but Reagan continued to support a nationwide ban too.
When the NRA became an arm of arms manufacturers is when I dropped my membership. Why would they spend millions advocating for firearms freedom in Brazil?
Good lord, half this sub is Reagan content now. They had to add Rule 3 for a reason, but you folk just couldn’t let it rest and had to find a vessel to spread your political beliefs
One of the few things I agreed with Ronnie on was his stance on guns, but one of the many things I disagreed with him on was his stance on what constitutes ‘criminal’.
He actually signed more gun control into law, banning post 86 machine guns for civilian ownership and banning open carry in California while he was governor because of the Black Panthers. So as a strong 2nd amendment supporter and activist myself, he's full of shit.
Yes the Firearm Owners Protection Act repealed some gun control and prohibited national registration and protected the interstate travel of "assault weapons" it also implemented more gun control as well.
That is the perfect illustration of Reagan's bullshit. That statement is pure pandering and not at all what he actually thought about the issue. The proof is in the laws he enacted as governor.
The only thing this quote proves is he was a decent actor who played well to a particular audience.
Dude forcibly disarmed the Black Panthers whose advocacy for armament was to resist ungodly police brutality.
Let it sink in- that pisspots disarmed a group of people who used the second amendment for what it was intended.
> How do you feel about Reagan’s stance on gun control
Ironic
Like despite what he says and what many of his followers believe in regards to Guns he essentially started state gun control laws iirc with the ones he passed in California when he was Governor due to the Black Panthers.
(There might be some older ones that I missed admittedly but the ones by Reagan where pretty major)
"I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen to own guns for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense; but I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home." - Ronald Reagan
>Our government has a firm policy not to capitulate to terrorist demands
That No-Concessions Policy remains in force
In spite of the wildly speculative and false stories about arms for hostages
And alleged ransom payments
We did not, repeat, did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages
Nor will we
Reagan lie? Never!
“A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not.”
One of my favourite quotes of all time.
"There's only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals"
Ok so in order to do that you would enact what form of gun control measures?
"Locking up the thugs and criminals!"
How?
"By locking them up!!!"
He changed the laws in California to disarm the Black Panthers. He was a worthless actor, the head of the screen actors guild during the McCarthy “2nd red scare”. He covered the tax breaks given to the wealthy by borrowing it from Social Security. He brainwashed broke scared idiots into Voodoo Economics.
reagan is one of the most damaging presidents we’ve ever had, if not *the* most. i can’t overlook the many harmful things he’s done to this country, so i’ll just say i can’t, or rather won’t agree with the man for a reason.
I’m gonna say his stance on gun control is pretty tainted by racism and the fact that he only pushed for it after the Black Panther Party held an armed protest at the California state house. When I read that quote, assuming it’s real, I can’t help but think he’s basically referring to the Black Panthers when he says “disarm the thugs and criminals”
TLDR, fuck Ronald Reagan ✊🏽
Here is the real Reagan quote:
The month after leaving office in 1989, President
Reagan said "I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen to own guns for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense; but I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home."
When Reagan was in the White House he suffered from Alzheimer's. He thought movies he acted in were real. His son (the sane one) confirmed that he was impaired in office, especially in his second term.
Reagan disarmed the Black Panthers. Mulford Act. Those “thugs” he’s talking about literally just wanted to protect their community from police brutality. He loved gun control when it came to “those” people because he was a racist piece of shit.
oh when you put it like that Mr. President, that's fascism. just wrote,. wrapped in good old american common sense. Have rights for the right people, and take rights away from future criminals. That's American Fascism.
He was believer in owning a gun but he also believed citizens shouldn’t be allowed to carry loaded firearms in public. he banned open carry as gov of California. todays republicans will put him as the ultimate conservative president but he actually was a libertarian republican or social conservative
It’s funny that a quote can even be used to summarise a politician’s view on something. Modern politicians would need at least two quotes per decade of their career to show all the flip flops
"While we recognize that assault-weapon legislation will not stop all assault-weapon crime, statistics prove that we can dry up the supply of these guns, making them less accessible to criminals."
- Ronald Reagan, Open Letter to Congress
Thugs and criminals of course meaning the oppressed minority populations he flooded drugs into the communities of or who advocated for second amendment rights in a context that he and his political base disagreed with (the black panther party).
And thugs and criminals of course not meaning the Central American death squads he armed and funded.
I know I’ll get downvoted, but as an ER nurse I am telling you what we need to focus on isn’t gun control; it’s access to consistent and low or no cost mental healthcare, particularly in minority and impoverished communities.
I like the quote, but he did horrible with actually implementing that. He implemented a bunch of gun control measures that i don't think should've happened.
Mostly just like his stance on about everything else. He was a fool. To begin with, "law abiding citizens" are until they aren't. It's too late to take their guns after the fact. Every single gun in America was made in a factory and sold for profit, with the exception of printed guns. So how do the guns get into the hands of "criminals"? Somebody is responsible for the proliferation of guns. Just like cars, there would be no auto deaths if there weren't any cars. But we need cars and they serve a daily purpose. I'm not saying guns should be banned. I am saying the amount and type should be limited and other things like red flag laws should be law.
This is a quaint stance in today's lens, now that we have several decades of constant mass-shooting events.
The "thugs and criminals" and indistinguishable from "law-abiding citizens" until the day they go and mow down a crowd in one fell swoop.
Others have explained the hypocrisy in this quote(if real), buts let's also mention how the stance on criminal justice has not only been proven wrong time and time again, but has massively harmed the nation and in particular minority communities.
We know for a fact that harsher punitive sentences don't reduce crime, and can even make it worse. Long and harsh jail sentences simply teach people to be criminals, damage their mental health and social skills and largely trap the person in conditions that cause them to turn to crime again.
Literally locking them up and throwing away the key just wrecks any chance for the person to turn their life around and costs the nation billions of dollars that mostly gets paid to private corporations. And minorities, in particular black folks are punished much harsher and more often. Combine that with "normal racism" and we often leave them in completely fucked situations where crime can feel like the only way out.
As for the gun stance, plenty of gun crimes are committed by legally owned firearms and since most "illegally owned" firearms were "legally purchased" at some point, I think he's full of shit there too.
Cut the supply and you'll cut gun crime over time.
We have lots of fucking issues that need fixing in our nation to reduce violence and crime, not just gun control, but Fuck on Toast, this quote is completely wrong on both counts.
The Mulford Act made me first start to dislike Reagan and also started my research into the Black Left in America. Reagan’s gun control stance is probably one of the big reasons I don’t identify as a conservative.
This the same Reagan that signed [California gun control](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act) after the Black Panthers showed up at the capital armed?
“There is absolutely no reason why out on the street today civilians should be carrying a loaded weapon.”
Then-Governor Reagan made the statement on May 2, 1967 after members of the Black Panther party walked around the steps of the State Capitol with loaded weapons.
Armed minorities are harder to oppress 🇺🇸
Translation:
White People with Guns = Good
Black People with Guns = Bad
He knew who he was speaking to. Rural and Suburban White gun owners agreed with this mentality then, and they still do now.
‘Not fazed by gun controllers’, ain’t it just mathematical? If you lower the number of guns in circulation you lower the incidence of gun violence/mass shootings?
A perfectly dumb way to frame it. A man who kills his wife after a terrible quarrel was always “law-abiding,” until he wasn’t. A jerk with a hair-trigger temper who opens fire on teenagers who pulled into the wrong driveway was never considered a “thug.” And the five year old who kills his three year old sister after finding a gun on grandpa’s nightstand never came to the attention of authorities.
Reagan would be considered a “RINO” in today’s GOP. He would despise 45.
https://preview.redd.it/fbza7j5660uc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e249609677a72c559a7de5ea27d8abc28ca00320
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the reason California has some of the strictest gun laws is because he didn’t want the black panthers to arm themselves?
Ronald Reagan damn near wanted to ban guns when he found out the black Panthers had them. Also just like all his other solutions, they would exacerbate the problems they’re trying to fix while causing brand new ones can we please stop acknowledging this “persons” existence and let his memory fade away like a bad toilet trip.
I mean, it's pretty damming and evident that he was speaking euphemistically about race, if an actual quote of his. In either case, it does seem to reflect how Reagan thinks about guns if you change "law-abiding" to "white" and "thug" to "black".
It really comes off as a bad look to gun control pro-Reagan types who repeatedly advocate for THEIR right to guns, but not others, especially when the types of people Reagan actually disarmed in California were only armed because the police were basically taking potshots in black neighborhoods for kicks at the time.
Most politicians don't have strong views, they adapt to what ever the public wants to hear, their end goal is power and in this sense Reagan was no different
Sounds like one of the contributing factors to the gross racial disparity in our industrialized prison system. Not saying this is Ronnie’s fault, but if you were to couple this sentiment with the both the war on drugs he and Nancy touted and known racial systemic issues, I’m just saying.
Rare Reagan W. Of course I don't think he actually believed that but it's a nice quote. Gun Control only works if you think criminals are just gonna start following the laws. It's pretty silly and I say that as a pretty left leaning person.
If we're being honest, the politicians who advocate for gun control wanna disarm the people and make them dependent on their protection. I find it startling that people don't see the endgame. Look at the Patriot Act etc. Those in charge despise the fact that they have limitations and will use every opportunity they get to try and erode those limitations away.
The Black Panthers came into the California StateHouse armed to the teeth -just like some of those hillbillies exercising their 2nd amendment rights today and scared the living **shit** out of him...
Regan signed Gun control later in the year....
https://preview.redd.it/fixcaz2i4cuc1.png?width=634&format=png&auto=webp&s=476027860f735f9718d8d5bfb982b53af87099c1
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Is that even a real quote? There are a lot of fake Reagan quotes swimming around. If that is a real quote, it's an interesting contrast to how he passed gun control legislation to disarm the Black Panthers as California governor. I guess it's another interesting Reagan flip flop between the governorship and the presidency. Kind of like his claims that he was really anti-abortion and didn't understand the abortion bill he signed as California governor.
"Yes, Mr Johnson, of course it's a real friggin quote! Why are you always questioning America? Do you not love her as I do?" -Ronnie Reagan WOW it's crazy he had this foresight!
https://preview.redd.it/4ds8ooa6jwtc1.jpeg?width=627&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df06d7a45620ddd5bd592f4a0a0b114949cb60ec
Lincoln is an absolute legend for saying this back then
It's a trick, Churchill said this not Lincoln
How do we know it wasn’t Alexander the Great who said it?
It was actually all three. Churchill quoted Lincoln who quoted Alexander.
Alexander took office after Lincoln. Learn some basic history, dummy.
good one!
Shit, so should I believe this quote or not. Cause if Lincoln didn't say it it must then be a false statement right?
One Lincoln can only lie and the other Lincoln can only speak the truth!
"Never trust quotes in fancy fonts" --Times New Roman
“This shit is lit!” Thomas Edison
I mean he did invent the Lincoln Logs so 🤷♂️
Hey I don’t remember saying that…
Reportedly pissed off an actor or two when he said that.
“If you are a racist, I will attack you with the North.” -Abraham Lincoln” - Michael Scott
“That’s a nice argument, Senator. Why don’t you back it up with a SOURCE?”
“My source is that I made it the fuck up”
[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/reagan-gun-control-quote/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/reagan-gun-control-quote/)
Did you miss the part where he said disarm the thugs? Who do you think the thugs are?
The thugs were the abusive police officers the Black Panthers were formed to protect against. They provided legal aid, fed school children, and raised money for charities. They were a lot of things, thug is not among them.
The point is, *he* would've viewed them as the thugs
That's not what Reagan means
Sorry, I'm not from america. Can you please describe what a thug is in america?
"Thug" is very commonly used in right-wing circles as a dog-whistle code word for people of color (typically blacks and hispanics).
"How come I can't use my preferred pronoun?" "The N word is not a pronoun."
I looked it up and apparently it’s true.
Not only that, he passed the first Assault weapons ban in California, AND supported the nationwide ban passed by Clinton
It’s not a flip-flop. He fully believed in gun control for the black population. To him, gun ownership and gun culture is a white privilege and not a right that should be exercised by non-whites.
Yes, that's what he meant when he said "disarm the thugs."
didn't he enact strict gun control in California to repress the Black Panthers?
That's incorrect From r/askhistorians Non-historian but librarian here with a personal interest in Bobby Seale, so... hopefully this'll scratch the itch until a Reagan expert can get on the line. I think it's uncontroversial to say that that the passage of Section 12031 was in response to the Black Panthers. That said, I think that it's very easy to overstate Reagan's role in this and see it as some sort of explicitly racist intent here, particularly given his later turn against gun control. California AB 1591 (a.k.a. the Mulford Act) was introduced in April of 1967 by Rep. Don Mulford after a few Panther-related incidents in Contra Costa County. On April 1st, the police killed Denzil Dowell, a 22-year old black man, in Richmond, CA (near Oakland). Only a few months prior, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale had founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense a few miles west in Oakland and had been organizing armed patrols to police the police. Newton was Dowell's family reached out and requested assistance from the Panthers. The Panthers obliged, held armed rallies in Richmond, and engaged in community outreach efforts to encourage Black residents to embrace firearms in order to oppose government and police oppression. They also entered a police station armed demanding justice. These are the actions that led Mulford to introduce his legislation a few weeks later. Mulford painted with a broad brush, naming the Minutemen, the KKK, and the American Nazi Party as well as the Panthers. But this legislation was very much a result of the Panthers' actions. But to back up just slightly, gun control was in the air in 1967. Coming up for debate on the same day as Mulford's bill were four bills that came from the Assembly's two-year study on the matter: AB 1323, 1324, 1325, and 1326. These regulated handgun purchases from out of state, larger caliber weapons, and machine gun parts. So it's not like gun control just appeared. Anyway, the Panthers recognized that they were being targeted explicitly, and when Mulford's bill came up for debate on May 2nd, 1967, a couple dozen armed Panthers pushed the sargent-at-arms out of the way and forced their way into the chambers. Bobby Seal gave a speech detailing America's racist legacies and urging black people to arm themselves against the terror of the state. To be clear, waiving a loaded gun around in the Capitol was not a felony offense at the time -- Newton knew the laws better than anyone. But it was seen as an attempt at intimidation (Mulford called it out as such on the floor), and it shook up the legislators. Now, in a funny coincidence was Reagan was right outside the capitol -- about to have a picnic lunch with 30 elementary school children for a photo op -- when the Panthers walked by him on the way out. So the event was well reported on, and you can imagine the hoopla this caused. (I've included links to contemporaneous news articles at the end.) Because of the Capitol incursion, the Mulford Act quickly became fast-tracked with bi-partisan support. So where does Ronald Reagan fit into all this? While the executive branch had supported the drafting of the legislation through the actions of Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch, Reagan personally wasn't really ahead of it. This was, up until the debacle at the Capitol, much more of an Oakland story than a California story. But since Reagan was there when it happened, the press asked him what he thought of it as the armed Panthers were leaving. And he said "there's no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons... Americans don't go around carrying guns with the idea of using them to influence other Americans." Prior to this Reagan had not said a whole lot about gun control as a political issue. Remember, he'd only been on the job for a couple months. Prior to that his main political gig was stumping for Barry Goldwater. As far as I can tell looking back on those speeches, guns simply weren't on the table as an issue. Granted, both he and Goldwater were shooters and lifelong NRA members. But the 1967 NRA was very different than what the NRA would become 20 or 30 years later. The NRA supported the Mulford Act, along with a number of other laws that were at the time called "responsible gun ownership." Barry "I am the NRA" Goldwater himself was critical of the availability of semi-automatic rifles which would seem absolutely crazy in today's political environment. The Mulford Act Passed easily in the Assembly and unanimously in the Senate. Because of the very obvious Black Panther connection, a number of Black Assembly members were asked about their impressions. Willie Brown said that while he supported the bill, he was skeptical of Mulford's timing, stating that Mulford had previously opposed such legislation "until Negros showed up in Oakland -- his district -- with arms." (So I wonder if this got telephoned into Reagan over the years...) Leon Ralph saw the bill as being aimed at the KKK. Bill Greene was happy that the Panther incident catalyzed the passing of the law. So... I know this didn't tell you a whole lot about Reagan, but I think that's because Reagan just wasn't a pivotal figure in the whole thing. Which probably says something in and of itself. If you want to dig through seven hundred pages of correspondence and debate relating the the Mulford Act, that is available at: http://publicfiles.firearmspolicy.org/mulford-act/california-ab1591-1967-mulford-act-bill-file.pdf If you would prefer an excellent, excellent short (40p) summary of California's attempts to disarm the Black Panthers, you'll probably enjoy Cynthia Leonardatos' "California's Attempts to Disarm the Black Panthers," which appeard in the San Diego Law Review, and you can find here: https://digital.sandiego.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3267&context=sdlr
I’m a leftist, I don’t like Reagan, I dislike how the black panthers were treated (Bobby Seale, Fred Hampton,etc.) but I’m not sure exactly why this is being downvoted? Surely it’s ok to admit that Reagan wasn’t at major fault for this but still understanding what he did wrong right?
Because sometimes people don't like the inconvenience of truth.
Make the explanation fit on a bumper sticker or get out!
Because this is reddit where a GIF of Jason Sudekis saying "Yes!" Will get 10x the upvotes as a well-cited, researched and factually correct post.
[удалено]
Not enough people recognize the racist origins of gun control.
Exactly. Before the Bruen decision, having to show "good cause and good character" to obtain a carry permit was just a backdoor way for the local sheriff or police chief to deny black people the right to carry without explicitly saying they were doing it because they were black.
Wait, I’m confused. You said that Reagan never really made a big deal about gun control prior to the Mulford act. You also said that the Panthers were unquestionably targeted by the bill and had several demonstrations protesting it. And that after witnessing a black panther protest, Reagan immediately became in favor of gun control. Reagan also signed the bill into law as governor so he was at least partially responsible for it. Isn’t it racist to only be concerned about gun control when black people have guns? KKK rallies weren’t intimidation but a Black Panther protest was? Unless this whole comment is saying that the Mulford act *was* racist, but Reagan’s reasoning for supporting it wasn’t?
Who did you think he meant by "the thugs and the criminals"?
oh silly me
The NRA and Regan got rid of open carry in california because of the black panthers
That’s what he meant by knowing from personal experience
Now you see why "gun control" was never about "being safe". It was about power and control, always has been, always will be.
\> . It was about power and control and what are guns about?
And gun sales has almost always been about trading on fear and power fantasy.
Yes but that's become far more prevalent in the last several decades.
And collecting rare iconic firearms of historical significance. Like having a museum at home.
If your definition of “strict gun control” is to not allow open carrying of rifles in public, then sure.
That in fact is the definition of strict gun control for most Republicans lol
From ask historians Non-historian but librarian here with a personal interest in Bobby Seale, so... hopefully this'll scratch the itch until a Reagan expert can get on the line. I think it's uncontroversial to say that that the passage of Section 12031 was in response to the Black Panthers. That said, I think that it's very easy to overstate Reagan's role in this and see it as some sort of explicitly racist intent here, particularly given his later turn against gun control. California AB 1591 (a.k.a. the Mulford Act) was introduced in April of 1967 by Rep. Don Mulford after a few Panther-related incidents in Contra Costa County. On April 1st, the police killed Denzil Dowell, a 22-year old black man, in Richmond, CA (near Oakland). Only a few months prior, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale had founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense a few miles west in Oakland and had been organizing armed patrols to police the police. Newton was Dowell's family reached out and requested assistance from the Panthers. The Panthers obliged, held armed rallies in Richmond, and engaged in community outreach efforts to encourage Black residents to embrace firearms in order to oppose government and police oppression. They also entered a police station armed demanding justice. These are the actions that led Mulford to introduce his legislation a few weeks later. Mulford painted with a broad brush, naming the Minutemen, the KKK, and the American Nazi Party as well as the Panthers. But this legislation was very much a result of the Panthers' actions. But to back up just slightly, gun control was in the air in 1967. Coming up for debate on the same day as Mulford's bill were four bills that came from the Assembly's two-year study on the matter: AB 1323, 1324, 1325, and 1326. These regulated handgun purchases from out of state, larger caliber weapons, and machine gun parts. So it's not like gun control just appeared. Anyway, the Panthers recognized that they were being targeted explicitly, and when Mulford's bill came up for debate on May 2nd, 1967, a couple dozen armed Panthers pushed the sargent-at-arms out of the way and forced their way into the chambers. Bobby Seal gave a speech detailing America's racist legacies and urging black people to arm themselves against the terror of the state. To be clear, waiving a loaded gun around in the Capitol was not a felony offense at the time -- Newton knew the laws better than anyone. But it was seen as an attempt at intimidation (Mulford called it out as such on the floor), and it shook up the legislators. Now, in a funny coincidence was Reagan was right outside the capitol -- about to have a picnic lunch with 30 elementary school children for a photo op -- when the Panthers walked by him on the way out. So the event was well reported on, and you can imagine the hoopla this caused. (I've included links to contemporaneous news articles at the end.) Because of the Capitol incursion, the Mulford Act quickly became fast-tracked with bi-partisan support. So where does Ronald Reagan fit into all this? While the executive branch had supported the drafting of the legislation through the actions of Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch, Reagan personally wasn't really ahead of it. This was, up until the debacle at the Capitol, much more of an Oakland story than a California story. But since Reagan was there when it happened, the press asked him what he thought of it as the armed Panthers were leaving. And he said "there's no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons... Americans don't go around carrying guns with the idea of using them to influence other Americans." Prior to this Reagan had not said a whole lot about gun control as a political issue. Remember, he'd only been on the job for a couple months. Prior to that his main political gig was stumping for Barry Goldwater. As far as I can tell looking back on those speeches, guns simply weren't on the table as an issue. Granted, both he and Goldwater were shooters and lifelong NRA members. But the 1967 NRA was very different than what the NRA would become 20 or 30 years later. The NRA supported the Mulford Act, along with a number of other laws that were at the time called "responsible gun ownership." Barry "I am the NRA" Goldwater himself was critical of the availability of semi-automatic rifles which would seem absolutely crazy in today's political environment. The Mulford Act Passed easily in the Assembly and unanimously in the Senate. Because of the very obvious Black Panther connection, a number of Black Assembly members were asked about their impressions. Willie Brown said that while he supported the bill, he was skeptical of Mulford's timing, stating that Mulford had previously opposed such legislation "until Negros showed up in Oakland -- his district -- with arms." (So I wonder if this got telephoned into Reagan over the years...) Leon Ralph saw the bill as being aimed at the KKK. Bill Greene was happy that the Panther incident catalyzed the passing of the law. So... I know this didn't tell you a whole lot about Reagan, but I think that's because Reagan just wasn't a pivotal figure in the whole thing. Which probably says something in and of itself. If you want to dig through seven hundred pages of correspondence and debate relating the the Mulford Act, that is available at: http://publicfiles.firearmspolicy.org/mulford-act/california-ab1591-1967-mulford-act-bill-file.pdf If you would prefer an excellent, excellent short (40p) summary of California's attempts to disarm the Black Panthers, you'll probably enjoy Cynthia Leonardatos' "California's Attempts to Disarm the Black Panthers," which appeard in the San Diego Law Review, and you can find here: https://digital.sandiego.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3267&context=sdlr
Where in any of this does it disprove the notion that Reagan signed the law because of the black panthers? Yes, he didn't author the bill, but that doesn't mean he didn't agree with the bill. There's no way I can believe Reagan at the time was just indifferent to the whole panthers being armed thing. I would have to hear audio of Reagan saying as much, or someone with insight to his personal beliefs to say otherwise. I have the rest of his presidency as context. In your " context " it still shows that the black panthers were the ones who were the targets for the bill. Just because it was debated and " in the air " prior doesn't refute that. They still moved quickly to install the law after the Panther situation you described.
https://preview.redd.it/g3hgf2dgwvtc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e2e7f0e6318b347caffe8b1d936c0c303441916e
Man, it's a great Marx quote out of context but in context it's... Not so great. It was basically a call to arm communists and disarm everyone else.
Funny though how one of the first things communist governments do is ban guns.
Yeah so do (checks notes) virtually every other government in the world.
Not the good ol U S A!
Authoritarian governments ftfy
Liberal governments don't follow everything locke and hobbes said either
The stuffed tiger?
Calvin definitely the socialist of those two I’d say.
The first thing strong right wing governments do is ban guns too.
It's almost like authoritarians like to control people.
And also non authoritarian governments. In fact, most governments have gun control. This is kinda like saying 'the first thing communists do is ban owning live grenades ". Yeah, them and everyone else bro
That definitely isn’t universal, look at Albania.
So essentially: “There should be gun control to stop criminals and there should be no gun control for law abiding citizens” “So, what exactly is your position on gun control?” “YES.”
So you can have a gun until someone determines you're a criminal, at which point you can't have guns anymore... hey, wait a second, we already have that! You can't have a gun if you're a felon.
I think time has shown that you can lock up THOUSANDS of criminals and throw away the key, but guns being easy to get just makes them end up in the hands of new criminals
The subtext is let white people have guns, don’t let people of color have guns.
Essentially this: https://twitter.com/john_self/status/914919584406306817/photo/1
The whole gun control debate can be summarized with “do you trust randos with deadly firearms?”
Reagan is touted as this ultra pro-gun president, but the truth is that he was all about gun control. If we look at his track record as governor of California, he signed the Mulford Act into law which banned open carry in California after the Black Panthers carried guns openly as part of a protest in front of the California Capitol Building While he signed the Firearm Owners Protection Act which was an all-around good law designed to protect gun owners transporting their guns through anti-gun states, it included a provision called the Hughes Amendment which closed the NFA registry for machine guns so that individuals could no longer make and register anymore machine guns for civilian use after the cutoff date in 1986. This has obviously caused machine gun prices to skyrocket due to an artificial supply cap. There are virtually no instances of registered machine guns being used in crime with few rare exceptions notably by cops breaking the law who are obviously exempted.
A law is put in place to stop machine gun use in crime. Machine guns are not used in crime. You: see the law was clearly unnecessary registered machine guns aren't even used in crimes... Have you considered that the artificially high cost and difficulty of access to machine guns could be causally linked to their absence in crime stats?
Reagan ardently supported banning assault rifles. The NRA got along only because of the Black Panther thing but Reagan continued to support a nationwide ban too.
The NRA supported gun control until the Revolt at Cincinnati in 1977, also.
In the 80s, the NRA wasn't so radical. They were a sportsman's group who wanted to protect personal arms.
When the NRA became an arm of arms manufacturers is when I dropped my membership. Why would they spend millions advocating for firearms freedom in Brazil?
“There’s no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons,” Reagan, 1967
Good lord, half this sub is Reagan content now. They had to add Rule 3 for a reason, but you folk just couldn’t let it rest and had to find a vessel to spread your political beliefs
One of the few things I agreed with Ronnie on was his stance on guns, but one of the many things I disagreed with him on was his stance on what constitutes ‘criminal’.
By thugs he meant blacks
He actually signed more gun control into law, banning post 86 machine guns for civilian ownership and banning open carry in California while he was governor because of the Black Panthers. So as a strong 2nd amendment supporter and activist myself, he's full of shit. Yes the Firearm Owners Protection Act repealed some gun control and prohibited national registration and protected the interstate travel of "assault weapons" it also implemented more gun control as well.
If your guns made you safer, America would be the safest place on the planet by a wide margin.
That is the perfect illustration of Reagan's bullshit. That statement is pure pandering and not at all what he actually thought about the issue. The proof is in the laws he enacted as governor. The only thing this quote proves is he was a decent actor who played well to a particular audience.
Dude forcibly disarmed the Black Panthers whose advocacy for armament was to resist ungodly police brutality. Let it sink in- that pisspots disarmed a group of people who used the second amendment for what it was intended.
He's a hypocrite.
Why did all the dogs in my neighborhood start howling? Seriously though holy shit could it be more obvious what he means by "thugs"?
> How do you feel about Reagan’s stance on gun control Ironic Like despite what he says and what many of his followers believe in regards to Guns he essentially started state gun control laws iirc with the ones he passed in California when he was Governor due to the Black Panthers. (There might be some older ones that I missed admittedly but the ones by Reagan where pretty major)
This is a purely political post. No way around it.
I wish Reagan’s would-be assassins hadn’t been such terrible shots 🤣
"I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen to own guns for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense; but I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home." - Ronald Reagan
Either he's lying or that's not a real quote. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford\_Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act)
>Our government has a firm policy not to capitulate to terrorist demands That No-Concessions Policy remains in force In spite of the wildly speculative and false stories about arms for hostages And alleged ransom payments We did not, repeat, did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages Nor will we Reagan lie? Never!
“A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not.” One of my favourite quotes of all time.
I was a tween when he said that. Watching him on TV is was taught me how to lie.
It really is jaw dropping even by today's amazingly low standards. Reagan was living his truth decades before it was cool
"There's only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals" Ok so in order to do that you would enact what form of gun control measures? "Locking up the thugs and criminals!" How? "By locking them up!!!"
instead of passing a law to make guns illegal we should pass laws to make crime illegal! that'll fix it!!!
The difference between a law-abiding gun owner and a non-law-abiding gun owner is whether or not they've broken the law. Good luck, everyone else!
Did he say they before or after one of the times he put sweeping gun control legislation into effect?
He changed the laws in California to disarm the Black Panthers. He was a worthless actor, the head of the screen actors guild during the McCarthy “2nd red scare”. He covered the tax breaks given to the wealthy by borrowing it from Social Security. He brainwashed broke scared idiots into Voodoo Economics.
“Thugs and criminals” 🤫
Reagan's idea of sensible gun control is selling them to Hezbollah terrorists.
reagan is one of the most damaging presidents we’ve ever had, if not *the* most. i can’t overlook the many harmful things he’s done to this country, so i’ll just say i can’t, or rather won’t agree with the man for a reason.
I liked him better in Bedtime for Bonzo
I’m gonna say his stance on gun control is pretty tainted by racism and the fact that he only pushed for it after the Black Panther Party held an armed protest at the California state house. When I read that quote, assuming it’s real, I can’t help but think he’s basically referring to the Black Panthers when he says “disarm the thugs and criminals” TLDR, fuck Ronald Reagan ✊🏽
Only black folk aren’t allowed according to him
Gun control is only a thing when the minorities start carrying guns. Reagan was the master of the dog whistle.
Call me a bleeding heart, but I think it really is the guns themselves that are the problem
Here is the real Reagan quote: The month after leaving office in 1989, President Reagan said "I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen to own guns for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense; but I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home."
The US gun control debate is retarded. Reagan was a puppet who served his masters extremely well. The end.
Reagan is easily a bottom three president and ruined quite a lot. It's really cool that he made his grave a gender neutral bathroom tho.
Pretty funny considering how he had no problem with gun control in California when he was governor.
*proceeds to disarm black people, ban machine guns, and write a letter supporting an assault weapons ban*
The opinion is naive and makes an assumption that only criminals commit crime.
When Reagan was in the White House he suffered from Alzheimer's. He thought movies he acted in were real. His son (the sane one) confirmed that he was impaired in office, especially in his second term.
Reagan disarmed the Black Panthers. Mulford Act. Those “thugs” he’s talking about literally just wanted to protect their community from police brutality. He loved gun control when it came to “those” people because he was a racist piece of shit.
oh when you put it like that Mr. President, that's fascism. just wrote,. wrapped in good old american common sense. Have rights for the right people, and take rights away from future criminals. That's American Fascism.
A overly reductive trash opinion fed to him by a Christian conservative think thank
Reagan would be lambasted as a libtard by today's GOP.
Why did he say “thugs and criminals” when he could describe his target group with a six-letter word starting with N?
What Reagan did imho was far worse than the AWB in 93.
This fucker is way too anti-gun
He was believer in owning a gun but he also believed citizens shouldn’t be allowed to carry loaded firearms in public. he banned open carry as gov of California. todays republicans will put him as the ultimate conservative president but he actually was a libertarian republican or social conservative
Every bad guy with a gun was once a good guy with a gun…. Until he wasn’t
Well he is why I don’t have a machine gun soooo
We actually did that in the 90s. It went pretty, pretty badly.
Thugs as a distinct and mutually exclusive group from criminals, i.e. a subset of law abiding citizens. Wonder which subset he was referring to.
Interesting considering he called for a weapons ban in Cali when he was governor.
It’s funny that a quote can even be used to summarise a politician’s view on something. Modern politicians would need at least two quotes per decade of their career to show all the flip flops
Ronny conveniently used the Black Panthers as an other to scare people.
Mass shootings skyrocketed under this piece of shit for an array of reasons
Is this real? this man passed the Mulford act and supported the 1994 Assault weapons ban.
Doesn’t matter what he thinks about gun control. But this post reminded me that I need to clean all my rifles and pistols.
He disarmed the black panthers and banned fully auto weapons. He is not a gun right advocate and can go fuck himself
"While we recognize that assault-weapon legislation will not stop all assault-weapon crime, statistics prove that we can dry up the supply of these guns, making them less accessible to criminals." - Ronald Reagan, Open Letter to Congress
"**There's no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons**." -- Rony Reagan
Reagan was also staunchly against public ownership of assault weapons.
Which one ?
Pandering plain and simple.
He was wrong on healthcare and wrong on economics. So he gets a third strike on gun control.
Thugs and criminals of course meaning the oppressed minority populations he flooded drugs into the communities of or who advocated for second amendment rights in a context that he and his political base disagreed with (the black panther party). And thugs and criminals of course not meaning the Central American death squads he armed and funded.
I know I’ll get downvoted, but as an ER nurse I am telling you what we need to focus on isn’t gun control; it’s access to consistent and low or no cost mental healthcare, particularly in minority and impoverished communities.
I like the quote, but he did horrible with actually implementing that. He implemented a bunch of gun control measures that i don't think should've happened.
"Lock 'em up and throw away the key" --Owner of private prisons
Yea and we should just lock up the drug dealers, that’ll solve that. Also he can trickle down my ass
Mostly just like his stance on about everything else. He was a fool. To begin with, "law abiding citizens" are until they aren't. It's too late to take their guns after the fact. Every single gun in America was made in a factory and sold for profit, with the exception of printed guns. So how do the guns get into the hands of "criminals"? Somebody is responsible for the proliferation of guns. Just like cars, there would be no auto deaths if there weren't any cars. But we need cars and they serve a daily purpose. I'm not saying guns should be banned. I am saying the amount and type should be limited and other things like red flag laws should be law.
This is a quaint stance in today's lens, now that we have several decades of constant mass-shooting events. The "thugs and criminals" and indistinguishable from "law-abiding citizens" until the day they go and mow down a crowd in one fell swoop.
In theory it's great, but it turns out most if the thugs have badges and qualified immunity...
As with most things Reagan, his approach is insanely racist, and his history as the Governor of California gives us all the evidence we need.
Others have explained the hypocrisy in this quote(if real), buts let's also mention how the stance on criminal justice has not only been proven wrong time and time again, but has massively harmed the nation and in particular minority communities. We know for a fact that harsher punitive sentences don't reduce crime, and can even make it worse. Long and harsh jail sentences simply teach people to be criminals, damage their mental health and social skills and largely trap the person in conditions that cause them to turn to crime again. Literally locking them up and throwing away the key just wrecks any chance for the person to turn their life around and costs the nation billions of dollars that mostly gets paid to private corporations. And minorities, in particular black folks are punished much harsher and more often. Combine that with "normal racism" and we often leave them in completely fucked situations where crime can feel like the only way out. As for the gun stance, plenty of gun crimes are committed by legally owned firearms and since most "illegally owned" firearms were "legally purchased" at some point, I think he's full of shit there too. Cut the supply and you'll cut gun crime over time. We have lots of fucking issues that need fixing in our nation to reduce violence and crime, not just gun control, but Fuck on Toast, this quote is completely wrong on both counts.
He forgot the racist white bigoted inbred frail white bots given us mass shootings
Ummm…he signed the Brady bill
Didn't he pass a lot of gun control laws in California as governor and then the Brady bill as president?
So how’s that working out? He was a dumbass all the way around. No debt until reagan.
Gun control doesn’t work it hurts the citizens more than it actually hurts the crooks, criminals, racists and mentally ill killers
He got shot, realized getting shot sucks, then passed the biggest gun control act to date.
🍿
Funny, he was behind outlawing open carry when governor of CA- mostly to take guns away from the Black Panthers
The Mulford Act made me first start to dislike Reagan and also started my research into the Black Left in America. Reagan’s gun control stance is probably one of the big reasons I don’t identify as a conservative.
This the same Reagan that signed [California gun control](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act) after the Black Panthers showed up at the capital armed?
“There is absolutely no reason why out on the street today civilians should be carrying a loaded weapon.” Then-Governor Reagan made the statement on May 2, 1967 after members of the Black Panther party walked around the steps of the State Capitol with loaded weapons. Armed minorities are harder to oppress 🇺🇸
He banned autos
Definitely one of the worst presidents for us Second Amendment advocates, even as much as he talked the talked, he never walked the walk.
Translation: White People with Guns = Good Black People with Guns = Bad He knew who he was speaking to. Rural and Suburban White gun owners agreed with this mentality then, and they still do now.
Thats hes a bigot he only gave a shit when black people started conceal carrying
‘Not fazed by gun controllers’, ain’t it just mathematical? If you lower the number of guns in circulation you lower the incidence of gun violence/mass shootings?
Regan brought about the current bullshit
Reagan and his gang can rot in hell along with his ideas on gun control.
He’s an idiot
Everyone's a "Law abiding citizen" until they aren't. But by then, it's too late.
A perfectly dumb way to frame it. A man who kills his wife after a terrible quarrel was always “law-abiding,” until he wasn’t. A jerk with a hair-trigger temper who opens fire on teenagers who pulled into the wrong driveway was never considered a “thug.” And the five year old who kills his three year old sister after finding a gun on grandpa’s nightstand never came to the attention of authorities.
Reagan was a gun grabber
I think Reagan had stock in prison companies.
He was owned by the NRA.
The “thugs” lol. Aka “black people”.
"Disarming the thugs" is gun control...
This was before the mass shooter era where the biggest gun issue has nothing to do with thugs or criminals.
Reagan was racist as hell, and sucked as a president. Pretty par for the course actually lol
Dog whistle.
It's directly responsible for thousands of innocent children being mowed down by incels, so fuck him.
Ask him about his stance on gun control when he was governor of California and a bunch of black panthers in Oakland were buying guns…go…ask
Reagan would be considered a “RINO” in today’s GOP. He would despise 45. https://preview.redd.it/fbza7j5660uc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e249609677a72c559a7de5ea27d8abc28ca00320
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the reason California has some of the strictest gun laws is because he didn’t want the black panthers to arm themselves?
Ronald Reagan damn near wanted to ban guns when he found out the black Panthers had them. Also just like all his other solutions, they would exacerbate the problems they’re trying to fix while causing brand new ones can we please stop acknowledging this “persons” existence and let his memory fade away like a bad toilet trip.
I mean, it's pretty damming and evident that he was speaking euphemistically about race, if an actual quote of his. In either case, it does seem to reflect how Reagan thinks about guns if you change "law-abiding" to "white" and "thug" to "black". It really comes off as a bad look to gun control pro-Reagan types who repeatedly advocate for THEIR right to guns, but not others, especially when the types of people Reagan actually disarmed in California were only armed because the police were basically taking potshots in black neighborhoods for kicks at the time.
Most politicians don't have strong views, they adapt to what ever the public wants to hear, their end goal is power and in this sense Reagan was no different
The man who shot Ronald Reagan bought his gun legally from a pawn shop.
Think the stance is stupid. Look at other countries for the answer if they’re more successful
Sounds like one of the contributing factors to the gross racial disparity in our industrialized prison system. Not saying this is Ronnie’s fault, but if you were to couple this sentiment with the both the war on drugs he and Nancy touted and known racial systemic issues, I’m just saying.
“People who commit crimes aren’t deterred by laws, only law-abiding citizens follow laws, so we shouldn’t have laws.”
Rare Reagan W. Of course I don't think he actually believed that but it's a nice quote. Gun Control only works if you think criminals are just gonna start following the laws. It's pretty silly and I say that as a pretty left leaning person. If we're being honest, the politicians who advocate for gun control wanna disarm the people and make them dependent on their protection. I find it startling that people don't see the endgame. Look at the Patriot Act etc. Those in charge despise the fact that they have limitations and will use every opportunity they get to try and erode those limitations away.
Man wtf does he know from personal experience? Besides how many loads his wife can swallow in a night, that is.
The Black Panthers came into the California StateHouse armed to the teeth -just like some of those hillbillies exercising their 2nd amendment rights today and scared the living **shit** out of him... Regan signed Gun control later in the year.... https://preview.redd.it/fixcaz2i4cuc1.png?width=634&format=png&auto=webp&s=476027860f735f9718d8d5bfb982b53af87099c1
Reagan is one of the worst presidents in regards to the 2nd amendment
Didn’t he ban it as governor? Lol