National Rifle Association president David Keene has a surprising statement for those who do not know American history:

“You know, when you go back in our history … the initial wave of [gun-control laws] was instituted after the Civil War to deny blacks the ability to defend themselves,” Keene said.

“It’s the reason, for example, that Condoleezza Rice says, as far as the Second Amendment is concerned, ‘I’m an absolutist.’ Because she remembers her house being surrounded by neighbors with firearms to protect them from a white mob back during the worst days of the civil rights struggle.” …

Gun-rights advocate Kira Davis echoed Keene’s claim in a December YouTube video, saying gun ownership is a “powerful” right that was initially denied to freed slaves by tyrannical whites.

“Guns are tools,” Keene continued. “Guns are something that can be used for good or for ill. It’s our contention in this country that history shows that in most instances, guns are used for good — to protect people and families.”

Those same people ignorant of history do not know that the groups who went through the South to get blacks the right to vote that the U.S. Constitution guaranteed them were usually armed. They had to be. The Ku Klux Klan was armed, after all.