The Huffington Post
Firearms enthusiasts around the country are being encouraged to head down to their local gun shops on Saturday, constitutions and American flags in hand, to send a message to President Barack Obama about Second Amendment rights — and, of course, to buy more guns.
The event is being billed as Gun Appreciation Day and has backing from white supremacist group American Third Position (A3P), Media Matters reported on Friday.
A3P, which is listed on the Gun Appreciation Day website as a sponsor, does little through its own content to veil the fact that the political movement is dedicated to white supremacy.
In its mission statement, A3P writes that it “believes that government policy in the United States discriminates against white Americans, the majority population, and that white Americans need their own political party to fight this discrimination.”
It goes on, saying that the group aims to “stop the immigrant invasion” in order to put “America first!”
A3P has been listed as a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In an email to The Huffington Post last year, A3P’s chairman candidly admitted to his white nationalism, saying that he found it a “just and proper position for all white people to hold.”
(For more on A3P’s controversial history, click over to Media Matters)
Gun Appreciation Day has raised some eyebrows for reasons apart from its questionable ties. The event’s founder, Larry Ward has rejected claims that he’s an extremist, but earlier this week he sparked outrage when he suggested that slavery could have been prevented in the United States if African Americans were allowed to carry guns.
“I think Martin Luther King, Jr. would agree with me if he were alive today that if African Americans had been given the right to keep and bear arms from day one of the country’s founding, perhaps slavery might not have been a chapter in our history,” Ward said.
Related articles
- Gun Appreciation Day Is Sponsored By A White Nationalist Party (mediamatters.org)
- ‘Gun Appreciation Day’ chairman: Slavery wouldn’t have happened if slaves were armed (rawstory.com)
- Larry Ward, Gun Appreciation Day Organizer: Dipshit Unchained (balloon-juice.com)
- FOCUS | Arming Black People Would Have Prevented Slavery? (readersupportednews.org)
- ‘Gun Appreciation Day’ Creator Attacked For Views on Arms And Slaves (atlantablackstar.com)
- ‘Gun Appreciation Day’ founder argues slavery could have been prevented with guns (thegrio.com)
- Larry Ward, Gun Appreciation Day Founder, Says Armed African Americans Could’ve Prevented Slavery (VIDEO) (kzawadzki88.wordpress.com)
- ‘Gun Appreciation Day’ Leader To CNN: If Blacks Had Guns, They Never Would Have Been Slaves (mediaite.com)
