Did the National Rifle Association form to help freed slaves defend themselves from the Ku Klux Klan?
By Terrence Fraser
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NO
The founding of the gun rights organization was not connected to protecting Black Americans from violence.
The NRA was formed in New York City in 1871 by a group of former Union Army soldiers to improve marksmanship among members of the New York National Guard, according to Frank Smyth, author of “The NRA: The Unauthorized History.”
Though false claims recently circulated online about the group’s origins, Smyth said: “They had nothing to do with the KKK or freed slaves.”
Smyth added that NRA co-founder William Conan Church, in his book, “Ulysses S. Grant and the Period of National Preservation and Reconstruction,” never mentioned the NRA helping or arming previously enslaved people who were abused and killed during Reconstruction.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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