You know it might be easier to take the arguments of gun control advocates seriously, if they didn’t display such a profound ignorance of the thing they wanted to regulate, combined with such a profoundly irrational hoplophobia. The AK’s and AR’s beloved by the protesters have far more hunting and sport-shooting relevance and practically than the purely combat weapons carried by the Black Panthers in the first photo. That’s why they’re so popular, whereas the M1 Carbine (which was very much the AR of its day) and police riot gun (which was the Saiga-12 of its day) carried by the Black Panthers in the picture are far more specialized “man-stopper” weapons. This is also why the (presumably semi-auto) M1 Carbine from the picture in particular has been largely superseded by the (semi-auto AR and AK) in the civilian market. And to say they are “far more powerful” is profoundly silly, inaccurate, and something that sounds calculated to play on people’s fears. (…And yes, all three do have full-auto versions… and all three are equally rare, expensive and tightly regulated in their full-auto form.

What’s more, the restrictions they’re protesting sound so silly, petty and calculated to stick it to her political opponents, which is why they led to such anger. You want social distancing, so you forbid people to go to their remote hunting cabins ?!? And you want people to stay in their homes but forbid them from buying items needed to fix them up while they’re stuck there?!? WTF?!? And what the frell do motorboats have to do with anything? Clearly this was the brainchild of the “Climate Change” lobby?

I would suggest the comparison of perception contrasts cuts both ways. See black guys wearing berets, combat boots, sunglasses and fatigues carrying weapons straight off the WW2 battlefield and they’re just law-abiding citizens doing a lawful protest. But see a bearded white guy wearing hunting camo and carrying his favorite all-round sporting firearm, protesting irrational restrictions on hunting, and he must be a racist insurrectionary determined to undermine “legitimate public health concerns.”

Maybe if he actually talked with those guys instead of mentally demonizing them, he’d find out that they’re really nice guys, and there was more common ground to be found than he might have thought. I know I for one totally empathized with the Black Panthers when he told their side of the story (and was immediately hugely disappointed with the NRA and the Republican lawmaker he mentioned…)