# Mulford Act The **Mulford Act** (California, 1967) banned the open carry of loaded firearms in public. It was written by Oakland assemblyman Don Mulford specifically to disarm the [[Black Panther Party]]'s armed "police patrols" — copwatching groups who legally carried loaded weapons while monitoring Oakland police for brutality — was supported by the [[NRA]], and was signed by Governor [[Ronald Reagan]], who remarked that he saw "no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons." ## The Capitol protest The bill's passage was accelerated by one of the most famous armed-protest images in American history. On May 2, 1967, roughly thirty members of the Black Panther Party — led by Bobby Seale — walked into the California State Capitol in Sacramento openly carrying loaded rifles and shotguns to protest the pending legislation, reading a statement that the bill was "aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless." The spectacle of armed Black men in the statehouse, rather than deterring the bill, galvanized support for it across party lines. ## Why it matters for the knowledge base The Mulford Act is the foundational case of **selective gun control**, and it is a standing complication of the modern gun-rights narrative. The institutional ancestors of today's Second Amendment absolutism — the [[NRA]] (then still primarily a marksmanship and hunting organization, before its 1977 "Revolt at Cincinnati" turn toward militancy) and Governor [[Ronald Reagan]], later a gun-rights icon — actively supported firearm restriction at precisely the moment the armed citizens in question were Black radicals. This makes the Act the clearest rebuttal to [[Second Amendment]] absolutism's claim of race-neutrality, and a fixture of any honest genealogy of American gun politics. It also illustrates a recurring pattern the KB tracks: constitutional liberties invoked as universal are repeatedly narrowed in practice when exercised by disfavored groups. ## See Also - [[Black Panther Party]] — the law's target - [[NRA]] — supported the restriction in 1967 - [[Ronald Reagan]] — signed it as governor - [[Second Amendment]] — the right whose selective application it exposes