Congressman John Lewis is leading a defiant movement on the House floor to push new legislation against the Second Amendment and due process of law. The movement, which involves a bunch of grown men and women sitting on the floor in the middle of the House of Representatives, is pushing for legislation that would make anyone appearing on a government watchlist ineligible for a gun purchase. The premise of the argument is that if you are on a government watchlist, you’re guilty until proven innocent and thus should be deprived of your constitutional rights.

This is interesting because of who Congressman Lewis is. Congressman Lewis, once Chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, is one of the “Big Six” civil rights leaders from the sixties. As one of these six major leaders, he was a major leader in the Civil Rights Movement and also helped organize the March on Washington.

Of the other five leaders in the “Big Six” was Martin Luther King Jr. King’s history is well documented as a leader in the movement. Unfortunately, his time on this Earth came to an early end because of an assassination. We will never know how history might have been with King living out his full life.

The threat of assassination was something that was always there, though. The Civil Rights Movement was a tumultuous time and even King himself had been the target of assassination attempts and many death threats. For this reason, King carried a gun for self-defense.

Martin Luther King Jr. was also on a government watchlist and the Federal Bureau of Investigation watched his every move. Desperate to undermine him, the FBI also wiretapped his communications as well. The entire setup was because the FBI suspected that Martin Luther King Jr. was a communist.

King wasn’t a proven communist or hadn’t gone before a judge to be convicted of aiding the Soviet Union. There was just a suspicion based on government bureaucrats believing they might think they know something and they thus stalked him because of it.

Today, Congressman Lewis believes that a government watchlist is enough to stop an individual from owning a firearm. This is because a terrorist took a gun and went to a nightclub, murdering innocent people because of who they were. Instead of calling for better protections of our country, more efficient law enforcement, or encouraging responsible self-defense, Congressman Lewis just wants to purge due process and obstruct the Second Amendment.

A government watchlist is all it takes to disarm an American citizen. This is the law as Congressman Lewis wants it to be.

It’s a shame that a civil rights leader holds this position, given that Martin Luther King Jr. did apply for a concealed carry permit and carried a gun for self-defense. Given the number of death threats he received and actual assassination attempts, it’s no surprise that King would want to defend himself. But King was also on an FBI watchlist and being closely monitored because government agents merely suspected him of aiding the enemy.

Logic would dictate that Congressman Lewis would have supported disarming Martin Luther King Jr. and leaving him defenseless with many opponents of the Civil Rights Movement wanting to kill him.