defense. who in may of 1967 legally entered the california state house, brandishing shotguns and pistols to protest a bill proposed specifically to restrict their gun rights. the visual of legally armed black revolutionaries promised then governor ronald reagan to sign the bill into law forbidding public carrying of loaded firearms. that and other incidents of the era prompted lawmakers to pass the first national gun control legislation of the post war era. launching the gun debate as we know it. a debate that dogged the obama administration where sales exploded under the right wing s assumption that ownership would be restricted. but nbc news has found that it is african americans that are now increasingly taking up legal