Mulford Act

Mulford Act
California
AB-1591: To Com. on Crim. Pro.
Enacted by Ronald Reagan
Date passed 1967
Date enacted 1967
Legislative history
Bill Firearms law
Bill published on 1967-04-05
Introduced by Don Mulford, John T. Knox, Walter J. Karabian, Alan Sieroty, William M. Ketchum
First reading 1967-04-05
Second reading 1967-06-07
Third reading 1967-06-08
First reading 1967-06-08
Second reading 1967-06-27
Third reading 1967-07-26

The Mulford Act was a 1967 California bill that repealed a law allowing public carrying of loaded firearms. Named after Republican assemblyman Don Mulford, the bill was crafted in response to members of the Black Panther Party who were conducting armed patrols of Oakland neighborhoods while they were conducting what would later be termed copwatching.[1] They garnered national attention after the Black Panthers marched bearing arms upon the California State Capitol to protest the bill.[2][3][4]

AB-1591 was authored by Don Mulford (R) from Oakland, John T. Knox (D) from Richmond, Walter J. Karabian (D) from Monterey Park, Alan Sieroty (D) from Los Angeles, and William M. Ketchum (R) from Bakersfield,[5] it passed both Assembly (controlled by Democrats 42:38) and Senate (split 20:20) and was signed by Governor Ronald Reagan on July 28. The law banned the carrying of loaded weapons in public. [6]

Both Republicans and Democrats in California supported increased gun control. Governor Ronald Reagan, who was coincidentally present on the capitol lawn when the protesters arrived, later commented that he saw "no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons" and that guns were a "ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will." In a later press conference, Reagan added that the Mulford Act "would work no hardship on the honest citizen."[7]

The bill was signed by Reagan and became California penal code 25850 and 171c.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Simonson, Jocelyn. "Copwatching". California Law Review. 104 (2): 408. Organized copwatching groups emerged as early as the 1960s in urban areas in the United States when the Black Panthers famously patrolled city streets with firearms and cameras, and other civil rights organizations conducted unarmed patrols in groups.
  2. ↑ "From "A Huey P. Newton Story"". Retrieved 2010-07-07.
  3. ↑ "How to Stage a Revolution Introduction". Retrieved 2010-07-07.
  4. ↑ Seale, Bobby. Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton (1991 ed.). Black Classic Press. pp. 153–166. ISBN 978-0933121300.
  5. ↑ http://clerk.assembly.ca.gov/sites/clerk.assembly.ca.gov/files/archive/FinalHistory/1967/Volumes/67ahr.PDF
  6. ↑ Arica L. Coleman (July 31, 2016). "When the NRA Supported Gun Control". TIME.com. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  7. ↑ Winkler, Adam (September 2011). "The Secret History of Guns". The Atlantic.

Further reading

  • Leonardatos, Cynthia Deitle (1999). "California's Attempts to Disarm the Black Panthers". San Diego Law Review. 36 (4): 947.
  • Hemmens, Craig (July 2000). "Resisting Unlawful Arrest in Mississippi: Resisting the Modern Trend". California Criminal Law Review. 2 (1). doi:10.2139/ssrn.235760.
  • Hampton, Henry; Fayer, Steve (2011). "Birth of the Black Panthers, 1966–1967". Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s. Random House. pp. 349–72. ISBN 978-0-307-57418-3.
  • Sanders, Kindaka (2015). "A Reason to Resist: The Use of Deadly Force in Aiding Victims of Unlawful Police Aggression". San Diego Law Review. 52 (3): 695–750.


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