In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Rice said she came to that view from
personal experience. She said her father, a black minister, and his friends
armed themselves to defended the black community in Birmingham, Ala., against
the White Knight Riders in 1962 and 1963. She said if local authorities had had
lists of registered weapons, she did not think her father and other blacks would
have been able to defend themselves.Birmingham, where Rice was born in 1954, was a focal point of racial tension. Four black girls were killed when a bomb exploded at a Birmingham church in 1963, a galvanizing moment in the fight for civil rights.
Rice said she favored background checks and controls at gun shows. However, she added, "we have to be very careful when we start abridging rights that the Founding Fathers thought very important."
Rice said the Founding Fathers understood "there might be circumstances that people like my father experienced in Birmingham, Ala., when, in fact, the police weren't going to protect you."
"I also don't think we get to pick and choose from the Constitution," she said in the interview, which was taped for airing Wednesday night. "The Second Amendment is as important as the First Amendment."
Way to go, Condi! Hallelujah, sister! Thanks for standing up for all of us would-be rape victims.
