The National Rifle Association was originally founded by former Union soldiers and officers to give newly freed black slaves firearms to protect themselves from the Democrat created Ku Klux Klan. Gun Control laws were first enacted so blacks couldn’t own firearms. The first president of the NRA was former Union General Ambrose Burnside.
Actually it was just about the opposite situation.
The NRA was formed by a veterans group in NY state to improve the quality of marksmanship in the population.
The KKK was formed to fight the truly brutal treatment of the defenseless South. Whites in the South could not vote and were not allowed to own arms.
Black Union soldiers began to rape, murder, and kill complete families then burning their homes afterward. I have seen the accounts of these actions myself when researching my ancestors from Georgia.
It struck me that is was very much like the movie “Birth of a Nation” which is now considered racist. The White Southerners went to the Union General in charge and begged him to remove the Black troops. Finally after too many atrocities had been committed, the general finally did remove them and replaced them with regular soldiers.