NICHOLAS JOHNSON on his new book, Negroes and the Gun. “This black tradition of arms takes root early and ranges fully into the modern era. It is demonstrated in Fredrick Douglass’ advice of a good revolver as the best response to slave catchers. It is evident in mature form in 1963, when Hartman Turnbow of Mississippi fought off a Klan attack with rifle fire. Turnbow considered this fully consistent with the principles of the freedom movement, explaining, ‘I wasn’t being non-nonviolent, I was just protectin’ my family’.”