The National Rifle Association was founded to protect freed slaves and fought the KKK.
What to know:
Not even the NRA claims this. On its website, the organization says the group was founded by Union veterans to help troops improve marksmanship. The Ku Klux Klan formed soon after the Civil War as well, but there’s no evidence the NRA wanted to stand up to them. One civil rights activist, Robert Williams, received an NRA charter and formed the Black Armed Guard to oppose the Klan, Politifact writes
. That hardly counts though.