From The Root:

On May 7, 1967, the Black Panthers showed up on the steps of the California Capitol in Sacramento brandishing loaded rifles and black berets in a show of defiance that would forever brand them as enemies of the establishment. They were there to protest the passage of the Mulford Act (nicknamed the “Black Panther Bill” by the press), which had been fast-tracked through the Legislature and signed by then-Gov. Reagan. The bill reversed an existing California law that made it legal to carry a loaded firearm in public as long as it was not concealed or brandished in a threatening manner. Reagan himself was quoted as saying that he saw “no reason why, on the street today, a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.”