Second Amendment Foundation Rallies Behind Choice of Harriet Tubman on $20 Bill

The Second Amendment Foundation announced their support of Harriet Tubman being selected to appear on the $20 bill.

Tubman was an African-American abolitionist born into slavery. She was a gun-toting woman who worked for the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. The SAF says Tubman “underscores the importance of the right to keep and bear arms in American history.”

According to a statement on their website, SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb expressed that Tubman was a “courageous woman” who carried a handgun in Maryland when she helped free slaves. Gottlieb thinks there’s no better choice for the $20 bill. He goes on to say that she was a “remarkable woman who exercised the right to keep and bear arms frequently.”

The SAF vice president notes that Eleanor Roosevelt’s image will appear on the back of the $5 bill. Gottlieb said it’s “widely known” that the woman who was once First Lady promoted civil rights in the 1950s and carried a pearl-handled Smith & Wesson revolver.

Since laws in that state of Maryland are strict regarding possession of firearms, Gottlieb explains that Tubman would be “vigorously prosecuted for carrying a revolver because permits are difficult if not impossible to obtain and she would likely face prison.”

The SAF vice president adds that it’d be interesting to see what “Harriet would think today about the way our laws have evolved.”

Can Tubman help to change the process of obtaining a handgun permit in Maryland? 

According to the NRA’s website, application for a permit to carry a handgun in Maryland is made to the Secretary of State Police. A printed application form is also required in addition to the applicant should submitting a notarized letter stating the reasons why he or she is applying for a permit.

Fierce political debate over gun control is what makes Harriet Tubman an ideal choice for the $20 bill from the SAF’s standpoint. She depended on the use of a firearm to defend herself and free slaves. Her image on the $20 bill may spark in-depth conversations about her role in history and how she was able to successfully and efficiently help so many people in peril.