Reddit mentions of Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party (The George Gund Foundation Imprint in African American Studies)

I want to build on this, because I think you're correct to point out a common misconception about the BPP in the early years. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded it as the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense," and used the black panther as a symbol because, according to Newton, it never attacks un-provoked. The early efforts in the Neighborhood Patrols were a reaction to decades of white police harassment in majority black neighborhoods as a result of the Second Great Migration, only exacerbated racial tension brought about by post-War unemployment in Oakland. African Americans, mostly male, were routinely stopped without due case, harassed, called names, beaten, and imprisoned with little to no recourse. The BPP was there to bring attention to these if not unlawful, certainly unethical incidents.

The Neighborhood Patrols were 100% legal, as designed by Newton, who was studying law at the time. The goal was to educate blacks about their constitutional rights, such as shouting out their rights during traffic stops, distributing pocket copies of the Bill of Rights, and openly observing and reporting. I would liken them today to onlookers who record law enforcement encounters on their smart phones. These as certainly don't qualify as "acts of terror," as user/_allwittynamestaken_ notes. While there were certainly violent encounters between BPP members and law enforcement, I think it's important to recognize the non-violent aspects of the BPP before we blanketly state the BPP members brought the gun restrictions upon themselves.

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Sources:

Seconded on Black Against Empire, Bloom and Martin

Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California, Donna Jean Murch

"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised": Community Activism and the Black Panther Party, 1966-1971, Ryan Kirkby

Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era, Ashley Farmer

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For the Black Panthers:

There's Malcolm X's biography recorded and written by Alex Haley, writer of Roots.

Another book called Black Against Empire: History of the Black Panther Party, supposedly very good.

For the Irish Republican Army:

Here's an extensive list from Goodreads.

Hope that helps you get started, OP. Knowledge is power. :)

EDIT: and you can always posit specific questions to /r/AskHistorians. They'll take a while to formulate and you may not get a response, but when you do it's usually a good one.