Can we control our reactions when our emotion take over!

Richard and I have been arguing about this issue for about three days, and we never seem to come up with a resolution that both of us can agree on. Here is what Richard thinks, he thinks that sometime your emotions are so strong that you can control your reactions. I think that you can control your reactions maybe not your emotions because if something sad happens you might still be sad, but you can control your reactions. We have four basic types of emotions sad, glad, mad, and scared. The reactions that we have from those emotions vary you can laugh, cry, be scared and so on, but you are the one the decides how to handle each situation . Take for example Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi they both deal with situations that might want to make you kill someone, but they kept their cool and never use violence. On the other hand, Malcolm X dealed with the same type of problems and he wanted to kill everyone, so help us settle this argument and comment your opinion, it will be greatly appreciated thank you!