Commentary: Ukraine Demonstrates the Need for Gun Protections

by Lauren Farrell

The question of upholding the right of self-defense shouldn’t be political. Even so, supporters of the Second Amendment and our right as free people to arm ourselves are constantly attacked as wild-eyed crazies and “gun nuts.” So imagine my surprise at seeing Ukraine, a country with strict gun laws, “handing out” guns to its citizens for use as protection against the Russian invasion. It’s almost as if guns in the right hands can be used for good.

The siren song of gun control is ever present in the left-wing agenda. But people alleged to be on the Right are also constantly suggesting that we need at least “some” gun control. Because of these ubiquitous sentiments, I believe it’s necessary to point out the obvious:

• If you are suggesting the answer is “more” gun laws, please know, there are already more than 300,000 state and federal gun laws on the books in the United States.
• No form of gun control implemented against law-abiding citizens will ever change the actions committed by criminals or the mentally ill.
• No government, including our own, is ever going to give up its firearms. This seems obvious, but it’s necessary to point out since officials are always seeking to impose more restrictions on us but none on themselves. Citizens are asked to ignore the fact that throughout history those in power, when unchecked by a vigorous and self-governing citizenry, have instructed members of the military and law enforcement to imprison, starve, torture, experiment on, and then, inevitably, commit mass genocide against their own people for the perverted purposes of the ruling class.

Those who are uninformed about guns, and those who deliberately misinform people to further a gun confiscation agenda constitute two very real obstacles to self-government. History has demonstrated that the road to ultimate power is paved by useful idiots and malicious deceivers, leading to the disarming of everyone excluding those in power.

I can’t help but notice that some of the loudest voices within the gun control movement are conspicuously and constantly protected by people with guns. Joe Biden is the most heavily protected person in our country, if not the world. Yet he has been advocating stricter gun laws for years. Along the way, he has been guilty of spreading uninformed and sloppily constructed opinions, most especially pertaining to the hot topic of AR-15s—or as Joe Biden refers to them, “AR-14s.”

Remember when Biden advised a woman that AR-15s were “harder to aim” and “harder to use” and suggested, instead, that she should “buy a shotgun”? If you’ve ever fired an AR-15 and also a shotgun, you know there are significant differences between the two—most notably, recoil. As someone who has fired an AR-15 many times, I can personally attest that, given the choice between a shotgun or an AR-15 for defense, I would choose the AR every time. Gun control advocates make simple, uninformed statements like these all the time without anything to back up their claims because they think it sounds good and it pushes their narrative.

But this isn’t about which is better, the AR or the shotgun. It’s about the removal of one type of weapon which will eventually lead to the removal of another after the tactic proves successful. They’re not after ARs, they’re after all guns. The AR is just the one they’re after today. Sensible Americans who understand their right to self-defense should not give them an inch. It’s always going to be used as leverage for the next gun grab.

Those who would suppress the Second Amendment purposely ignore statistics that prove more guns are used more in self-defense than in criminal pursuits. On average there are 2 million defensive uses of firearms reported yearly and another study shows that women use guns 200,000 times a year to defend themselves against sexual assault.

As a woman, I don’t believe in allowing the government to play God with my life. Years ago, I spent many nights at home alone but I did so without fear because I had a gun for protection. I am of small stature, and I wouldn’t be a physical match against an intruder. But put a gun in my hand with proper firearm training? When I am armed, the field is leveled.

A recent Rasmussen poll shows Americans believe in stricter enforcement of the laws we already have, not in the addition of more laws like Biden would have you believe. And since the Left outright lies about gun shows having “loopholes” and pushes for federal “red flag laws” let’s examine a few key points:

• With every legal gun purchase from a shop or vendor you are required to undergo a background check. Vendors at gun shows are not exempt from this process.
• You will be denied the purchase of a gun if you’ve been convicted of a felony, domestic violence, or if you are court-ordered adjudicated as mentally defective.
• Being court-ordered adjudicated as mentally defective means that a series of steps were taken to declare someone mentally incompetent, unlike what is proposed in Biden’s federal “red flag law,” which would strip you of your guns without due process and deem you guilty until proven innocent based on claims made by someone about you. Does anyone actually believe this process would not be politicized and weaponized against opponents of the Left?

The uptick in gun purchases over the last couple of years may be a cause for hope, particularly because of the surge in new gun owners. It seems that more people are realizing movements pushing to “defund the police” may leave them in a vulnerable situation. They are learning that they need to arm themselves and not rely on someone coming to save them.

One of the hardest lessons in life is coming to terms with the reality of good and evil. No matter how good or nice a person you may be, the possibility that you can fall victim to someone with evil intentions is always on the table.

Maybe an even harder reality is understanding that governments have sacrificed millions of lives over the centuries for greed, power, prejudice, or simply because those in power were malicious. There may never come a time when I need to defend myself, but like the Ukrainians are finding out now, I never want to be in a position where I am reliant on the government to make that choice for me.

There is adage I live by that sums this up greatly: “It’s better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.”

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Lauren Farrell is the development coordinator for American Majority. A self-proclaimed political junkie, she has loved politics since she was a child. She resides in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia with her fiance and three dogs.
Photo “Learning How to Shoot” by Tom Hart. CC BY 2.0.

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