KYIV, UKRAINE -(Ammoland.com)- Ukraine is the perfect example of why gun control is dangerous to the free world.
On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to attack the neighboring country of Ukraine. In 2014, Russian troops moved into the Crimea region of Ukraine under the guise of being peacekeepers. Soon after, Russia annexed Crimea. Weak western leadership gave the Russian Federation the green light to take Crimea, and ineffective leadership also led to this invasion.
The Ukrainian people are learning the importance of the right to bear arms. Ukrainians have flocked to gun stores to buy any firearm they could get their hands on. The Ukrainian parliament passed emergency laws that allow their citizens to carry firearms. They now recognize that arming the population is the ultimate firewall to being dominated by an outside force.
Veterans are teaching Ukrainian civilians how to use guns such as AK47s.
They are also teaching the citizenry tactics and techniques to use against the advancing Russian forces. In other European countries with stricter firearms regulations, impromptu training with firearms would not be possible. Ukraine has a high number of gun stores compared to other European countries in the region.
Russia will probably win the war but will lose the peace. When matched up army to army, Russia has a massive edge over Ukraine, but we have seen in the last 100 years that insurgencies can topple the most powerful militaries. The Ukrainians have armed themselves the best that they can. They are now the militia. They soon will be the insurgency.
There is an ancient Chinese torture called “Lingchi.” It is better known in the west as “death by a thousand paper cuts.” This idea can be applied to an insurgency against a better-equipped foe. No single action will be big enough to make a difference, but a thousand tiny actions will be enough to topple a giant. Ho Chi Minh is credited with applying this technique in South Vietnam, but it is a strategy that goes back hundreds of years.
Without arms, that strategy would not be possible to implement. It is much easier to subjugate an unarmed population than to control a people with the will and the means to fight back against tyranny. Despots have always disarmed the population they planned to target before moving against that group of people. Mao disarmed the Chinese farmers before the “Great Leap Forward” starved millions of Chinese. Stalin disarmed the Russian peasants before the “Red Terror” left millions of dead. Hitler disarmed the Jews before implementing his “Final Solution” that sent six million Europeans to death camps. This reason is why the right to bear arms is a human right.
We are once again seeing why the right to bear arms is such an important right. The Second Amendment is an American right.
It limits the rights of the American federal government to impose restrictions on its citizens. It acknowledges that the right to bear arms is an inalienable right that the government cannot violate (although they do). The right to arms is not limited to just Americans. That right does not end at a border.
The situation in Ukraine should be a wake-up call to the rest of Europe as to why gun rights are so important, but I fear it will not be enough. The enemy will have to be at the gates before they embrace the right to bear arms, and by that time, it will be too late.
In the United States, we need to push back against every infringement on our sacred right. The right to bear arms is the only right that cannot be taken away. It can only be given away, and once it is gone; we are nothing but subjects.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Ironic. The citizens of Ukraine flocked to police and military stations to get weapons to protect their nation… Yes, too little too late. Many will fight to their death with kitchen knives. The Democrats, socialists, liberals, ANTIFA, BLM would welcome Putin and his murderes here in the U.S.! They WANT socialism HERE and all Americans, but criminals to be completely unarmed. The HUGE difference is that the Ukrainians have LIVED under communist/socialist rule, they FINALLY tasted FREEDOM, and ALL will die fighting to protect it ! Those socialism loving FLAKES here have NO CLUE what Putin’s world is like !… Read more »
Oh were it that our government sent arms to all who asked and allowed us to close the Southern Border!
The leftist governments will only allow private citizens to be armed when they hear the enemy knocking on the doors of their parliament building and they suddenly realize that armed citizens are all that is left to protect them. Unfortunately that falls under “too little, too late” since training is required to really be effective with any weapon. Plus, should these citizens actually succeed in repelling the enemy, you can be certain the legislature will waste no time banning private gun ownership again and go around confiscating the very weapons they happily distributed to save their collective butts. Wash –… Read more »
These idiot Democrats are Allowing
this to happen right here in the US by letting all the illegals into this Country!! They will take over thanks to these idiots!!
The right to keep and bear arms is a HUMAN RIGHT. The Second Amendment is merely the Founders of our republic telling those who came after them not to f*ck around with it. The Russian invasions of several of their fellow former Soviet Republics are just examples of why those concepts are important. Or as my “pro choice” wife reminds her friends, if our government fails, Roe v Wade won’t mean sh*t. In Federalist #51, the author (unknown but probably Hamilton or Madison) said: “The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to… Read more »
Biden was playing with sparkelers out by the barn (Ukraine) and caught it on fire.
Now he wants congress (the American people) to come put it out. How fast can Joe blow billions of tax dollars?
I wonder how many divisions AMMOLAND subscribers alone could supply in an emergency, lol!
Unfortunately their leaders were only smart enough to realize it when the enemy was at the gates. Had they realized it long ago the citizens would have been able to get some practice.
The days of American patriotism are all but dying. The younger generation is not going to be able to keep our country safe from the new world that is emerging daily. The democrats have waged war on our country and the world this should be clear now that we understand the origins of the coronavirus. Their intent to remove a sitting President Mr Trump from office by any means possible for 4 years was to say the least embarrassing. The war in the Ukraine is a direct response of the failed democratic policies that began in the Obama administration with installing a government… Read more »
Political Theater Our Military passing out arms to private citizens I do not know about all that now. The Ukraine is a failed policy of the democrats elected in our country, That is a hard pill to swallow for any American. That our interference as a country has geopolitical ramifications. Biden & Obama , Hillary , John Kerry along with host of politicians and military leaders who have gained financial wealth in their dealings in the Ukraine need to be held accountable. The Biden family are up to their necks inappropriate actions with the Ukraine. I have to ask with… Read more »