By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
When gun rights groups pointed to the fight now unfolding in Ukraine as a textbook example of the importance of the Second Amendment to this nation’s security, anti-gunners accused them of doing what the gun prohibition lobby does all the time: exploit a tragedy.
Writing at The Federalist, Cody J. Wisniewski has just reinforced arguments put forth earlier by gun rights organizations—to the everlasting chagrin of gun prohibitionists—that the invasion of Ukraine is a clear justification for the right to keep and bear arms by private citizens, especially the Second Amendment’s importance to U.S. sovereignty.
Wisniewski, Director of Mountain States Legal Foundation’s Center to Keep and Bear Arms, observes right up front, “Ukraine has a fighting chance in part because it has taken dramatic steps to provide its people firearms. More than 25,000 automatic rifles and 10 million rounds of ammunition have been distributed to volunteers in Kyiv.”
A few paragraphs later, Wisniewski lowers the boom on people he describes as “supporters of draconian gun control” who have announced they “stand with the brave Ukrainian people” when he states, “As it happened, Ukraine was tragically late to expand legal protection of gun rights. Its parliament acted on an emergency basis just before Russia invaded.
“Better late than never, certainly,” he continues. “But imagine if the people of Kyiv had been training with these weapons their whole lives. Imagine if they knew them like the back of their hands, instead of quickly learning to handle them during an invasion. Their resistance, as well as their example to the world, would be all the more powerful.”
What he is talking about is people who have been proud owners of AR-15 semi-automatic modern sporting rifles, which anti-gunners all the way up to Joe Biden want to ban, along with their 20- and 30-round original capacity magazines. Legions of those gun owners have trained their children, spouses and countless other people in the safe and proficient use of such rifles. Millions of those guns are in private possession right now.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms recently said the Ukraine outrage “underscores the importance of the Second Amendment to the defense of freedom in the United States.”
The National Rifle Association commented as well, stating in a blog post, “What is happening in Ukraine proves the wisdom of our founding fathers in drafting the Second Amendment. They wanted to make sure the American people would never be subjugated. The Second Amendment at its core is, and has always been, about preserving human dignity, self-destiny and freedom.”
In the process of calling out left-leaning hypocrites who have been keen on helping arm Ukrainians while ratcheting down on the rights of their own countrymen—Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau are examples—Wisniewski referred to a 2014 report that Ukraine had “inherited the Soviet civilian gun control system, which provides for restrictive gun owner licensing and the registration of all firearms.”
That sounds alarmingly just like what Biden and his anti-gun Democrat colleagues in Congress, along with the billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobby want in the U.S. Wisniewski suggested the events of the past several days should settle any question about the advantages versus disadvantages of private gun ownership.
“An individual’s natural right of self-defense applies equally to the defense of his life as to the defense of his nation — and neither individual nor nation is secure without the ability to exercise it,” he concluded. “This should never have been a question.”
