From Kyiv to Belfast, to Lexington and Concord, a rifle in the hands of a citizen-soldier has been a key in the hands of a shackled prisoner. History has shown us that even the most tyrannical of regimes falter at the sound of gunfire. So, even after the insurrection of January 6th, and with the prospect of strongmen like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis making more presidential bids, why does the left continue to push gun-control legislation? A unified and armed American population has the ability to defend against all its adversaries, both foreign and domestic. This includes fascist pretenders to the White House and their finatical supporters.

The American left advocates for freedom of speech, freedom from persecution, equality, equity, and unity. Yet, the left is like a toothless dog, all bark and no bite. All of these claims, with which I wholeheartedly agree, can and should be backed with unparalleled strength and conviction. It is true that nonviolent leaders, like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, accomplished great things for their causes. Yet are the actions of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Malcolm X, John Brown, and Ethan Allen no less valid? Certainly, a forceful resistance carries with it more weight than passive protest. Putin, with innumerable war crimes to his name, wouldn’t think twice about rolling tanks over a crowd of Ukrainians holding picket signs. Ukrainians holding AK-74’s, however, have held off fascist aggression for more than a year. If you think a few armed guerilla fighters can’t defend against the might of a military industrial complex, I need only direct your attention to Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Northern Ireland. Though it is a terrifying thought, armed Americans may soon be called upon to face the threat of fascism in our own nation.

Let’s be honest for a moment. The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting. It even has very little to do with self-defense. The right of the people to keep and bear arms was, and is, a constant source of protection for all other rights enumerated within the Constitution. It is one thing to say we have the right to speak freely. It is another to say we will defend our right to speak freely. Our rights are only protected by the Constitution in theory. In practice, it is our own duty to defend these rights against those who would so readily trample them.

The left, then, is missing a vital component of its supposedly liberal doctrine. The left has an agenda to ensure minority rights, protect LGBTQ+ individuals, defend women’s lives, and promote the welfare of the downtrodden, yet they are simultaneously enacting legislation which would strip these most at-risk Americans and their allies of their only means of self-preservation. When the American Revolution kicked off, patriots were a minority in the colonies, and took up arms to seize their political rights. Now, minorities are being targeted for their race, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, and class, yet they have no arms with which to furnish resistance. Gun control is merely helping the right in their crusade to whitewash America. Putin would love for Ukrainians to be systematically disarmed. Luckily for Trump, his opponents have already disarmed themselves.

I would be remiss if I did not note the reasons the left addresses gun control in its political agenda. Gun crime, and in particular, mass shootings, are indeed tragic and horrific events. The killing of innocent people in times of peace should never occur, no matter what the implementation of aggression is. However, controlling legal access to firearms will never solve the crime and mental health issues our country now faces. Criminal activity and mass murder should be a completely different conversation from the question of gun control. Of course it is still a necessary conversation, and one which I hope will bring real change to our  criminal justice and healthcare systems. However, gun control is a question of basic political protections against the aggression of a tyrannical government. An armed left is a strong left, and a strong left means we will never again have people wondering if they can seek political asylum in Canada because they are persecuted for simply being who they are.