Russian Invasion Of Ukraine Shows Why Gun Rights is Essential To A Free World

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.