{"id":113000,"date":"2025-10-31T11:42:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=113000"},"modified":"2025-10-31T11:42:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:42:04","slug":"113000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=113000","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Self-Proclaimed ‘Human Rights Defenders’ Attack Right to Keep and Bear Arms<\/a><\/p>\n

Self-defense is a human right. In fact, I’d argue it’s the most fundamental of\u00a0all\u00a0<\/em>our inherent rights. Without that right to protect our lives, what does it matter if we have the right to think or say what’s on our mind, or to worship (or not) as we choose?<\/p>\n

So, anytime I see a self-described human rights activist talking about the right to keep and bear arms, I’m always curious to see if they’ll actually embrace the human right of self-defense, or pretend that it doesn’t exist.<\/p>\n

Sadly, it seems that the group Mindbridge Center falls into the latter category. In a new post at Psychology today, the self-described human rights defenders argue that only by denormalizing gun ownership and adopting laws that make it harder, if not impossible, for people to defend themselves, can we\u00a0build a safer America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While many Americans believe gun ownership is widespread and normalized, the truth is more nuanced. Only about 30 percent of Americans own a gun, and among men, 60 percent do not own a firearm (Pew Research Center, 2024<\/a>). Yet, public perception often overestimates gun prevalence due to cultural portrayals and media emphasis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If 1-in-3 people engage in a particular activity, I’d say that’s a pretty normal activity, wouldn’t you? More importantly, the Mindbridge Center itself says on\u00a0its website<\/a>\u00a0that human rights defenders are those “advocating for\u00a0minoritized group<\/strong>s such as racial minorities, Indigenous people, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, or the disabled community.”<\/p>\n

So here’s my question to Mindbridge; if advocating for minoritized groups is defending human rights, and “only” 30% of Americans own guns, then why isn’t advocating for gun owners a defense of human rights?<\/p>\n

And a followup: if members of these minoritized groups face threats of physical violence because of who they are, do the folks at Mindbridge\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>believe that they’re better off disarmed and defenseless? Shouldn’t they have the ability to protect themselves from those who would do them harm? Don’t they have the\u00a0right\u00a0<\/em>to protect their lives?<\/p>\n

The most obvious answer is that the folks at Mindbridge don’t think so. After all, it’s clear they want to denormalize and stigmatize gun owners. As they write in their call to action::<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to be a policymaker to help shift the culture. Start by challenging the myths: Most men don\u2019t own guns, and most Americans support regulations like background checks. Share this truth in conversations, on\u00a0social media<\/a>, and in community spaces. Campaigns that highlight these facts, such as billboards or digital media stating \u201c60% of American men don\u2019t own a gun,\u201d can help redefine what responsible citizenship looks like.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Got that? For Mindbridge, being a “responsible citizen” means not owning a gun. Which brings up another question: why bother pushing for things like “universal” background checks if they think that gun ownership itself is a problem?<\/p>\n

The fundamental premise of their mindset is that, unless “both structural change and cultural transformation” surrounding gun ownership takes place, it’s impossible to “build a safer future.” That ignores the fact that violent crime is\u00a0dropping at record levels<\/a>\u00a0at the moment, and 2025 is on pace for the lowest homicide rate in more than 60 years.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>building a safer future (and a safer present as well), and we’re doing so while robustly exercising our right to bear arms… as well as our human right to self-defense.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Self-Proclaimed ‘Human Rights Defenders’ Attack Right to Keep and Bear Arms Self-defense is a human right. In fact, I’d argue it’s the most fundamental of\u00a0all\u00a0our inherent rights. Without that right to protect our lives, what does it matter if we have the right to think or say what’s on our mind, or to worship (or … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enemies-foreign-domestic","category-rkba","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113001,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113000\/revisions\/113001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}