{"id":75699,"date":"2021-12-31T10:30:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T16:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=75699"},"modified":"2021-12-31T10:30:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T16:30:30","slug":"75699","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=75699","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The Times May Be A-Changin’<\/a><\/p>\n

Over time, we\u2019ve seen changes in focus by the hoplophobic elements of society. Originally, it was all about banning handguns or at least \u201cHandgun Control Inc.\u201d The \u201cassault weapon\u201d, that is, the AR ban of 1994-2004 followed, with no discernible effect on crime, homicide, etc. Movement mutation continued, with groups dropping wording advocating bans, moving to claims of fighting pure \u201cviolence\u201d and promoting gun \u201csafety\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now they want to address \u201croot causes\u201d of violence instead of just restricting legal gun ownership, though still advocating extending background checks while \u201cnot taking anyone\u2019s guns\u201d. Intervening within high-crime communities, and with those at high risk of committing and becoming victims of violence, is appropriate, though far more difficult than they may imagine.<\/p>\n

Throughout, we\u2019ve had no reason to believe that these anti-gun activists have had any real change of heart. Their \u201cconversation\u201d always comes around to the desirability of somehow limiting the rights of law-abiding American gun owners in some way, even if in \u201cjust\u201d creating more hoops to jump through in order to purchase, keep or bear our arms.<\/p>\n

However, there is a fundamental factor that will trump all their intentions, both open and disguised. That is us, the people (and voters) of democracies. As Andrew Breitbart famously said, \u201cPolitics follows culture\u201d and culture is changing. Much of this is due to the past 2 years of violence approved and applauded by \u201cprogressive\u201d politicians who thought this would garner minority votes. Their groupthink about ethnicity blinded them to the reality that\u00a0people<\/em>\u00a0of all ethnicities, communities and societies want crime stopped lest it hit them.<\/p>\n

People are simultaneously realizing that they can\u2019t count on being protected and must plan to do that for themselves. Thus the huge rise in gun purchases by more diverse buyers than ever, including women, minorities (especially African-American women) and self-described liberals. It\u2019s been speculated that this increase in valuing self-protection with firearms may transfer to an increase in valuing Second Amendment rights\u2014and now, that\u2019s\u00a0no longer speculation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Trafalgar Group<\/a>, a non-partisan polling operation, just released a poll in which over 84% of respondents believed that \u201cstrict gun laws\u201d either make no difference in or worsen the current surge in retail thefts. Less than 16% believed such laws can make this better.<\/p>\n

In November,\u00a0Quinnipiac<\/a>\u00a0found that 48% of those surveyed opposed stricter gun laws versus 47% who support them\u2014following a trend beginning in 2015, now over the tipping point to plurality opposition.\u00a0Gallup\u2019s polling<\/a>\u00a0in November correlates, with a new low of only 52% of Americans caring that \u201claws covering the sale of firearms\u201d should be stricter (down from a high of 64% in 2019, falling through 57% in 2020).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0ABC\/Ipsos<\/a>\u00a0found that 66% of Americans disapprove of how President Biden is addressing gun violence (which could imply wanting more or less strict laws). Republicans\u2019 opposition to more gun laws has strengthened, Democrats\u2019 preference for more strict gun laws is lessening, predictably. But the most important political demographic\u2014independents\u2014have shifted dramatically in favor of, shall we say, individual independence on this issue.<\/p>\n

In the latest\u00a0National Firearms Survey<\/a>\u00a0published in July 2021, nearly\u00a01<\/sup>\/3<\/sub>\u00a0of respondents acknowledged owning guns, more than half of those carry them and almost\u00a01<\/sup>\/3\u00a0<\/sub>of them reported having to use them defensively in one or more of the estimated nearly 1.7 million episodes of self-defense. In 82% of these DGUs, it wasn\u2019t necessary to fire. Almost 80% of these incidents occurred in the defender\u2019s home or on their property, with the rest mostly occurring in public or at work, still a very substantial number.<\/p>\n

NSSF\u00a0also found<\/a>\u00a0that 49% more Hispanic Americans (no, none use \u201cLatinx\u201d) purchased firearms in 2020 than in 2019. With 40% of all gun purchases during the past 2 years coming from new gun owners, it\u2019s no surprise that Hispanics (as well as African-Americans) are increasingly voting more for individual rights than for government \u201cprotection\u201d. \u00a0In Berkeley, California, of all places, the\u00a0Latino Rifle Association<\/a>\u00a0has grown by hundreds of members since 2020. Its \u201cleftists . . . socialists, progressives\u201d members realize that \u201cThe police and the government aren\u2019t taking care of me, so I have to do things on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funny thing, that\u2019s what conservatives have recognized for generations. And a much bigger organization, the\u00a0National African-American Gun Association<\/a>, has added tens of thousands of new members since 2016, accelerating (along with many local gun clubs oriented toward minorities) during the past 2 years.<\/p>\n

Even our less demonstrative Anglophone cousins, Canadians and Kiwis, aren\u2019t cooperating any more with government orders to turn in their newly banned guns\u00a0than Americans<\/a>\u00a0have. Neither are turning in their formerly legal, acceptable firearms\u2014only 160 of an estimated 100,000 affected firearms have been surrendered\u00a0in Canada<\/a>\u00a0in a year and a half.\u00a0In New Zealand<\/a>, the 2019 ban of most repeating arms \u201chas had no impact on a rise in gun crime and violence\u201d, except for a steadily increasing rate of the offense of still possessing such firearms.<\/p>\n

This is precisely the cultural change that precedes and triggers political change. Most Americans already knew that protecting individual rights is the uncompromisable basis of the success of American society and polity. Many others know that now and more are learning. While Donald Trump improved the Republican share of the Black and Hispanic votes (especially among men), this wasn\u2019t about him or the party. It is about the importance of each person\u2019s rights as an American.<\/p>\n

Most expect that the Supreme Court will affirm the Second Amendment with a ruling in\u00a0Bruen<\/em>\u00a0voiding New York City\u2019s may- (= non-) issue handgun carry permitting, along with the 8 other states that persist in that tyranny. The \u201cprogressive\u201d left will keep caterwauling if they don\u2019t get their way. But should the decision go otherwise, their wailing would be nothing compared to the anger of the majority who are now convinced that individual rights are more important than political correctness. And that would assuredly lead to even greater political change in favor of ensuring those rights.<\/p>\n

To paraphrase\u00a0St. George Tucker,<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthe true palladium of liberty\u201d isn\u2019t just \u201cthe right of self-defence.\u201d The right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense and opposing tyranny is necessary to a free people in a free state. But it is a means to the goal, along with representative democracy lustily embraced, which is \u201cto keep our republic\u201d (h\/t B. Franklin). The ultimate mark of liberty is individual autonomy, where the rights of the individual are placed above government\u2019s privileges, which are only bestowed by us individuals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Times May Be A-Changin’ Over time, we\u2019ve seen changes in focus by the hoplophobic elements of society. Originally, it was all about banning handguns or at least \u201cHandgun Control Inc.\u201d The \u201cassault weapon\u201d, that is, the AR ban of 1994-2004 followed, with no discernible effect on crime, homicide, etc. Movement mutation continued, with groups … 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":[35,24,8,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-rights","category-rkba","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75699","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=75699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75700,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75699\/revisions\/75700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}