{"id":76402,"date":"2022-01-22T13:17:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T19:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=76402"},"modified":"2022-01-22T13:17:39","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T19:17:39","slug":"76402","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=76402","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tide Is Turning On Gun Control<\/a>
\nAfter two consecutive years of record violence, some on the left may be rediscovering the importance of self-defense.<\/em><\/p>\n

Contrary to popular misconceptions, the Second Amendment did not\u00a0create<\/em>\u00a0a right to keep and bear arms. Rather, the Second Amendment acknowledges and seeks to protect the People\u2019s\u00a0natural\u00a0<\/em>right to self-defense and the tools required for the exercise of that right, which obviously include firearms.<\/strong> This is why the amendment speaks of\u00a0\u201c<\/em>the right\u201d<\/em>\u00a0to arms as something\u00a0already in existence\u00a0and\u00a0not to be infringed\u2014rather than as something newly conferred, a point\u00a0recognized<\/a>\u00a0by the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

It should not be a polarized and partisan issue. Historically, the right of armed self-defense was understood and exercised by figures who were far from conservative or libertarian, from\u00a0Eleanor Roosevelt<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0George Orwell<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0Black Panthers<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Malcolm X<\/a>. In a dangerous world, they understood that one\u2019s life should not be left to the mercy of an aggressor.<\/p>\n

In light of 2021\u2014a second consecutive year of\u00a0record violence<\/a>\u2014are some on the left rediscovering the importance of self-defense? There\u2019s reason to think so.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Of course, 2020 was already an eye-opening time for many. Amid historic riots, pandemic restrictions, a\u00a0nationwide spike<\/a>\u00a0in murders, and calls to \u201cdefund the police,\u201d the importance of self-defense was made clear. That year, an\u00a0estimated 8.4 million people<\/a>\u00a0purchased a firearm for the first time.<\/p>\n

These trends persisted in 2021. Murders\u00a0continued to rise<\/a>\u00a0and gun sales remained high, fueled by people\u2019s concern for their safety.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0Washington Examiner<\/em>\u2019s Sarah Westwood\u00a0recently chronicled<\/a>\u00a0the wave of \u201cprogressive buyer\u2019s remorse\u201d on issues of crime and safety, and left-leaning areas\u2019 embrace of firearms. Even NPR\u00a0was forced to acknowledge<\/a>\u00a0the racial and political diversity of new gun owners and the legitimacy of their concerns. These new gun buyers \u201care white, Black, Asian, and Latino, and come from all political beliefs,\u201d NPR reported, \u201cand they\u2019re being driven by uncertainty, fear, and a need to feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judged by its laws and leadership, California is among the most anti-gun states in the nation. But when the head of L.A.\u2019s police union\u00a0compares the city to the\u00a0Purge<\/em>\u00a0movies<\/a>, in which all crime is temporarily legalized, and says that the LAPD \u201ccan\u2019t guarantee your safety,\u201d many Californians understand that their safety is up to them. As Westwood noted, concealed carry permit applications in Los Angeles County have increased\u00a0more than tenfold<\/em>\u00a0in recent years.<\/p>\n

Journalist Michael Shellenberger chronicled the same attitude shift among Beverly Hills liberals in a\u00a0recent piece<\/a>: \u201cEven hardcore leftist Democrats who said to me in the past, \u2018I\u2019ll never own a gun\u2019 are calling me asking about firearms,\u201d a private security executive said.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Seattle, which has been called \u201cAmerica\u2019s most liberal city<\/a>,\u201d is experiencing a surge in gun ownership. Per Westwood\u2019s reporting, the\u00a0county sheriff\u2019s office<\/a>\u00a0said it can barely accommodate the \u201ctremendous number of individuals wanting to get their Concealed Pistol License at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

There remain some indications of hardening support for gun control among Democrats, as\u00a0two major polls<\/a>\u00a0recently found that 91 percent of Democrats favor more firearms restrictions. This figure may conceal a complex reality, however.<\/p>\n

It could, of course, simply reflect the fact that more Democrats now support gun control. But it could also indicate that onetime Democrats are\u00a0exiting<\/em>\u00a0the party over issues like gun control, leaving a more-pro-restriction Democratic remnant. It could also be that, like Shellenberger\u2019s gun-curious \u201chardcore leftist Democrats,\u201d some Democratic respondents are developing unconventional views that they keep to themselves\u2014either by giving false answers or just not taking pollsters. Other Democratic gun-owners could be holding onto old ideologies out of step with their real-world behavior.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s clear overall is that 2020 and 2021 have changed the social landscape on self-defense and firearms. Naturally, politicians and anti-gun activists will keep up their\u00a0familiar refrains<\/a>, which have long been staples of the left-wing establishment. But street-level attitudes are changing in favor of the natural right of self-defense. That may prove to be the ultimate legacy of two very violent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tide Is Turning On Gun Control After two consecutive years of record violence, some on the left may be rediscovering the importance of self-defense. Contrary to popular misconceptions, the Second Amendment did not\u00a0create\u00a0a right to keep and bear arms. Rather, the Second Amendment acknowledges and seeks to protect the People\u2019s\u00a0natural\u00a0right to self-defense and the … 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":[5,8,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-rkba","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76402","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=76402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76403,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76402\/revisions\/76403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}