{"id":83134,"date":"2022-07-07T14:01:06","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T19:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=83134"},"modified":"2022-07-07T14:01:06","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T19:01:06","slug":"83134","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=83134","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian Invasion Offered Hard Lesson on Gun Control, Ukrainian Says<\/a><\/p>\n

Gun control in Ukraine has proved to be highly problematic in the wake of the Russian invasion, a Ukrainian activist told a gathering of journalists and friends of DonorsTrust in Washington recently.<\/p>\n

Natalia Melnyk, communications director for the Ukraine-based Bendukidze Free Market Center, said that in Ukraine, before Russian President\u00a0Vladimir Putin\u2019s forces invaded<\/a>, \u201cYou could not own handguns legally; only hunting weapons if you had a license.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll handguns were \u2018award\u2019 weapons, randomly distributed by our Ministry of Defense. Usually, you needed to have some connections to get these weapons,\u201d she said at the event sponsored by DonorsTrust, a nonprofit libertarian- and conservative-leaning donor-advised fund.<\/p>\n

Amid the invasion of\u00a0Ukraine<\/a>\u00a0by Russia, Melnyk noted the development of arming citizens\u2014but with restrictions and even then not all citizens.<\/p>\n

Want to keep up with the 24\/7 news cycle? Want to know the most important stories of the day for conservatives? Need news you can trust? Subscribe to The Daily Signal\u2019s email newsletter.\u00a0Learn more >><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn areas not under immediate attack, the government said to these territorial units, \u2018If you are not under immediate danger of attack, please return the weapons. We will safely store them in a warehouse. If something happens, you can come and get them.\u2019 Of course, [the Ukrainian people] said, \u2018No, thank you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Melnyk criticized the\u00a0Ukrainian<\/a>\u00a0government\u2019s move to\u00a0arm<\/a>\u00a0citizens while at the same time imposing restrictions, such as mandatory storing of guns in a warehouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do see improvement, but it resembles two steps forward, one step back \u2026 because that idea about returning weapons is also very recent. We jumped from that idea to the idea that we do need weapons for self-defense,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian government is currently discussing further plans for arming citizens, Melnyk said in her June 16 remarks at the City Tavern Club in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never was such a big issue in the broader Ukrainian society, because we were a peaceful nation,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of people honestly believed [and] I was one of them: \u2018Why would you need a weapon? We are not going to war, and if you are not a hunter \u2026 why do you need it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But after the Russian invasion, \u201cit appears we really do need it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Melnyk described the cultural change toward caring about self-defense after\u00a0Russia<\/a>\u00a0invaded. \u201cIt was nearly impossible to get a time slot at a shooting range because so many Ukrainians went in to learn how to actually handle a gun, because they have no idea,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the case of the Ukrainian government sending Ukrainian people to die,\u201d Melnyk told The Daily Signal, explaining a common misconception of those\u00a0observing the Ukrainian crisis from the outside<\/a>. \u201cThis is the conscious decision of thousands of Ukrainians to protect their freedom, protect their land, and to protect the future of their children.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russian Invasion Offered Hard Lesson on Gun Control, Ukrainian Says Gun control in Ukraine has proved to be highly problematic in the wake of the Russian invasion, a Ukrainian activist told a gathering of journalists and friends of DonorsTrust in Washington recently. Natalia Melnyk, communications director for the Ukraine-based Bendukidze Free Market Center, said that … 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":[8,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rkba","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83134","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=83134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83135,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83134\/revisions\/83135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}