Note: The following commentary is a guest post by Ranjit Singh, a co-author of “Each One, Teach One: Preserving and protecting the Second Amendment in the 21st century and beyond.” You can follow him on Twitter @AuthorSingh. 

Politically engaged and active gun owners are well-aware of the serious risks posed by gun controllers to our natural Right to Keep and Bear Arms. We know their long-term goals and have witnessed how they weaponize the ignorance of non-gun owners to achieve their nefarious ends in an incremental manner.

Although 2020 has seen record-breaking firearms sales and the induction of millions of first-time gun owners into our welcoming, open and diverse community, this November poses a highly understated Defcon Level 1 threat to our Second Amendment rights and by extension, the entire Bill of Rights. Election Betting Markets, which are generally accurate (with 2016 being a notable exception), are pointing to a clean sweep of the federal government by Democrats. After seeing what Virginia Democrats did to their fellow Virginians earlier this year, we must be alarmed at what is likely coming for all of us at the national level if betting market predictions do come to pass.

Despite being in the Senate minority, far-Left activists and some Democrat leaders have had the chutzpah to call for packing the Supreme Court with leftist judges for the better part of a year, advocating a very dangerous means to achieve this end: eliminating the legislative filibuster. Joe Biden, projecting his goofy grandpa persona through his basement webcam, has consciously chosen to not reveal his positions on the filibuster or court-packing, although his 25th Amendment heir-apparent Kamala Harris’ public statements strongly indicate where he will meekly stand. Our dominant, irredeemably biased mainstream media has played along without asking the hard questions that is the duty of a free press in a free country.

In a closely-divided country with increasing polarization and partisanship, where Obama’s 2008 landslide victory was only underpinned by 52.9% of the popular vote, such a drastic move will further worsen polarization and erode the deliberative nature of the United States Senate, reducing it into another raucous, populist House of Representatives with longer, staggered terms. With the last incentive for deliberation and compromise gone, the federal government, under the control of Democrats, will be free to unleash the far-Left’s agenda.

This agenda includes a variety of kooky items, but history shows us that the likeliest to pass is gun control, because law-abiding gun owners are the easiest to vilify. Democrats’ path of least resistance to show that they’re “doing something” is paved over law-abiding gun owners, especially so if there is serious political violence between Nov. 3 and Inauguration Day. The Democrat-controlled House has already passed dangerous gun control bills; the writing is on the wall on what’s coming. Registration, licensing, bans of arbitrarily defined “assault weapons,” magazine bans, vindictive taxation, everything is on the table.

It is not hyperbole to say that this is a Do-or-Die election. In light of this clear and present danger, various political factions that still value freedom – moderates, old-school liberals, libertarians, classical liberals, constitutional conservatives, among others – need to band together for the common defense of their liberties at the ballot box. Ironic and tragic as it may seem, uniting behind a flawed Donald J. Trump is the only practical recourse. 

Despite his flaws and distasteful Twitter habits, Trump’s behavior belies his mainstream governance and policies. The contrast between Trump’s rhetoric and governance is clearest in foreign policy, where Trump’s uncouth, bellicose talk is disconnected from peaceable results on the ground, such as Arab-Israeli treaties, winding down of two-decade-old wars and no new wars. Compare that to George W. Bush’s talk of a “humble foreign policy” or Barack Obama’s undeserved Nobel Peace Prize and their actual results: more wars, new wars, failed wars, drone wars.

It is important to note that Trump himself has repeatedly urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to do what the Democrats have been talking about while in the Senate minority – nuke the legislative filibuster – but McConnell has steadfastly refrained from doing so, and Trump has backed off and stopped making that demand.

As long as Joe Biden hides his true positions on the filibuster, court-packing and assaults on our gun rights, the wisest course of action available to gun owners is to expect the absolute worst from him, his 25th Amendment heir-apparent, and his fellow Senate Democrats, especially given the expected victory of a historically dangerous Senate candidate who is literally in bed with a deep-pocketed anti-Second Amendment organization.

Don’t get demoralized. Don’t pay attention to the polls. Go out and vote. Get your liberty-loving friends to vote. Register gun owners who aren’t registered to vote and inform them of the unfathomable downside risks. And if your social circumstances prevent you from voicing your opinions publicly, or if you have a public persona that will get trashed for doing so, express those opinions in the privacy of the ballot box with your vote. It is time to Do or Die, Join or Die.