In far too many places and far too many minds, self-defense isn’t a valid reason to own a gun. Hunting is apparently fine, but defending yourself against a predator? Not so much.

This thinking is especially common in Europe, where gun ownership is heavily restricted. I mean, as bad as we think Massachusetts or New Jersey is, Europe has it worse.

Yet in the Czech Republic, they’re at least accepting that self-defense is a valid reason to want to own a gun.

Prague, Jul 21 (EFE).- The Czech Parliament approved Wednesday a constitutional amendment recognizing the right to use arms in self-defense and to protect others, bucking the trend of stricter gun regulation in the European Union, CT24 television reported.

The upper house ratified the new article of the constitution, which had already passed the lower house.

The amendment states that “the right to defend one’s life or the life of others, even with the use of weapons, is guaranteed.”

This runs counter to the anti-gun rights push we’ve seen in much of the rest of the European Union.

It should also be noted that unlike much of Europe, the Czech Republic has a concealed carry permit system in place. While the country requires licenses to possess a firearm, they actually issue those licenses to some as young as 15 (not the concealed carry license, though). It’s actually not bad by European standards.

Now, let’s be clear. While I applaud the Czech Republic for this move, they still really have a lot of work left to do. Requiring licenses, for example, is ridiculous. It’s damn sure nothing any gun rights supporter in the US would tolerate, that’s for sure.

But this isn’t the United States.

For Europe, this is huge. Understanding that the right to self-defense is an inherent right of all human beings is absolutely an essential step in recognizing the inherent right for all human beings to keep and bear arms. What the Czech Republic is doing here is potentially laying a foundation that can be built upon.

The biggest obstacle they’ll face is the European Union, which doesn’t permit member states to have true gun rights recognition. Nations like the Czech Republic would need to leave the Union in order to do that.

However, it sounds like they’re already bumping up to the imposed limits and may keep pushing. That’s a very good thing, of course, and the European Union could use a good wake-up call on this.

Crime doesn’t stop because you take away a tool the bad guys like. At most, you force them to use a different tool.

In the process, though, you take away what may be the only tool their potential victims could potentially use to protect themselves. Maybe the Czech Republic can push the rest of Europe to wake the hell up and recognize that gun rights are human rights.

Then again, the European Union hasn’t really shown me that they actually respect any real, fundamental human right to speak of, so why would this be any different?