Most people who advocate for gun control really do think it’ll make the country a safer place. They bought into all the media stories about easy access to guns and all that mess. Maybe they lost someone to “gun violence” and they need to try and fight back.
It’s easy to blast all of them as being control-freaks intent on bringing a totalitarianist regime into ultimate power, but most really don’t think about anything like that. They just want a safer world.
Unfortunately, they should remember the old saying: “Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.”
That’s essentially the message in a recent op-ed:
Authoritarians confiscate guns. Why? Because gun rights are the linchpin protecting citizens from loss of all rights.
Modern history provides troubling proof that loss of liberty is preceded by disarmament of citizens. Recently, the most obvious example is right before our eyes as we watch the Cuban people pleading for freedom.
Fidel Castro took control of Cuba in 1959 and immediately called for removing all guns from citizens. His new communist regime sent agents door to door to coerce citizens into turning over their firearms. If you think it could not happen here, recall the confiscation of thousands of home-defense firearms during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Local and “imported” law enforcement officers from outside states went door to door to take firearms from U.S. citizens at a time when the citizens needed them most.
Totalitarianism and gun confiscation are always intertwined. An excellent article by author Jose Nino called “A Brief History of Repressive Regimes and Their Gun Laws” provides important research regarding this pattern.
Nino outlines the recent example in Venezuela:
The day of reckoning came when Venezuela banned the sale of firearms and ammo in 2012, under the guise of fighting crime. Despite the gun ban in place, crime rates continue to skyrocket.
Now Venezuelans have no way of defending themselves against a government that is free to muzzle their speech, expropriate their wealth, debase their currency, and starve them to death. And if that weren’t enough, the average Venezuelan must contend with the constant threat of common criminals and colectivos, Venezuela’s infamous pro-government paramilitary units.
After the communist revolution brought Lenin into power in 1918, the Soviets immediately enacted strict gun control laws, which excluded Communist Party elites. We see this mentality even in the United States, as celebrities and politicians insist that regular folks do not need to protect themselves, even as the elites have guns and security personnel.
There is always going to be a tendency for some of those who advocate for gun control to maintain that they, themselves, can and should be trusted with guns. It’s those great unwashed masses who shouldn’t be trusted.
Disarming Americans may not result in instant totalitarianism, but it will come. Our closest national “relatives,” namely the UK and Canada, aren’t totalitarian regimes just yet but look at the troubling reality there. People can be prosecuted for saying the wrong thing about the wrong group. They can be fined for teaching a pug to make a Nazi salute. This is real.
And you’re a fool if you think it will stop there.
Here in the United States, even with our relative freedom with firearms, we have public officials working with private entities to try and stifle “misinformation” which is really just anyone who disagrees with the official line.
What we can rest easy with, though, is knowing there’s only so far our elected officials will dare go. An armed citizenry is a free citizenry, which is why totalitarian countries always disarm their populace. Find me a well-armed, oppressed people anywhere on the planet. Go on, I’ll wait.
Couldn’t find one, could you?
That’s because Ken Blackwell, the op-ed author, is right. Disarmament is the first step toward enslavement. It always has been, it always will be.
