Ukraine/United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Anti-Second Amendment extremists have been having a lousy year, give or take. Why might that be said, given the fact that Joe Biden is in the White House, anti-Second Amendment extremists hold the key leadership positions in the House and Senate, and they are about to replace Associate Justice Stephen Breyer with another anti-Second Amendment extremist?
Well, a lot of this come from what they haven’t been able to do. They didn’t manage to pass their election and campaign finance “reform” agenda, nor did they wipe out the legislative filibuster. Millions of new gun owners have opened up a massive opportunity for Second Amendment supporters, NYSRPA v. Bruen is likely to deal a death blow to “may issue” carry permit laws, and the wave of violent crime is likely to cause more defections from anti-Second Amendment extremism.
Now, of course, we have Ukraine. If you haven’t seen what Defiant Ls posted, check it out. The mental gymnastics that will be required to justify future semiauto bans will be much more difficult to navigate and execute well. Ukraine handed out real assault rifles – weapons capable of either firing either on semi-automatic or full-automatic – to their citizens.
Here is the real problem anti-Second Amendment extremists now face: If they celebrate Ukraine, then they also have to acknowledge the Ukrainian government’s decision to hand out the real Kalashnikov assault rifles. This is a massive opening for Second Amendment supporters.
We’re not only talking about eroding the logic of the semiauto bans that Eric Swalwell and Beto O’Rourke have been pushing (a significant victory in and of itself), but we’re also now in a situation where the 1934 National Firearms Act and the 1986 Hughes Amendment have been undermined, and that undermining was celebrated by the same folks who want to take guns away from Americans.
The big question is whether we can seize this opportunity to start chipping away on these onerous provisions. There is a case to be made to repeal the 1986 Hughes Amendment, pass the Hearing Protection Act and the Home Defense and Competitive Shooting Act, and perhaps even make the procedure for what’s felt under the NFA much less onerous. All we have to do is ask people one question: “Do you think Americans are less deserving of rights than Ukrainians?”
If they say, “Yes,” they’re going to alienate a lot of American voters. If they say, “No,” then they are vulnerable to a follow-up question: “Why do you support an Australia-style gun ban?”
The pressure can even be increased by pointing to the unacceptable situation on our southern border or pointing out that Alaska isn’t that far from Russia.
Second Amendment supporters won’t have an automatic win on this, though. We must avoid Biden’s blunders, be aware of how we come across to our fellow Americans, and use the proper approach. But if we do those things, there is a very good chance we can defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.