Jerking the Trigger

The news has been full of stories about people arming themselves in the face of the unknown. There are new gun owners being minted every day all across the country. People are taking hold of their rights and nourishing the seed of liberty even while their own governments work to stamp it out.

If you have become a first-time gun owner due to current events in the last two weeks, I’m glad you’re here. If you are one those who were surprised and angered to find that buying a gun online or at a gun show wasn’t nearly as easy as you were told it would be, I’m sorry you have been lied to for so long but I’m glad you’re here. f you tried to purchase a gun but your state government made it impossible by closing your gun stores or background check systems, I’m sorry that you’ve been denied this basic human right but I am glad you are here.

This is my charge to those of you who fit what I have described above: Remember how you feel right now. Remember the realizations that drove you to arm yourself and resolve to act accordingly in the future.

The Constitution of the United States of America enumerates, not grants, several God given rights to include the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. This right has been purposely obscured for years with arguments about what one needs to shoot deer but “needs” and hunting were never the point (though the ability to put meat in the freezer doesn’t seem so unimportant now, does it?). Sometimes, it takes something like a pandemic and accompanying shortages to make people realize what what they have, the things they need, and life itself is worth protecting. It solidifies the seed of a thought that we all have about the nature of people and just how thin the strand of society is that holds them back from acting more violently. It awakens the spirit in us that is the very same free and independent spirit penned the Bill of Rights in the first place.

Maybe, your urge to be responsibly armed came when you realized how suddenly valuable things you previously took for granted are… like toilet paper. Maybe the need to be armed took hold when saw empty store shelves, saw fistfights over groceries, and wondered what people might do to put their hands on what you already had at home. Maybe you were watching Congress look out for themselves during our time of need with insider trading and special interest pork being added to bloated “relief” bills which made you wonder who was looking out for you… other than yourself.

The reason you braved the lines and bought that firearm doesn’t really matter now. You’re here. You’ve already joined the ranks of the armed and hopefully responsible. What matters now is that you remember this feeling and turn it into action. It matters now that you act, and vote, in a way that ensures that the human right to protection with the most effective tools possible is available to the next person like you. You can turn this terrible situation into a win for liberty.

If you need some direction on how to preserve these precious and precariously preserved rights, please reference our Join the Fight page for some resources.

Attending even some basic firearm familiarity training can help ensure you stay safe while flexing your new-found freedom muscles. Finding training may be difficult during these times but there may still be trainers operating in your area. If you just can’t find a reputable trainer, consider asking a conscientious, firearm owning friend for some training in the basics of safe firearm handling. If none of that works, consider browsing trusted sources of firearm training information on YouTube like this video from Warrior Poet Society. Here is another option, specifically for this situation, from Military Arms Channel.