Hawkins: 2nd Amendment Is a Bulwark when Law and Order Crumbles

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is a bulwark, a safe haven guarding Americans’ ability to be prepared to defend their lives and liberty as law and order crumbles in cities across America.

Consider the scenes that have been plastered across television screens since the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd: department stores looted, an auto parts store burned to the ground, and police stations set ablaze. And that is just in Minneapolis.

Around the country police cars have been damaged and roadways blocked.

In Los Angeles, for instance, the Patch reports that “protestors took over the Hollywood (101) Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, shattered patrol car windows, and graffitied the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters.”

And Democrat mayors appear to be looking the other way. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) is involved to the degree that he is urging protesters to wear masks and practice social distancing while protesting.

Breitbart News published a statement from the Minneapolis city government that said, “The City encourages everyone to exercise caution to stay safe while participating in demonstrations, including wearing masks and physical distancing as much as possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The City has made hundreds of masks available to protesters this week.”

Question — Who will keep us safe when our elected officials are slow to do so?

Answer — It is up to each of us, individually, to be prepared to keep ourselves safe.

And this is where the Second Amendment rises in prominence, preserving and protecting the God-given right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.

While single mothers, elderly adults, and couples with young families huddle in their homes for safety, many of them benefit from that precious right to “keep and bear arms,” which our Founders hedged in with the words “shall not be infringed.”

The roots of private gun ownership stem from those great overarching gifts God gave us, gifts that Thomas Jefferson summed up as “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”  The unfathomable value of life itself makes self-defense a natural proclivity for humankind, and preservation of life is a fundamental reason for bearing arms.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion for McDonald v. Chicago (2010), “Individual self-defense is ‘the central component’ of the 2nd Amendment right.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.