To Ms. Widburg, "Welcome to the Party, Pal"

 I have two articles from the American Thinker to share today. Both directly or indirectly deal with guns, which was one of the original reasons for this blog.

The first is by Civis Americanus, clearly a nom de plume, entitled Lesson From Ukraine--Don't Give Up Your Guns (or Nukes). A little history for those not paying attention (and why would you have been?  You have your own problems, right?) In 1994, in Budapest, Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for promises to defend it should Russia attack. To do so is never a good idea. First, you never know if that one doing the promising will actually come to your rescue. This applies both to individuals and to nations. Then there is the moral factor. Whose business is it to defend you (hint: it is not the police)? Again, this applies to both individuals and to nations.

Ukrainians are being urged to arm themselves to resist the unprovoked Russian invasion of their country. The immediate question is, "with what?" noting that Ukraine has exactly the kind of gun laws the Democratic Left wants to inflict on the United States. Handguns are illegal unless licensed, and licensing is "may-issue" the same way it is in New York. It is also necessary to have a license to purchase a long gun (as is the case in Illinois with its firearm owner ID card), and authorities can exercise discretion as to who can have a license. There are at most thirteen firearms for every hundred Ukrainians, versus more than one firearm per capita for Americans. Magazine sizes are restricted to 10 rounds, which would of course delight the governments of California and New York.

Guess what, boys and girls -- the Russian Bear doesn't have magazine size limits, nor does he obey international norms and treaties that forbid invasion of other countries. Vladimir Putin is simply another Tsar, and I mean an expansionist land-grabber like Peter I, Elizabeth I Petrovna ("like father, like daughter"), Catherine II, and Nicholas I "the flogger." Peter and Catherine are not called "the Great" for nothing, but they were great for Russia and not for Russia's neighbors.

It is also to be remembered that Ukraine inherited roughly five thousand nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union. "When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine turned over thousands of atomic weapons in exchange for security guarantees from Russia, the United States, and other countries." The British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, signed a similar scrap of paper with Adolf Hitler, and we know what that got him. Ukraine's former defense minister, Andriy Zahorodniuk, said of the more recent security assurances, “Now, every time somebody offers us to sign a strip of paper, the response is, ‘Thank you very much. We already had one of those some time ago.’”

Ukraine occupies prime real estate. Besides being the breadbasket of Europe, it has great mineral resources, and of course would be an ideal route for oil pipelines from Russia. When it signed the agreement and gave up their nukes, all of this was utterly predictable. The title says it all, don't give up your guns.

The second article is by Andrea Widburg entitled The unexpected constitutiona amendment Occupy Democrats support

If there’s one principle that all factions of America’s leftist spectrum support, it’s that guns are bad. The only way to keep society safe, they all say, is for the government to seize everyone’s guns. However, Occupy Democrats, which is siding with Ukraine as Russia attacks it, has a newfound enthusiasm for the Second Amendment. It put out a series of tweets celebrating these weapons of war in civilian hands.

So now these Democrats are all in favor of Second Amendment as long as its in a war in another country and they are siding with the resident tyrant. But then, consistency has never been the Democrats long suit. Principles, like rules, are meant to be broken after all.

Widburg points out that tyrants always and everywhere disarm the population before imposing their will on it. Indeed, that is how you can tell that Democrats intend to rule tyrannically, rather than be our servants. And don't get me wrong, there are a number of Republicans who are right there with their Democrat "friends."

If there’s one thing history has proven repeatedly, it’s that tyrants immediately disarm their people before getting down to the serious business of imposing their will on the country. The most recent example is Canada, which has been slowly disarming its citizens for decades (and the citizens have self-righteously gone along with this to show their moral purity). It struck the biggest blow in May 2020, when it outlawed semi-automatic weapons. Then, two weeks ago, Trudeau declared martial law. I don’t know about you, but I see “cause and effect” there.

Perhaps we should send all the Democrats North to Canada, where they can live under the benevolent rule of a tyrant. Meanwhile, we should invite the Canadian truckers to apply for U. S. citizenship. But of course, the Democrats don't want to live under a tyrant's rule; they want to be the tyrant. Every mask Nazi who yells at YOU to put on a mask, every gun grabber who tells YOU to give up YOUR guns, wants to rule, to be the tyrant. Interestingly, Andrea Widburg herself was once a gun grabber as she admits:

In America, Hurricane Katrina gave us a small insight into the importance of law-abiding citizens with arms. When the hurricane devastated New Orleans, law enforcement broke down completely. It wasn’t a matter of “when seconds count, the police are minutes (or hours) away.” Instead, the police were days or weeks away. Looters immediately went into action and the only people who were safe from them were those who could defend themselves. That’s when I switched from my lifelong Democrat habit of opposing guns to being a staunch Second Amendment supporter.

It seems that former Communists and Democrats are the most articulate and vociferous members of the cause of conservatism. All I can say to Ms. Widburg is "Welcome to the party, pal, and pass me the ammunition."