If gun owners are going to preserve their right keep and bear arms, they're going to do more than just complain about the progressive agenda to confiscate all firearms. So said Second Amendment Attorney Jim Ostrowski at a grassroots meeting of gun rights advocates at the Days Inn in Batavia today.
They're going to need to find allies.
Potential allies include those, he said, who think recreational drug possession should be legal.
"Guns are drugs are the same issue, if you think about it," said Ostrowski, a resident and political activist in Buffalo. "They're both private property."
He said there was a time in this country when there was no thought of restricting either guns or drugs but progressives wanted the power to control other people's lives.
Another potential ally, the #metoo movement. Women should naturally want the right to the self-protection a gun provides, he said.
"What does the government monopoly want a woman do when assaulted?" he said. "Call 9-1-1 where a criminal historian can record the assault."
Native Americans, given the history of government atrocities against them, should also be natural allies of gun rights advocates, he said.
Those whose ancestors were slaves, he said, should also be natural allies of gun rights advocates. He noted that recently progressive historical revisionists have said the only reason early America had militias was to guard against potential slave revolts. He said those who spread that as historical fact ignore the fact that militias existed where there wasn't slavery and that one reason slavery could even survive was that slaves were prohibited from owning firearms. The ancestors of slaves should be among the strongest allies for gun rights advocates, he said.
Among the chief reason to preserve the Second Amendment, Ostrowski said, is because progressives want to take guns away from citizens, which would make it easier for tyranny to take hold in this country.
While the left wants to disarm citizens, they love a government with guns, he said.
"They love guns so much, they want to be the only one with guns," Ostrowski said.
Among his recommendations for activists is convince schools to start teaching students once again about the Second Amendment, its history and its meaning.
"They don't teach the Second Amendment in school," Ostrowski said. "That's crazy. That's why students are out protesting."
People shouldn't think, he said, the United States is necessarily immune from the potential of tyranny.
"Every race we know about has committed mass atrocities," Ostrowski said. "The whole of history is filled with examples of mass murder by the state. The Framers were well aware of this history, that only armed citizens can protect against tyranny. The Second Amendment works against tyranny. That's why the left so desperately wants the entire civilian population disarmed."
