It’s Not Hard to Tell Good Guy From Bad Guy, as 12 More Defensive … – Heritage.org

In arecent opinion piecein The Kansas City Star, sociology professor and military veteran Doug McGaw argues that the Second Amendment is a relic of the 18th century that needs to be repealed.

Although McGaw certainly is entitled to his opinion, his argument boils down to little more than a litany of common gun control talking points, all of which are readily refuted.

McGaw argues, for example, that the Second Amendments mention of a well-regulated militia refers to the National Guard. (It does not. Moreover, the right to keep and bear arms belongs broadly to the people and shall not be infringed.)

He insists that the Framers of the Constitution never anticipated modern advancements in firearms technology. (They did. They also intentionally protected arms as a concept instead of listing specific types of arms that existed in their own time).

Throughout the piece, McGaw dismisses any notion that the right to keep and bear arms has a role in securing the rights of peaceable Americans today. He not only thumbs his nose at the premise that good guys with guns are a solution to bad guys with guns, but flippantly suggests that there is little difference between the two.

I assume that the good guys will be the ones in the white hats? McGaw asks. Otherwise, who can tell which is the good guy?

This is silly, of course. Its abundantly clear that the right to armed self-defense is just as important today as it was in 1791, when the Second Amendment was ratified.

Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between500,000 and 3 milliontimesannually, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged. In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded thatroughly 1.6 million defensive gun usesoccur in the United States every year.

For this reason,The Daily Signalpublishes a monthly article highlighting some of the previous months many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missedor that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read other accountsherefrom past months and years. You also may follow@DailyDGUon Twitter for daily highlights of defensive gun uses.)

The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in July. You may explore more using The Heritage Foundations interactiveDefensive Gun Use Database.(The Daily Signal is Heritages multimedia news organization.)

As these examples help demonstrate, more often than not its pretty easy to distinguish the good guy with a gun from the bad guy with a gun.

They dont need different colored hats. Its simply a matter of common sensewho was using a gun to harm the innocent, and who was using a gun to defend the innocent or ensure those who harm them are brought to justice?

With all due respect to McGaw, human nature hasnt changed since 1791. And neither, therefore, has the utility of the right to keep and bear arms in self-defense.

The Second Amendment isnt an outdated relic of another century, but an ever-necessary tool in an ever-present battle against those who would undermine the natural rights of others.

This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal

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It's Not Hard to Tell Good Guy From Bad Guy, as 12 More Defensive ... - Heritage.org