On Freedom’s Frontlines

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On Freedom’s Frontlines

Postby jdege on Sun May 22, 2022 6:04 am

https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/content/on-freedom-s-frontlines/
On Freedom’s Frontlines
A war correspondent in Ukraine found a vivid and inspirational example of the need for the right to keep and bear arms.
While reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine, in March, I found myself swimming in a horrific, frightening, wonderful mix of dread, compassion and desperation to remain free. The literal tool for that freedom—many types of guns—were in Ukrainian’s hands. Shopkeepers, school teachers, engineers and professional soldiers were all armed and ready to fight for individual and national liberty.

I soon learned that, in late January, inside a snowy village on the outskirts of Kyiv, civilians came to learn to shoot AK-47s. This was part of widespread training courses designed to teach as many people as possible to defend themselves against the then-possibility that Moscow would invade. These were often family affairs, with husbands, wives, grandparents and children taking part together.

[...

Ukraine’s ordinary citizens often say that their desire to bear arms arises not only from concerns over foreign actors but also from a healthy distrust of their own government. The Maidan Revolution at the beginning of 2014, for example, was a major catalyst for change as demonstrators called for democracy and the removal of Vladimir Putin’s puppet, then-President Viktor Yanukovych.

Yet it was Kyiv’s own police forces who turned violent on the peaceful protesters—slaughtering dozens in cold blood. Authorities even stormed into public hospitals and arrested the wounded and dying. It wasn’t until a significant portion of Ukrainians took their own guns to the famed Maidan “Independence” Square as a deterrence that the riots simmered and Yanukovych was forced out.

[...]

From that point on, guns became a household necessity for many. The issue wasn’t political; those bearing arms were doing so to fight for personal freedom and were willing to take matters into their own hands to protect it if necessary.

“Everyone should have a gun,” a prominent politician named Igor said to me quietly over coffee. “This isn’t a taboo matter.”
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