A gun can save your life, but does it guarantee your freedom? USCCA director of content Kevin Michalowski and attorney Tom Grieve discuss what a gun can and cannot do for your rights. Diving immediately into this deep question, Michalowski says no, owning a gun does not secure your freedom. There are more steps and buffers ahead of having to use your gun.
Americans have several responsibilities to uphold their rights. Your firearm is not the first. Using your firearm to protect your rights and liberties should be the very last step. If we’re defending freedom with firearms, it’s likely there have been many, many breakdowns further upstream.
Subscribe to the USCCA YouTube Channel
Michalowski offers education as the first step to defending our rights and freedoms. A solid education system and the right to vote protect Americans’ freedoms more than a firearm ever could. He doesn’t want people to think that he doesn’t want people to own guns. However, your gun is not protecting your freedom.
Freedom in a Box
Grieve points out that our freedoms as Americans come down to cultural values. And maintaining the values in our culture can be broken down into boxes: the soapbox, ballot box, jury box and ammo box.
That soapbox is the first step in securing rights. Second Amendment advocates should be out there influencing the culture and interacting with others, spreading our message even to those who may disagree.
Downstream from our culture, there’s the voting box. Everyone should take an active role in the electoral process, identifying the politicians who share your values and getting them into office. If things aren’t going well, there’s the jury box. If politicians have put laws into place the people don’t agree with, this is how you would check those powers.
Lastly, when everything else has failed, is the ammo box. But we should not be of a shoot-first mindset. Though a gun may protect your freedom, all of the above boxes must come first.
