Left-wing liberals in America are currently leading an assault on our Constitutional rights. Leftists in the U.S. have formed many misconceptions about gun ownership in their attack on the Second Amendment. Their misinterpretations on the right to bear arms itself have led to some of the most ignorant points of their argument.

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed:” A point so important, it is second only to Americans’ freedom of expression.

The left commonly interprets the statement of a ‘well regulated Militia’ to mean that guns only belong in the hands of the police, military, and national guard. In the supreme court case District of Columbia v. Heller, the court oversaw the argument on whether the Second Amendment’s power lies with all citizens or exclusively with the police and military. The Heller argument on the definition of a militia drew a line that said that all citizens either had the right to bear arms or not at all depending on its outcome.

Democrats across the nation strongly supported the anti-gun petitioner stance, which favored a strict interpretation of the wording of the Second. Had Heller been ruled in favor with the District of Columbia, it would have fulfilled a movement to outlaw the right to bear arms of all citizens by the left. Fortunately, Heller turned out to preserve a key Constitutional power by declaring that the “Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia.”

Another large error made by leftists in the gun control debate is their insistence that the Second Amendment does not protect the ownership of modern day weaponry. They have the audacity to claim that the inspired founders of the greatest country in the free world actually overlooked the fact that technology could ever advance. The very idea that the Founding Fathers of America only sought to protect single shot muskets is possibly the most ignorant inference one could make. In fact, the musket was not the only gun that existed in the 1700s. There were several guns with greater ammo capacities that existed in the Revolutionary War. Guns like the Girandoni rifle, invented in the 1700s, were used in the Lewis and Clark expedition; they had a 22 round capacity magazine. Also, the Belton flintlock was invented before 1777 and had a repeating firing rate of rapid succession.

However, the Second Amendment is not exclusively about guns: it was established as a citizen’s right to self-preservation at all costs. This nation was founded on fury and passion against systematic tyranny; the Second Amendment ensures the idea that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of [its] ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,” according to the Declaration of Independence. With the Democratic party pushing their ideology of a large and involved government, it makes it a terrifying possibility that in the future we will see a Leftist-run government disarming not only political opposition but all Americans of their rights to own guns and, as a result, a way to defend their given rights.

Mass shootings have become the driving factor for the left to push their agenda of anti-gun politics. They would like you to believe that these tragic events are at the fault of guns and gun owners in America. However, it has almost nothing to do with guns, as much as it is about public safety and mental health. The shooting in Las Vegas in October occurred under unbelievable circumstances. A deranged man was able to feign sanity, premeditate a horrid act, and then walk through a public space with 23 firearms in order to commit the largest mass shooting in American history.

There are solutions to such atrocities, but it doesn’t start with the removal of guns. With the amount of determination and evil set in the mind of the Las Vegas shooter, such guns would have ended up in his hands regardless of the law or not. After all, morally devoid monsters like him, who have mental health issues, do not follow the laws of a civil society regardless.

Legal and responsible gun ownership can be the cure to illegal gun violence. Such was the case in Texas in November when two citizens helped to stop a shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs. The shooter purchased his guns illegally and should never have been able to take the lives of 29 people attending church that day. It was only because of the bravery of two men brandishing legally owned rifles in the gun-proud state of Texas that this monster was brought down. It’s cases like this one that tell the truth about gun ownership and self defense. More trusted people are needed to carry firearms reasonably in public spaces so that these tragedies never occur again.

Second amendment rights should be used to stop monsters from taking the lives of the innocent, they can be stopped by concealed carry. Don’t let the policies of the left infringe on what will truly save lives. Their desire to pin the deaths of so many lost in shootings on the so-called “complacency” of conservative Americans is an outright vile accusation that has no place in civil discourse.

Disarming the innocent side of a war on evil would only encourage the killing of more and more innocent people at the hands of criminals and terrorists. Conservatives will not stand for the suppression of our country’s core beliefs so that the left can plague America with government overreach and rob us of our right to defend ourselves.