We sometimes take our constitutional rights for granted. We forget the people who came before us and how hard they worked for these rights, which they thought were vitally important.

Many of today's anti-gun people claim times have changed. They say that in our more enlightened (liberal) world, the Second Amendment is no longer required.

They forget the lessons of history.

In 1929, Joseph Stalin took away people's guns across the Soviet Union. Then, after the population was unarmed and unable to fight back, he killed 20 million people. In 1935, Mao Zedong took the guns away in China, and 2 million people were killed. In 1935, Adolf Hitler took guns from the Jews, then exterminated 13 million. In 1956, Pol Pot confiscated guns in Cambodia, and 2 million people were killed.

Our Founding Fathers knew the difficulty of revolting against England and the power a country has when the people lose the ability to fight back. Thus, they safeguarded our right to bear arms to remain free.

Today, we see examples of states across the U.S. that try to prohibit the right of the population to be armed. And these states often have much higher crime rates.

Criminals today are not scared of the police or the courts. The police are overworked and cannot be everywhere, and our judicial system seems to operate on the revolving-door principle. The only thing these people are scared of is if their victims might be armed and have the mindset to fight back.

Countries that have denied the rights of their citizens to be armed have not stopped crime. They reduce their people's ability to defend themselves to baseball bats and swords. Yes, I said swords. On a business trip to China, I saw a man chasing three others down the sidewalk waving a sword.

In these countries, being disarmed has not reduced violence, only made it more difficult for honest citizens to defend themselves. Predators are always out there. Remember, the Colt was once called the "great equalizer." It gave weak people the ability to defend themselves in a disparity of force.

Criminals do not obey laws. Pandora's box was opened a long time ago, and there are a lot of guns already on the street for them to procure. If we restrict gun ownership, the only people losing the ability to protect their families would be honest, law-abiding citizens.