Lost in the feeding frenzy arising from Jeanine Pirro’s comments on carrying guns lawfully vs. unlawfully in Washington, DC is the fact that all gun control is unnatural in principle.
And because gun control is unnatural, it should be abolished. Every last bit of it.
I spoke on this topic at Young America’s Foundation Reagan Ranch conference in March 2025. I told the conference attendees then, as I am telling you now, that the unnatural aspect of gun control is readily apparent in the way gun control laws hinder or prevent the exercise of our God-given right to self-defense. And by hindering or preventing self-defense, gun control undermines the Second Amendment in general.
Consider this: In the majority opinion for McDonald v. Chicago (2010), Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “Self-defense is a basic right, recognized by many legal systems from ancient times to the present day… and in Heller, we held that individual self-defense is ‘the central component’ of the Second Amendment right.”
In other words, individual self-defense is the hinge on which the door of the Second Amendment swings. Remove that hinge and the door collapses or, at best, falls crooked and its function within the door frame is lost. This scenario is both unnatural and untenable when applied to our Second Amendment rights.
A deeper look at Chicago (2010) may be enlightening, as the case was a challenge to one of Chicago’s premier gun controls: A handgun ban.
Chicago banned handgun possession in 1982 and the ban lasted until SCOTUS struck it down in 2010. Now, if gun control comported with our natural rights — including the right to life — then under a gun control law as extreme as an all-out handgun ban one would expect to see life flourish. But instead, Chicago homicide numbers surged far beyond the numbers that have captured the public’s attention in recent years.
For example, a high post-ban figure for homicides in Chicago was 762, witnessed in 2016. But that annual homicide figure was eclipsed during numerous years that the handgun ban was in place.
Breitbart News noted:
The Chicago Police Department reports there were 850 homicides during 1993. That is nearly 100 more homicides in 1993 than CNN’s figure of 762 homicides in 2016. Moreover, the Chicago Police Department shows there were 930 homicides in 1994; 921 homicides in 1991; and a startling 940 homicides in 1992.
The figure of 940 homicides in 1992 is nearly 200 more that CNN reported for 2016.
All these murders have one thing in common: They occurred at a time when the city barred law-abiding citizens from possessing handguns for self-defense. They could not have them in their homes or vehicles, much less on their persons. This meant the criminal did not have to worry about his victims shooting back.
But one did not have to wait for the 1990s to witness the death and suffering that correlated with the handgun ban; it was readily apparent during the first decade after the ban was in effect. That decade included 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989. The Tribune reports that the decade following the implementation of Chicago’s ban saw “murders [jump] by 41 percent, compared with an 18 percent rise in the entire United States.”
If gun control comported with our right to life it would lead to the preservation of life, but the handgun ban did just the opposite. While it was in place, self-defense, “‘the central component’ of the Second Amendment right,” was hindered or prevented altogether.
And we say the same thing with gun controls today. California does not have a handgun ban but they do have more gun control than any other state. Those controls include an “assault weapons” ban, a “high capacity” magazine ban, a limit on the number of guns law-abiding citizens can buy each month, universal background checks, a red flag law, a concealed carry permit requirement, a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, a ban on concealed carry permit holders being armed for self-defense on college campuses, a ban on K-12 teachers being armed for classroom defense, and more.
But guess what? California led the nation in “active shooter incidents” in 2021 and 2023. Gun control continually places Californians in a defenseless position.
Whether we are talking about Chicago, California, Washington DC, or any other U.S. state or locale, gun control is unnatural and it should be abolished. Every last bit of it.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.