In an exclusive interview given to AR-15 manufacturer Daniel Defense, country music legend Charlie Daniels reminds Americans that disarmament is key to the slide toward totalitarian government.

In other words: first they disarm you, then they control you, Daniels expressed.

The interview opens with Daniels saying:

Some people are willing to lose some freedoms just to maintain their way of life. I’m not. I don’t want to lose my freedoms. I don’t want my freedoms taken away from me. But some people are that way and they are becoming more and more every day.

“Unfortunately I feel the ebb of patriotism again. I can’t believe that we have set back in this country and let things deteriorate to the point that they are,” he added. “And I cannot believe how very unaware about 40 percent of the population of this country are about what is happening.”

Daniels then talked guns:

It’s very simple what the Second Amendment says. We have a right to keep and bear arms. Doesn’t say anything about what caliber we can have. Doesn’t say anything about how many we can have. If I go home tonight and somebody breaks into my house I have a right to reach over and grab a gun and protect my family with it.

Marty Daniel–founder of Daniel Defense–interjected: “It’s the whole life, liberty, pursuit of happiness that the Second Amendment protects.”

Charlie nodded in concurrence, then added:

You have a right to protect yourself and your family and your property. If we elect people that want to take our Second Amendment rights away from us, we’re at their mercy. Every country that has ever been taken over by a totalitarian government has been disarmed first.

Later in the interview, Marty Daniel’s wife, Cindy, brought up Charlie’s “deep, deep respect” for the U.S. military. And she asked, “So what’s driven you, all these years, to make that an important part of your music?”

Charlie responded:

My music is a reflection of my life and my beliefs and things to a big extent. I was born in 1936 — I was five years old the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. I remember it. I remember listening to it over the radio. And I learned a lesson–and I say this on stage every night–only two things protect America, that’s the grace of Almighty God and the United States military.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.