As we watch rioters knock innocents to the ground and beat them in the streets the maxim, “When seconds count, police are minutes away,” has never been truer.

The gist of it is this–Help could be a long way off, so the defense of your life is in your hands.

My phone buzzed all night on Sunday, with friends and acquaintances asking me questions regarding how to legally carry a gun for self-defense in this state or that one. They asked about laws on defending themselves and their families in their own homes and wanted to know what state laws said about keeping a gun in the car or truck for self-defense.

Their questions were the kind of questions people ask when they have come to understand, perhaps for the first time ever, that they are their own first line of defense. That the police may or may not be able to make it quickly, and that the time that passes between dialing 911 and waiting for police arrival is time in which the onus is on the would-be victim to protect himself.

On May 31, 2020, Breitbart News reported rioters in Santa Monica, California, knocked a woman off her bicycle and began beating her. A man stepped in to protect her–armed only with a hockey stick–and the rioters simply knocked him to ground and beat him too.

Also on Sunday, rioters in Rochester, New York, pummeled an unarmed woman with fists and pieces of wood. Her unarmed husband fought back, trying to protect her, and WROC reported the rioters responded by beating the husband with two-by-fours.

What is your plan for such a moment?

When rioters have you pinned to ground, beating you with two-by-fours, are you going to call the police and ride it out, no matter how long it takes?

If that is your plan, it is not a good one.

On May 30, 2020, Breitbart News reported how different things were at Minneapolis businesses where the owners stood watch over their properties with AR-15s, AK-47s, etc.

The men stood shoulder to shoulder, making clear their property and lives were not going to be taken so easily.

WARNING: LANGUAGE

Police are crucial to our society and without them, day-to-day life as we know it would cease to exist. God bless them for the hard work they do and the dangers they willingly face daily.

However, our Founding Fathers added the Second Amendment to the Constitution to protect the people’s right to keep and bear arms. And in times like these–times when police response times may have to be much longer than usual–the ability to keep a gun and bear arms has never been more crucial.

In fact, in times like these, our lives may rest on whether we are or are not armed to defend us.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkinsa weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.