By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Following what have been described as “strategic” and “surgical” military strikes against Iran over the weekend, removing top leaders of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime, the door is open to dramatic change in that Mideastern nation, but the people lack “the one essential tool” to get the job done, according to the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
They need guns, because peaceful protests have not only not worked, they have resulted in the murders of thousands of protesters. Being armed, especially now that Khamenei and many of his top people have been killed, leaving the regime virtually decapitated, would help overthrow the remnants of the Iranian ruling government.
“Iran does not have an equivalent of our sacred Second Amendment,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and right now, the Iranian people need it bad. For without arms to topple what’s left of a murderous, authoritarian dictatorship, it will be difficult to overthrow the mullahs and their terrorist followers. With firearms, however, the playing field is leveled and the people would have a chance to restore some semblance of civilized government.
“As we noted two months ago,” he added, “reports that several Iranians had been arrested for manufacturing guns sent a signal that the people were preparing to resist with force. Now they have the opportunity, but lacking the arms to take up the fight.”
Bombing missions launched Saturday against Tehran and other locations in Iran have destabilized the Iranian government. Under Khamenei, thousands of Iranians have been executed, imprisoned or otherwise brutalized. Gottlieb noted in a statement to the media Monday that the Iranian dictatorship “constantly threatens peace in the region, and exports terrorism across the world.” Some observers have said Iran has been at war with the U.S. for 47 years.
“In recent months,” Gottlieb said of the Khamenei regime, “it has slaughtered protesters, continued to push for the development of nuclear weapons, which would undoubtedly be used against other nations, and tightened its grip on a civilian population which now has the chance to change.”
Where the people have the right to keep and bear arms, he suggested, they have the power to resist, and to force change.
“We have said before,” he recalled, “and we will say it again. The symbol of freedom in a nation of slaves is the gun, because it enshrines the ability of the people to keep government in check. Our founders recognized this 250 years ago, which is why the right of the people to keep and bear arms was ultimately recognized and enumerated in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights.”
He said nothing better underscores the importance of the Second Amendment than what is happening in Iran right now.
“An armed citizenry in Iran would be capable of removing the tyrants and restoring stability to the region,” Gottlieb said. “Only time will tell the outcome, but our history, and our Constitution—with its protection of the right to keep and bear arms as its cornerstone—can serve as a guidepost for the oppressed people of Iran, who deserve to live free.”
