Arming Ourselves Isn’t the Answer to Rising Authoritarianism
Expanding gun ownership in response to ICE’s horrific violence is not a path toward safety or liberation, argues epidemiologist Rachel Hoopsick. It is a path to more death, more political weakness, and deeper entrenchment of the very forces the Left opposes.
The most effective resistance to repression has come not from armed civilians confronting the state directly but from coordinated disruption of economic and political systems. (Bryan Dozier / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Escalating political violence in this country — including the recent killings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and Keith Porter by federal immigration agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the US Border Patrol — has raised the question: In the face of an increasingly authoritarian state, should people on the Left arm themselves?
Although registered Republicans are more than twice as likely to own at least one gun compared to registered Democrats (45 percent versus 18 percent, respectively), gun ownership on the Left is on the rise. For many, in the face of such state violence, guns may offer a last line of self-defense against government violence.
This argument is not new, and it is not frivolous. It is rooted in real fear, real grief, and real anger at a state that has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to use violence against anyone who stands in its way. But it is also deeply mistaken.
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