For a decade I have been concerned Russian methodologies displayed in the 2014 annexation of Crimea would target other nations. The Ukraine’s vast resources, linguistic similarities, proximity, and strategic impact on Russia made them an obvious target. As the events of February 2022 played out, it became obvious that a militarily overt invasion was Russia’s plan. Instead of the slower more methodical destabilization efforts, a blitzkrieg style invasion was chosen.

It appears that Russia sensed the timing was appropriate. American weakness on full display in Afghanistan changed the Russian strategic calculus. The feeble first months of the Biden Administration mimicked the ineptitude of the Obama Administration. The Russians appeared to skip a few steps in their Crimean process and go for it. Removal of the Trump Administration’s penchant for unpredictability and a return to Obama era ineptitude further dropped the perceived risk for Russia.

In an interview with Funker 530 in the first few days of the Russian invasion, I stated what I still believe to be true. That there are certain portions of the Ukraine that will be near impossible to hold and even less likely to ever be recovered. The Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions are gone. That about 15-20% of Ukrainian land mass is now Russia. That by judging by a multitude of factors, like election results and the ongoing revolts, those regions were untenable. This is a lesson for American politics as well, you cannot force people together who do not want to be together. Be it Eastern Washington and Western Washington or Iraq, no budget allocation or agenda items can blanket over deep cultural division.

But something else I said then also still holds true. People who believe what they are doing is right, who can stand together, they cannot be defeated. It is why Japan would never invade during World War II. It is why China and their US political proxies hate our 2^nd Amendment. The Unconventional Warfare model championed by Army Special Forces, commonly known as the “Green Berets” works. Foreign Internal Defense, where American Special Forces train, advise, and assist friendly nations in planning and preparing for their own defense is highly effective.

The work of 10^th Special Forces Group has been a critical element in the current success of the Ukrainian resistance. Dispersed groups armed with unit level technology that are conducting hit and run ambushes. They have ground the Russian advance to where it now appears stalled on the doorstep of Kiev. The Ukrainians are now capable of counterattacking with combined arms efforts.  This is because locals destroyed Russian logistics trains and stalled armored unit advances with hit and run ambushes. This is textbook Army Special Forces doctrine since the 1950’s. Russian incompetence in reconnaissance, surveillance, route clearing, and logistics are also critical failures.

The Ukrainian attacks in Russian controlled rear areas saps strength from frontline units. The Ukraine has shown that the will to fight and having the means to do so can halt an invasion by vastly superior military. On paper this should have been a quick fight for the Russians. In critical capabilities such as Fighter aircraft, the Russians routinely outnumber the Ukrainians 10 to 1. But the use of ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missiles), drones, and rifles has evened those odds. While fighting tanks with rifles is not a fair fight, but as the Plumb reticle shows, you can. If the Ukrainians had the right to firearms like Americans do, the Russian losses would be exponentially higher.

The prime lesson of the fight in the Ukraine is those who want to be free and have the means to protect that freedom, will be.

There is no rationale opposing the fact an armed populace is essential to the defense of a nation. Another crystal-clear case is being made on the international stage. The 2^nd or 3^rd most powerful military in the world today is bleeding out in the street. It is painfully obvious an armed population is a critical deterrent to invasion by a hostile power. We should recognize any action taken to disarm a population enables future adversaries.

We know the American left wants disarmament so that it can weaponize the government against its political opposition. These anti-second amendment perspectives usurp the Constitution. Those positions are akin to sedition and treason. Those positions must be rejected at every turn.

What is needed in this moment of clarity is a rational expansion to our rights of self-defense.

Because the situation in the United States is not improving. As a matter of fact, the United States is in the early stages of destabilizing. The international situation is also devolving. Right now, critical structures in the United States are problematic and could be beginning to fail.

Many are acutely aware of the self-inflected economic wounds of the COVID era. Where several Governors took on draconian measures in the name of safety. Many of these efforts were focused on influencing election outcomes under the cover of “public safety”. But the devastating second order effects on small businesses will be the lasting effects of COVID 19. The engine of job creation, small business, is still sputtering.

The supply chain woes are not subsiding. An overstep by the Governor of California caused a labor issue in western US ports. This created a backlog of ships parked off the West Coast. I remember flying over Los Angeles late last year. There were 40 to 50 container ships anchored off the Long Beach port facility. With our just in time manufacturing, and lean inventory business structures, the ripples of this will continue to be felt.

Buffoonery of the highest magnitude clamped shut domestic energy production. The current Administration is ideologically submissive to climate agenda cultists. This misguided agenda driven economic manipulation was to support expensive green energy initiatives. Gasoline prices were doubled in the first 18 months of the Biden Administration. Not only did this hobble the US Economy, but that of our allies. Hostile regimes whose economies are energy producing, have been enabled to become profiteering and belligerent. Between the Afghanistan embarrassment and domestic energy suppression, the Biden Administration gave the Russians a loaded weapon. One they quickly used on the Ukraine and now threaten Europe with.

In the Funker 530 interview I also warned of the Biden Administration fumbling the economic response to Russian aggression. That any sanction regimen must be very carefully focused. We cannot push Russia into the waiting arms of China. Russian military technology and Chinese production capability is a terrifying possibility. Their close proximity to each other and the ability to share natural resources would create a behemoth that could easily dominate the 21^st Century. Alaska and Russia are only separated by 50 miles. A weakened or fractured United States could not easily defend it. Or financially over extended America might be forced to sell it. Now it appears the clumsy Biden Administration sanctions against India, our best bulwark against China, is pushing India into the arms of the Sino-Russian alliance. China, Russia, and India have all agreed to conduct international trade without using US Dollars.

International dollar decoupling will take the current 7-10% projected inflation and double it. While the US devalues its currency, Russians are solidifying theirs, the Chinese digitizing theirs. If China released its 1 trillion in USD holdings it would add 4% in inflation alone. As other nations would follow suit, we’d be looking at the 4 years of Biden equaling or surpassing 1929-1932.

There are many other threats I have not listed. But it is clear, under the Biden Administration, the world is an unstable and devolving place. It is not limited to the international arena. Law Enforcement is becoming ineffective and Crime has exploded in the last few years.

The criminality fostered and enabled in big blue cities as a form of local protest against the Trump Administration has metastasized. Big cities in Blue States are legitimately dangerous. Chicago has more gang deaths than Iraq and Afghanistan had U.S. KIA over the same time periods.  I have seen a dramatic increase in violent crime in the Seattle area in the last 24 months. Seemingly increasing after part of the city broke away to be a lawless enclave. We are burying police officers in an ever-increasing rate. Even smaller crimes like theft and shoplifting are rampant as inner-city criminals are expanding efforts into the suburbs.

The breakdown is happening because the courts and prosecutors are failing to perform. Not only is it petty crime that is going unpunished but even larger scale crimes. Many know about the situation with Handl Defense. Video, photo, and documented evidence of all kinds of wrongdoing. Quite literally the Theranos of the firearms industry. Yet, Law Enforcement fails to act. In modern America you have to commit murder to be prosecuted for a crime and some would argue even that depends.

The situation is clear. Our system is fracturing; politically, economically, legally, and eventually militarily.

So once again people who believe what they are doing is right, who can stand together, they cannot be defeated. We need the 2^nd Amendment now more than ever. We need to start taking our personal, local, and national safety into our own hands. We need to make the right of self-protection broader in its application. We need to start focusing these efforts on the individual, local, and national perspectives.

Current efforts to expand the right of self-defense such as Constitutional carry should be accelerated. Each of us need to continue and stockpile ammunition, firearms, and accessories. Unconstitutional laws such as Washington’s 1639 or recent magazine ban must be challenged, overturned, and counter suits filed. We need to take our communities back by working together in our neighborhoods. But what I believe we need to push forward on. We need to expand the current perspective on the 2^nd Amendment. We need to radically alter the NFA.

I believe we do this first for the people the Second Amendment mentions specifically being essential to free state, the militia. See the militia of the Constitution, written in 1787, was every able-bodied male from 18-60. Both Militia acts five years later, in 1792, set forth the REQUIREMENTS those able-bodied males were supposed to equip themselves with. Let me say that again, the government wanted you to procure your own military grade weapons and accessories.

This was further organized into what we are more familiar with in the militia act of 1903. Where the federal government pushed money and equipment to the states and local units. But the commonality of equipment with federal forces were required. This is where the CMP or Civilian Marksmanship Program was born. Where regional shooting matches such as Camp Perry National Matches were initiated to integrate civilian and military shooting experiences. You can still buy surplus military weapons through the CMP.

When it comes to the militia, which is still every able-bodied male 18-60, the government has a long-established precedent. You would procure your own equipment, it would be of military grade, and that you would train or compete with it on a regular basis. So that if the nation ever needed defended, the immediate integration of a capable fighting force was assured. The Ukrainian resistance on an unprecedented level.

It would also have a stabilizing effect in our communities during disasters, suppress crime, and civil unrest.

We recognize several levels of service member. All males in the United States (citizen or not) must register with Selective Service. This is the database of people who would be conscripted into service in case of a war. Then there is the Inactive Reserves (IRR). Those who have served in the Active Military or National Guard and have retired or finished their terms of service. Then there are the Active Reserves, the National Guard and Reserves, those who train and drill regularly. Then finally Active-Duty military members. It is anyone who has served in the military I am focused on. I expect expansion of what I propose to law enforcement and others in the future.

I believe the permanent right to possess firearms equivalent to a Federal Firearms License type 3 should be granted the moment an individual is given an Honorable Discharge or is accepted into Active Duty.

This would be with none of the registration requirements, fees, or special taxes with commercial NFA applications. I suggest commercial requirements are unchanged, for now.

The American Marxists will hyperventilate over this concept. We should ignore any claims of the impending disaster. We know the firearm and type is irrelevant to crime. It has always been the person not the firearm. Who better to have unrestricted access to firearms than our veterans? Many of whom already man the ranks of Law-Enforcement, Firearms instructors, Public Safety Services, and Government at all levels.

The left-wing New York Times estimates that less than 20 people per year are killed with Modern Sporting Rifles (AR-15 types) per year. The FBI states 90% of guns used in crimes are stolen. We know that criminals steal guns then sell them to those who cannot legally own them. We know that if we can specifically stop pistols from being stolen and incarcerate firearm thieves, we are going seriously crimp violent crime.

Crime is conducted by criminals what they use to commit crimes with is irrelevant.

Every veteran has a minimum standard of firearms training. Which still needs to be expanded across all branches of DoD. Baseline concepts of firearms security and safe handling are ingrained in the veteran community. These standards will become even more a part of the civilian firearms ethos. We need to expand this ethos into local training venues and events. The firearms industry’s community outreach efforts are lacking, and this would help change that. Strengthening the profile of our veterans in the eyes of the community in relations to firearms is key to the future.

The right to keep and bear arms is key to our collective freedom. We should follow precedent by previous generations of Americans. American excessive spending, faltering courts, political nepotism, and moral decay point towards a future with precedent. The Ukraine shows an armed populace is a greater deterrent that unsustainable defense expenditures. We should follow the intent of the founders and provide service members and veterans with an unrestricted right to own small arms.