By George Khalaf |
When I was young, my parents always told us they met in college. Given that they went to different colleges for very different majors, that always seemed odd to me. When I was older, I learned the full story. They had actually met in an underground bunker during the Lebanese Civil War. They were both serving in the Lebanese Forces defending their Christian faith and families—my mother choosing to step up after losing her 19-year-old brother to the war.
This war was about their very right to live their Christian faith free from violent threats and governmental oppression. Unfortunately, the Christian forces did not prevail, and my parents ultimately immigrated legally to the United States to forge a new life for their family. They wanted to secure our freedom to live our faith and create a prosperous future.
They had put their lives on the line to secure that freedom in Lebanon. They knew all too well that you could not put your faith in the government to defend you. All too often, the government was the danger. So, from a young age, the importance of the Second Amendment was instilled in me, along with respect for all the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. For a people to remain free, they must have the right and ability to defend themselves. That was true in 1776, and it’s perhaps even more true today.
When I speak to voters, I hear concerns about safety echoing frequently. Many of my friends and neighbors are gun owners for just that reason. They want to know they can defend themselves against dangerous people who could try to harm them or their family. In blue cities that have adopted soft-on-crime policies, it is the government that has created these conditions. But furthermore, many of us understand gun ownership in broader terms: that as Americans, the responsibility to defend our freedom has always and ultimately resided with us. Our faith is not in government to grant our rights, but rather to uphold rights that have already been granted by God. And if and when it fails on a grand scale to do so, we must be ready.
Many Americans are unaware how quickly their Second Amendment rights can vanish with just one election. And not just a Presidential election. In Virginia, a change in Governor and a number of legislative seats led to sweeping anti-gun legislation criminalizing the sale and transfer of the most common household firearm in the country. This bill (HB217/SB749) was sent to their new-Governor Abigail Spanberger along with 25 other anti-Second Amendment bills.
Arizona’s own Governor Hobbs is equally as radical as Governor Spanberger. The difference? Arizona’s Legislature, where pro-Second Amendment legislators hold a slight majority, would never send her such bills to sign. Were the balance of power in the Arizona House and Senate to shift by a few seats, a slew of similar bills would be promptly sent to her desk by Arizona Democrats and signed.
I’m proud that Arizona’s constitutional defense of gun ownership outpaces the Second Amendment, using the strong verbiage “the right to bear arms shall not be impaired,” and offering some of the strongest constitutional carry protections. We must defend our place as a leading Second Amendment state.
I urge voters concerned about defending this vital freedom to consider the consequences of elections. Vote all the way down your ballot and talk to every candidate about their position on the issue. It’s not just about party, but about commitment to the Constitution, regardless of political winds or the ways in which anti-Second Amendment activists leverage tragedy for political gain. That’s the kind of commitment I’ll always have to the Second Amendment. Freedom can be lost in a generation, but on my watch, I won’t allow it.
George Khalaf is a candidate for the Arizona House in Legislative District 3. You can follow him on X here.
