Velleco: Second Amendment Needs Defending from Biden Assault

This week, President Biden plans to launch an assault against the GOP for fighting his unconstitutional assault weapons ban, according to a breaking national news report.

What will that do to the customers of Neil Patel’s KARCO gas station in Philadelphia, who are currently protected from gang members and drug dealers by a private security firm with rifles such as the AR-15, because Democrats have lost control of Philly to criminals?

The City of Brotherly Love is riddled with crime.

Auto thefts rose last year by 30%, commercial burglaries by 41%, retail thefts by 51%, and carjackings by 53%, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Worst of all, murders last year topped a towering 500 – along with the year before, the city’s two highest murder totals in six decades.

In response, last year Mr. Patel hired private security firm Pennsylvania S.I.T.E. State Agents after his business came under literal gunfire from gangs.

Drug dealers were dealing in the open in and around Patel’s store, his ATM machine had been stolen, and even his car was vandalized.

Now, every day, Pennsylvania S.I.T.E. State Agents patrol Mr. Patel’s business to protect his customers.

Is it working?

So far, Mr. Patel reports the problems that happened before the private security firm was hired have stopped.

• No more gangland shootings at the gas station.
• No more drug deals.
• No more cars being vandalized.
• No more theft, and not one shot fired.

The AR-15s are acting as a deterrent.

Today, Mr. Patel is able to run his business without the threat of crime, even though he has the added cost of paying a private company to do what Philly cannot.

Had President Biden succeeded in his anti-Second Amendment efforts, the security firm wouldn’t be able to use the AR-15 as a deterrent, and Mr. Patel and his customers might still be living in fear of criminals at the gas station.

Of course, Gun Owners of America (GOA) supports the right of people like Mr. Patel and the men with AR-15s outside his gas station to lawfully own, and if need be, use their firearms in the defense of freedom.

This past summer, Philadelphia’s Mayor Jim Kenney tried to limit law-abiding citizens from having firearms in certain public spaces after a criminal murdered a woman outside a public pool.

The mayor’s gun restriction was illegal, and GOA went to court to immediately make sure law-abiding Philadelphians could continue to protect themselves in those public areas.

Now Joe Biden plans to go on offense again against misnamed "assault" rifles nationwide.

Do you feel safe yet?

There is no reason to restrict good people from protecting themselves when the problem isn’t the good people, but criminals – and the Democrats in power, such as Mayor Kenney and President Biden, who lend them a hand.

As President Biden launches his assault on "assault weapons" ban opponents, just remember Neil Patel.

Join GOA in standing with Mr. Patel to defend the Second Amendment from people like President Biden.

John Velleco is currently the executive vice president for Gun Owners of America (www.gunowners.org), a grassroots lobbying organization with more than two million members and supporters nationwide.