This week Americans watched as looters cleared out stores in Philadelphia while dozens of police officers were targeted and assaulted by mob violence. A citywide curfew in Philadelphia was put in effect as the governor called in the Pennsylvania National Guard. The governor’s action was too little too late as entire sections of the city have been cleaned out by looters. Law enforcement was ordered to stand down and the police were forced to retreat as anarchy spread block by block. Philadelphia’s Democratic mayor has abdicated control of whole swaths of his city to rioters.

The unrest in our cities is unprecedented. Americans hear calls from advocates and elected officials to “defund and dismantle the police.” Law-abiding citizens are rightly alarmed over the safety of their families and businesses. Americans have witnessed a steady scene of riots in cities across the nation — a war-like spectacle in Minneapolis, an anarchy-zone in Seattle, and a months-long uprising in Portland forcing that city’s Democratic Mayor to literally flee his own home.

Rioting, attacks on our police, and increasing crime and violence in our cities are moving voters to take seriously the issues of self-defense and the Second Amendment.

Current events— mobs ransacking neighborhoods, spikes in shootings and crime — in major cities have brought the issue of gun rights to the forefront of the national debate. It matters who wins the White House and what party wins control of the U.S. Senate.

Gun rights may not be the number one issue on the minds of all voters, but with Amy Coney Barrett taking her place on the Supreme Court, the issue of our Second Amendment right to self-defense has been amplified. A Democratic sweep of the White House and the Senate could result in a radical reshaping of the Supreme Court through court packing. Americans are increasingly anxious over our Constitutional right to protect our homes, families, and businesses.

In “Self Defense, and Unalienable Right in a Time of Peril: Protected and Preserved by the Second Amendment,” George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School’s Joyce Lee Malcolm takes a deep dive into the issues affecting self-defense and the Bill of Rights. Professor Malcolm is a historian and constitutional scholar who focuses on the development of individual rights on society. And, given the violent unrest and increasing crime in myriad cities across the country, Malcolm’s paper is critical to an informed public discussion over self-defense and next week’s elections. The study is an examination of the effectiveness of restraining orders and violent crime statistics while comparing the American experience with gun ownership to nations, like Great Britain, where the notion of an armed citizenry is uncommon.

Professor Malcolm debunks the “police will protect you” argument — i.e., the Second Amendment is unnecessary in 2020 because America has modern police departments. (Tell that to the small business owners who watched their property looted and burned while law enforcement was ordered to retreat). The paper exposes the deceit promoted by anti-gun activists, media, and progressive politicians that “guns in your hands pose a danger to public safety.” The paper’s conclusion is prescient in that it makes plain law enforcement cannot protect all citizens all the time or in real time. Professor Malcolm’s paper confirms what many Americans know intuitively — the state will fail us, and the right to self-defense must not be infringed.

I have witnessed firsthand the consequences of gun control and de-policing on America’s communities. Growing up in the “bad old days” in the Bronx, New York in the late 1970s I was terrified every time we took the subway; shootings and muggings were the norm in our neighborhood. When Howard Cosell made his infamous call “the Bronx is burning," he was literally talking about my street where I lived. Make no mistake, politicians like former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris want to take us back to those “bad old days” when cities were widely considered to be ungovernable, and massive crime was just part of the urban landscape.

This past summer, how many days did it take before Joe Biden finally made a statement condemning violence and crime in our cities? While our cities were on fire, Democrats kept quiet; however, their silence spoke volumes. When Joe Biden was finally forced (by the Trump campaign) to say something, anything on the violence, it was timid and submissive: “the needless violence won’t heal us,” the Democratic nominee for president said in a prepared statement that focused mostly on putting blame on law enforcement. What’s worse than his equivocation on violence, Joe Biden has made it clear that he is coming after law-abiding citizens’ right to self-defense.

As a local radio host in Baltimore City, I intimately understand the profound failure of de-policing, gun control, and progressive policies on violent crime. Baltimore is America’s most dangerous city suffering an unprecedent six-year homicide epidemic. After the city was put under a federal consent decree, The New York Times reported, “Baltimore, by most standards, became a worse place. In 2017, it recorded 342 murders — its highest per-capita rate ever, more than double Chicago’s, far higher than any other city of 500,000 or more residents and, astonishingly, a larger absolute number of killings than in New York, a city 14 times as populous.” Baltimore City is a one-party down where Democrats have been in control for decades. What is their response to crime and violence? Just this past summer, the Baltimore City Council committed to a policy course of defunding the police proposing tens of millions of dollars in cuts to the city’s underfunded, under-manned police department.

Elections have consequences. The Democrats have made it clear that fundamental transformation of our institutions and our Constitutional rights is key to their agenda. A Biden presidency with Democratic majorities in the Congress means packing the Supreme Court is likely. How do we know? Because the Democrats have told us so. Equivocations on crime and rioting will be the norm. How do we know? Because Democrats have told us so. Firearm confiscation and Second Amendment restrictions will be implemented. How do we know? Because the Democrats have told us so.  

Make no mistake — this November 3^rd vote as if the Bill of Rights is on the ballot — because it is. How do we know? Because the Democrats have told us so.

Jerry Rogers is the founder of Capitol Allies and the host of “The Jerry Rogers Show” on WBAL NewsRadio. Twitter: @JerryRogersShow.