BY DAVID RITTER
In 2015, I was spending my time with the Armenian Iraqi community within the region of Kurdistan. I traveled to Iraq to support the ethnic minority groups who were being attacked by ISIS and had little support. While I was in Iraq, I spent the majority of my time in a small village known as Harvesc. I found that ethnic minorities like Armenians were facing horrific attacks and violence at the hands of Daesh. Ethnic minorities were forced to form their own security forces, given that the Kurdish and Iraqi government were not capable of protecting the people from the constant attacks from Daesh.Small protection forces from within the Armenian and Assyrian/ Chaldean community were essential to the survival of these ethnic groups, and firearms were key to their defense. Many Armenians survived the genocide under the Ottoman Turks because they were armed, and able to fight back. They found means of retreat while confronting the Ottoman troops, who were dead set on murdering Armenian men, women and children.I support Armenians worldwide in their endeavor to protect themselves, culture and heritage. There are times when this endeavor requires more than speech or media. At times, it requires men and women willing to fight, and firearms are essential to that fight. I am not Armenian, but I was willing to risk my safety, security, comfort and life to help Armenians who were struggling against an enemy that would have murdered, enslaved and raped them if they were to succeed. I gave several years of my life to work and advocate in favor of Armenian Iraqi people, because I have the capacity to feel empathy for people outside of my world and cultural demographic. The people who slaughter Armenian, Kurdish and Assyrian people would do the same to me in a heartbeat.All of the Assyrian and Armenians I met in Iraq felt that firearms were essential to securing their future in the face of such horrific enemies. Every Armenian I have met agrees on this. Who reading this would be willing to push for stricter gun laws or bans on Armenian Iraqis? If you are someone who would push for gun bans or extremely limiting firearms policies on the Syrian or Armenian Iraqi community, then you are an enemy to Armenian people, plain and simple.Now we have this article from Christopher Atamian spewing skewed data and unbacked assertions, focusing on anti-American and anti-white bias. The entire article is focused on demonizing white Americans, while depicting all other demographics as victims at the hands of evil, sadistic Americans of European descent.This is absurd, biased propaganda that has been pushed by mainstream media to serve the purpose of foreign powers that excise and fund the corrupt media we have in this country. Either Christopher Atamian has been subverted by this media, or he is working to serve it.I can say with certainty that he is not basing any of his disinformation on actual empirical data or facts. He claims that America’s love affair with guns is “morally depraved”. Why are other nations allowed to like/ love firearms but white Americans are all—without exception—morally depraved? How did this Christopher become the arbiter of morality, and judge of all ethnic groups and races? How is a hunter who feeds his family immoral or depraved? How is a rancher or farmer who uses firearms to protect his crops and live stock morally depraved? How is a competitive marksman morally depraved? How is someone like me, who owns firearms for defense and recreation morally depraved?Christopher seems to have a very high opinion of himself, to be able to judge millions of people without ever taking the time to get to know any them. He goes on to assert that we no longer live in a age of private militias. This assertion is false. As I mentioned, there are militias all over the world, and many are government regulated. He asserts that there will never be a need for private militias in the future. How is he so sure of this? How does he have such certainty that there will never come a day when the United States will be in need of an auxiliary fighting force? Is Christopher psychic? People strongly asserted that the Titanic was unsinkable, yet that did not make it true. Why is it so hard to believe that one day the USA may require an auxiliary security force? Iraq and Syria were not always in such a violent state, but obviously the populations are now required to form militias. Why does Christopher subscribe to this “American exceptionalism”? All other cultures have problems and instability, but the United States is indestructible?Christopher continues to teeter totter back and forth between this world of asserting that the USA is an exceptionally dangerous place, then back to asserting that the USA is extremely stable, with no need for militias or extra security, because he asserts we have a stable government and military and police who do a “ good job”. Christopher, who is a former writer for the Huffington Post, must have not been given the memo that “ black lives matter” and that the police—specifically white police—are a threat to all people of color, according to his left wing colleagues.It seems Christopher has a difficult time grasping the concept of intellectual consistency. He rails on white America as a problematic demographic, and America as an immoral, horrific place, but can not for one moment conceive a reason for the population to form a security force, or for individuals to have arms to protect themselves.Chris states that “ Armenians…should be particularly sensitive to any and all expressions of racism.” This entire article reads like a Orwellian Ingsoc 1984 propaganda report. One moment Chris condemns any expression of racism, then he asserts that Caucasians are the ones that are creating over 90 percent of the violence in America. Chris—make up your mind—is racially stigmatizing and generalizing racial demographics of people something that should be seen as taboo, and that Armenians should be sensitive to? Or is it the solution in discourse in understanding where all of our problems lie? I see, Chris, “ all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” It seems Chris thinks that doublethink is something we should embrace to improve our society.I would like to point out the fact that Chris says Caucasians are the majority of perpetrators in mass shootings. Armenians are Caucasians, so does this mean Armenians are the ones to blame for mass shootings? Chris asserts in his article that 90 percent of the shootings in America are committed by Caucasian males. Well Chris, I would love to see the data on this assertion, because it is interesting how you cited absolutely no source for this falsehood. Statistics from the FBI do not relay such information. In fact, they relay the opposite. If racially stigmatizing people is taboo, then why do you do it? If mentioning the racial category of criminals is in fact essential—as you repeatedly demonstrate in your article—then why don’t you quote the FBI data, which shows that the majority of what are deemed as “mass shootings” in the USA are actually committed by non European descended demographics. He claims he acquired his statistics from a impartial study, but fails to ever cite this study in his manipulative article.He later cites a poll that was created by an anti-second-amendment organization, showing how the USA has a gun crime rate 100 times higher than Japan. Of course the USA has a crime rate higher than Japan, given that the USA has over three hundred and thirty million people residing in it, while Japan has around 126,000,000. So yes, naturally it will have a higher crime rate.Japan is also a very racially homogeneous nation. Why does it matter that Japan is racially homogeneous? Well I am not sure it matters at all, but Chris seems to enjoy racializing these issues. So if we follow his route of reason, then we would find again that the majority of gun violence committed in the USA is not at the hands of white or “Caucasian” Americans. The majority is committed by non-Caucasian demographics, according to all data released by the FBI.It is interesting how the countries with the highest murder rate were not on this poll. Many of the countries not mentioned have extremely restrictive gun control laws, including Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti and various other countries throughout the world. Surprise, it’s not white people pulling the trigger, but Chris, seems to want to keep those countries off the table for discussion, for some strange reason.This man promotes disarming Americans, specifically white Americans. He claims that anyone who owns a semi-automatic rifle is mentally ill or brainwashed. So tell me—are Armenians on the border of Azerbaijan mentally ill? Are the Armenians in Syria and Iraq mentally ill? Were the Armenians who fought the Ottomans during 1915 mentally ill? Or is it just “ Caucasians” in general? Or is Chris just targeting people of European descent?What is clear is this: Armenians and people of various ethnic creeds throughout the world need guns to protect themselves. People in the USA that are of Armenian, white, black, Asian and all ethnic creeds live much safer lives than the majority of other nations on this planet—in places like Africa, the middle east, South and Central America, etc. Chris claims there is a blight of white people/ Caucasians out to kill everyone, and that we live in the most violent nation on the planet. He then claims that there is no reason to own a semi-automatic weapon. Either this man is an idiot, or he is attempting to manipulate the public with an agenda. I am willing to accept that he is both.In the USA, we have a high rate of gun ownership. This is a good thing, depending on who holds the gun. There are malicious people who obtain firearms in America and many other parts of the world. These malicious people often have ideologies that range from religious ideals, to political ideals, to racial and ethnic supremacism, and other times they are people who simply enjoy watching others suffer. Mental health can often play a role. The reasons for violence are not monolithic. 9/11 was not done with semi-automatic weapons, yet more people were killed within a span of less than ten hours —more than any firearm could have accomplished. Timothy McVeigh killed more people with a truck, petrol and fertilizer than any firearm could. I would like to point out that the DC shooters John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were not white. They were black immigrants who were Islamic jihadists, but it seems the Armenian weekly is more interested in stigmatizing white Christians, while ignoring the Islamic violence directed towards non Muslim Americans.There a literally hundreds of incidents we can mention throughout history and the contemporary era. They include violent acts committed by non-whites and people using non-semi-automatic firearms or various devices and objects from knives, to bombs, blunt objects and even jumbo jets smashing into buildings. In the USA, the vast majority of firearm homicides are committed on criminal elements, by criminal elements. If you look at the percentage of the population affected, it equals 0.0044385873721415% of the overall population.Chris wants to make you think that death is around every corner, and it is not. But it is for the people of Syria and Iraq, and it is for Armenians living or the border of Azerbaijan. Thank God they have guns, and thank God we have guns in the USA.I was told by an Armenian leader in Iraq that every man should have the means to defend himself, and guns are essential. He told me to never disarm myself. He told me “I love the gun because I love my family more and with the gun I can protect my family.”In the USA, I have not yet had a situation where I needed a gun, because it is so damn peaceful in most parts of this country. But in my line of work, there are many situations where I have needed a firearm, and I am glad to have had them.We should keep firearms in the USA, not because we want to use them, but so we never end up in a situation like the Iraqi and Syrian people. If we do—by some far off chance—then we will have the means and training to protect ourselves, and we will be ready. Rather than defend my position, or drone on further, below is a link to my documentary on the Armenian Iraqi people and their village of Havresc and how they defended their families from the threats that exist in the real world—not the liberal cosmopolitan bubble Chris lives in.