JP Sears: Why I was Wrong about Guns

JP Sears, a well-known comedian, is known for his honest talk, and more recently, his fervent advocacy of American’s personal freedoms. He recently took to his YouTube channel to revisit an older video of his about gun ownership and point out all the ways he was wrong. As an advocate for personal liberties, he now knows that the Second Amendment is essential to upholding those liberties and freedoms.

JP Sears: Why I was wrong on guns — JP Sears forgives himself for being anti-gun in his past but appreciates his willingness to change his mind. Ultimately, JP is pro-gun because he’s pro-freedom. Simple as that.

The first thing I must address before moving on is his stance on gun safety, even though it isn’t the first item he mentions in this recent video. JP admits that he was using a fake pistol in his previous anti-gun video and now knows how vitally important gun safety is to any situation. He states, and I agree, that gun handling and trigger discipline, regardless of whether it is a real or fake weapon, is important to reinforce good habits and keep from making a potentially fatal mistake in the future.

So exactly what has JP Sears changed his views on?

Here are the ones he points out in the video:

The population doesn’t need to protect themselves from the government.
The Constitution is not going anywhere, and personal freedoms aren’t in jeopardy.
Gun handling safety.
You don’t need a gun to protect your family.
Gun owners are unintelligent.
Countries that disarmed their populations had the right stance on gun control.

JP Sears Gun Safety — This image is from his previous anti-gun video, in which he was holding a fake gun and not exercising appropriate trigger discipline. In his recent video, JP Sears talks about the importance of proper gun safety and training. The number one thing is proper gun safety and trigger disciple as to not reinforce bad habits that could have deadly consequences. He now thinks that gun owners are the most respectful and knowledgeable regarding safety.

JP states that he used to think that the American citizens didn’t need firearms, weren’t necessary for everyday life and the government should take them all from us. At the time he made the previous video, he was extremely anti-gun and did not see a tyrannical government as a problem that would happen in the US.

While he points out that it has not happened in the US, thanks in part to the liberties set up by the Second Amendment, there are countries around the world that he feels are acting tyrannically towards their populations. There are people in the world that are getting removed from their homes and sent to detention camps by these governments. JP feels that since other countries have been disarmed by their governments, those people have no way to push back against their governments.

JP Sears Founding Fathers — Thanks in large part to the forethought of the Founding Fathers, the Second Amendment was set up so that Americans would be able to protect themselves from a tyrannical government by being able to take up arms. JP points out that the Founding Fathers understood that people are susceptible to succumb to power.

Another point that JP states that he was wrong about was that the Second Amendment is not going anywhere, and it would be silly to be concerned about the Constitution. He points out that the current, and other administrations, have walked all over our rights and it helped him see the error of his ways.

He now realizes how important the Constitution is. He quotes Dave Chappelle saying, “The First Amendment is first for a reason. Second Amendment is just in case the first one didn’t work out.” Having the Second Amendment helps secure the rest of the Amendments in that they can’t be taken away without recourse from the citizens.

JP also touches on the fact that he used tactics in the video to portray gun owners as unstable, reckless, or unintelligent. He now knows that gun owners are quite the opposite, saying that the gun owners are the ones that give the respect and devotion necessary for proper gun safety. Training is essential to proper safety and without the right training, you could be in greater danger.

disarmed citizen atrocities — There have been governments in the last century that have been guilty of mass killings after those same citizens were disarmed. JP Sears runs through a handful of countries and the numbers of casualties, all totaling over 50 million dead. He says it is a result of gun control in those countries because those citizens had no way to fight back against their governments.

The last major point that JP talks about in the video is a fact that is touted by opponents of gun ownership: the idea that countries with disarmed citizens don’t have mass shootings. He’s quick to point out, as will many gun owners, that gun control laws are only followed by law-abiding citizens, not criminals. The shooters in those incidents are exactly that, criminals.

He points out that Switzerland issues firearms to their citizens, along with proper training. But in some countries with disarmed citizens, a pattern of mass atrocities or genocides has been perpetrated by the governments that told the same citizens that they were disarming them for their own good. He points out in the last century there have been well over 50 million people killed by those same governments.

He ends his video with an anecdote from World War II, reportedly that the Japanese did not want to invade the mainland US because the population was armed. JP goes on to say that gun ownership opponents like to point at any mass casualty event to take away firearms from the citizens. But, as history points out, it is important to stay armed to protect ourselves and to hold tight to the Constitution.