BELLEVUE, WA. – Newly-revealed Russian outrages including the attacks on a maternity hospital and innocent women and children further reinforces the necessity for all European nations to have an armed and trained populace, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“Several news agencies are reporting these barbaric attacks,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “which should erase any doubt about the intent of the Russian invaders, and the need for every able bodied citizen to have the tools to fight back. This is not a game of hypotheticals.  Innocent women and children are being targeted.

“Other European nations should take a lesson from what is now unfolding in Ukraine,” he continued. “In this country, our founders wisely included the constitutional protection of the fundamental right to keep and bear arms, but nations in Europe have no such provisions. Still, we believe it is incumbent upon all nations to adopt a proactive stance, considering what we’ve seen unfolding over the past three weeks.

“An armed and trained population can defend their homes and their homeland,” Gottlieb observed. “Right now, other countries should be promoting private gun ownership rather than preventing their citizens from having firearms and being well-trained in their use.

“We’ve read and heard criticisms from the gun prohibition crowd about stressing the importance of our Second Amendment to the security of a free state,” he added, “but those critics are speaking from the comfort of a currently safe nation. While they seem content to discuss the Ukraine tragedy from an academic perspective, the people actually living through that horror have no such luxury, nor do citizens of adjacent nations who are justifiably concerned about their own safety with each passing day of conflict.

“There is never a wrong time to encourage private gun ownership, especially as a prelude and preventive measure to tyranny,” Gottlieb said. “Likewise, it is never too early to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. The moment Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine and started shooting, the game changed in Europe.”