Europe on fire proves the value of our Second Amendment. As arsonists, rioters and looters swarmed the streets of Paris Sunday night, French police were completely ineffective and President Emmanuel Macron and his wife were off attending a concert, which featured Céline Dion. Well-planned rioting and thievery are taking place throughout France and other European countries. Some say the actions are coordinated by the extreme far left and will continue unabated. France is still six months away from its next presidential election. Europe is on fire. Its victims are on their own. Extreme anti-gun laws throughout the continent have helped fuel the fires. France has some of the strictest anti-gun laws in the world. For a permit to purchase a “sporting arm”—not a handgun or a semi-automatic rifle—the applicant must be 18 years old and possess a valid hunting license or a shooting club membership. The applicant must also have completed and passed a medical exam, a mental health exam, an extensive criminal background check and government-approved firearm safety training. Once they’ve completed all of these legal requirements, they are required to submit an application to their local police. This alone can take months or even years. Many applicants have been rejected for no reason. Even if they manage to pass the requirements and purchase a firearm, concealed carry is outlawed. Gun safes are required. Ammunition must be stored separately, and law enforcement can conduct an in-home inspection whenever they want. Anyone caught violating these rules can face the loss of the firearm, stiff fines and years behind bars. France’s stiff anti-gun laws have had a horrific impact on the ongoing crime spree. One female shop owner in Paris tried to reason with the masked rioters as they calmly walked past her into her shop and stole her merchandise. “What’s the point of doing this?” she asked the criminals who paid her no mind. If she had a firearm, she might have been able to stop them, right? This is the point where many will point to our Second Amendment and claim that the riots spreading across Europe could never happen here. Unfortunately, that is not true. We have far too many large America cities where the Second Amendment has been bankrupted by local politicians, where the crazy French gun-ownership requirements seem almost par for the course, where only the bad guys have guns. Try to buy an AR, magazines and ammunition in New York, Boston or Washington D.C. and you will soon learn this is true. Millions of Americans are being stripped of their Second Amendment rights by their state and local politicians. Honest, hard-working Americans are serving decades in state prisons for “offenses” that aren’t even considered illegal in free states. Meanwhile, those of us who live in states that recognize the value of the Second Amendment often take for granted the pain and suffering the victims and their families are going through. “Move!” we tell them. “Get out of New York!” This, friends, needs to change, and we can help make the change. When we hear about the decades in prison someone received in a deep blue state for an “offense” that’s not even considered a crime in the rest of the country, we should be spurred into action. After all, we are still one country. Our Second Amendment rights are simply magnificent. They allow us to defend ourselves. However, we need to ensure that every American has equal access to these rights—as the Founders intended—regardless of where they have chosen to live. We need to make this a key issue while we have a President and an administration who value both our concerns and the Second Amendment. We need Second Amendment rights and protections for every American. @2AFDN