Freedom requires the right to fight back
“Your punishment for having a knife when they searched you would be very different from the thief’s. For him to have a knife was mere misbehavior, tradition, he didn’t know any better. But for you to have one was ‘terrorism.’” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Written decades ago, Solzhenitsyn’s words capture exactly what we see happening around the world today as the line between victim and aggressor is being deliberately blurred.
Governments excuse crime and coddle criminals, while coming down hardest on the people who dare to protect themselves.
Just this week, a Scottish girl made headlines after she was filmed brandishing a knife and an axe in an effort to defend against a grown man who was harassing her friend’s little (12 year old!) sister.
In today's upside-down moral order, she was the one marched away in handcuffs while the man who frightened (and filmed) her walked free.
William Wallace must be rolling in his grave.
Of course this isn’t just Scotland. This is happening all over Europe.
In England carrying so much as a pocketknife can land you in serious legal trouble, even if your only intention is to keep yourself and your family safe. Meanwhile, violent offenders are given slap-on-the-wrist punishments in the name of “compassion” or “equity.”
It’s the exact distortion Solzhenitsyn warned about.
We’ve reached a tipping point when governments start calling good “evil” and evil “good,” and it raises a serious question for us as parents: how do we prepare our children to navigate a society that’s lost its moral compass?
In our Tuttle Twins kids books, we teach about the non-aggression principle: don’t use force or fraud against other people. It’s simple, it’s moral, and it’s fair, but that doesn’t mean children should grow up thinking they must be passive in the face of danger.
There’s a difference between aggression and defense, and between harming others and refusing to be harmed.
That’s why our books also show kids the importance of self-defense, and why the Second Amendment exists—not to promote violence, but to preserve peace by ensuring people have the ability to protect themselves and their families.
Our teen series goes even further in teaching about how vital it is to know how to exercise the right to self-defense.
We want to help young people see how disarming citizens only makes them more vulnerable, both to criminals and to the overreach of government itself.
If our kids don’t learn these truths from us, they will learn something very different from the culture around them: that violent criminals deserve protection while honest citizens must stay defenseless.
That’s a recipe for tyranny.
Our Back to School Sale is still going strong. It’s a great chance to fill your family’s library with resources that teach kids timeless principles of liberty.
The truth is, if we want our kids to understand that the non-aggression principle is about justice, not weakness—and that freedom is only secure when people can defend it—we have to start teaching them now.
Our resources are built to help you in that work.
Thanks for all you’re doing to build a better future for us all.
— Connor