You Can’t Be Anti-Fascist and Anti-Gun

The Core of Antifascism

It’s impossible to be both anti-gun and anti-fascist because the entire idea of antifascism depends on ordinary people having the ability to resist state violence when institutions either break down or side with the oppressor. Antifascism has never been about slogans or symbolism. It has always been about communities defending themselves when no one else will, because history shows that no authoritarian movement ever stops at rhetoric once it gains momentum.

How Authoritarianism Actually Emerges

Fascism doesn’t begin with tanks in the streets or midnight raids. It begins with slow changes that feel harmless at first. Small restrictions, new policing powers, a quiet shift in who gets labeled a threat, and a growing belief that the system will eventually correct itself even though the system is doing the opposite. When the state remains armed while the public is not, that imbalance locks into place. You can believe in freedom all you want, but without the means to protect it, you’re depending on the goodwill of people who may not share your values.

What History Already Proved

History gives us case study after case study showing that unarmed resistance doesn’t stop authoritarianism. The Italian partisans fought because they were armed. The French Resistance worked because its members had weapons. The Warsaw Ghetto fighters knew their chances were almost nonexistent, but they also knew that disarmament meant certain death. None of these movements were handed rifles by the same governments that were oppressing them. They found weapons because they understood that survival required the ability to fight back.

Every antifascist movement that succeeded was armed. Every population that was fully disarmed before authoritarianism arrived was crushed. That’s not ideology. That’s the historical record.

Where Modern Antifascism Gets Lost

Many people today call themselves anti-fascist while insisting that the only people who should have weapons are the state and its enforcers. They imagine a version of antifascism that relies on good intentions and strong institutions, even though history shows that institutions are the first things to collapse or comply when authoritarianism rises. A public that cannot defend itself isn’t antifascist. It is simply vulnerable.

The American Examples People Forget

This isn’t only a European story. In the United States, the Black Panthers patrolled police in Oakland because unarmed communities had no leverage against state violence. Miners during the Harlan County strikes carried rifles because private armies were killing workers with impunity. The fighters at Blair Mountain armed themselves because their lives and their families’ lives depended on it. None of these examples were extremists looking for conflict. They were ordinary people who understood that the right to self-defense is the only thing that has ever kept marginalized communities alive in the face of unchecked power.

If someone genuinely believes in resisting fascism, they have to believe in the ability of people to defend their communities. You can’t oppose authoritarianism while demanding that only the state should have weapons. That idea has failed everywhere it has been tried.

Antifascism is a commitment to stopping any government, leader, or movement from holding unquestioned power, and that commitment only means something if ordinary people retain the ability to enforce it. You can be anti-fascist or anti-gun, but you can’t be both because the second belief makes the first one impossible.