Hawkins: Let’s Reword the Question — With Armed Venezuelan Gangs in Colorado, Who Doesn’t Need an AR-15?

As videos emerge of armed Venezuelan gang members allegedly roving and taking property in Aurora, Colorado, the question is no longer ‘Who needs an AR-15’ but who doesn’t?

Democrats have spent decades demonizing AR-15 rifles, labeling them “weapons of war,” “assault  weapons.” and/or using hybrid designation of “military-style assault weapons.”

And many Democrats go further than simply repeating the myriad designations.

For example, in 2016, in the aftermath of the Orlando Pulse attack, Buzzfeed noted Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) saying that Americans who buy an AR-15 are “not buying it to go out and hunt deer. You don’t need an AK-47 or an AR-15 to hunt deer. They’re buying it to do bad things and we need to recognize that and address it.”

After using the negative descriptors ad nauseum, Democrats follow their script and push more gun control in the form of “assault weapon” bans.

As a result, we hear the kind of statements Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) made when signing his state’s ban into law in 2023. The New York Post quoted him saying, “No one needs an AR-15 to protect your family.”

More recently, Biden pushed to “outlaw” AR-15s and Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris echoed his sentiments, even though AR-15s are part of the arsenal of firearms used daily by her protective detail.

Throughout the last decade of the Democrats’ push to prove AR-15s are not for hunting or self-defense, Breitbart News has been quoting ATF officials on the vast hunting applications for AR-15 rifles and numerous outlets have noted self-defense story after self-defense story in which Americans used AR-15s to keep themselves or their family safe.

But now the argument is cast in an even clearer light, as viral video appears to show armed Venezuelan gang members going to door to door at an Aurora, Colorado, apartment complex, knocking doors and taking property:

In light of this, the Democrats’ question about AR-15s may need to be reworded. Instead of asking who needs an AR-15 perhaps they should be asking who doesn’t.

I’ll bet there is a single mother in Aurora who would prefer the ability to defend her family with an AR-15 over the option of crouching in the back corner of her apartment, pulling her children close and hoping the dead bolt on her front door holds.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..