The stories coming out of western North Carolina, southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and other parts of Appalachia hit hard by Hurricane Helene are absolutely heartbreaking. Entire communities have been devastated and cut off from emergency services, more than 100 lives have been lost, and countless others have been forever changed by the brute force of Mother Nature. 

It could be weeks to get power and essential services restored to those areas hit hardest by Helene, and some criminals have already decided to take advantage of the chaos. As my colleague Tom Knighton covered earlier today, police in Thomasville, Georgia are looking for a man who used the storm as cover while he burgled a local gun shop, and authorities in other towns have reported looting of homes and businesses. Authorities in Tallahassee, Florida are also investigating the attempted robbery of a hemp store last Friday. As rain and wind pelted the Florida capital, two men allegedly entered the store with the intent to rob the lone employee, but one of them was fatally shot by the store clerk. 

Given the widespread devastation, however, those reports are not as common as you might expect. I'd argue there are two big reasons for that. 

First, many of the communities that have been hit the hardest are relatively small towns where folks are familiar with one another. We're already starting to hear stories of neighbors coming together to aid in recovery efforts, and I'm sure as the floodwaters recede and the media gets access to some of these isolated communities we'll learn about more good deeds being done. 

But I also firmly believe that the number of gun owners in these communities is helping to keep looters and lawbreakers at bay. As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said last year ahead of Hurricane Idalia last year, "“People have a right to defend their property — this part of Florida, you got a lot of advocates and proponents of the Second Amendment."

“You never know what’s behind that door if you go break into somebody’s house and you’re trying to loot, these are people that are going to be able to defend themselves and their families,” the governor added. “We are going to hold you accountable from a law enforcement perspective at a minimum, and it could even be worse than that depending on what’s behind that door.”

When responding to the deadly Hurricane Ian, which hit Florida in September 2022 and left more than 140 people dead, the governor remarked that he had seen a sign that displayed the “you loot, we shoot” line, raising it as a message of law-and-order during a period of storm-driven chaos. He also made the comments days after a racially-motivated mass shooting in Jacksonville left three Black residents dead.

Even in the best of circumstances, the police are likely minutes away when seconds count. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, however, it's not even possible for many folks to contact 911 to report a home invasion, armed robbery, or looting. These residents are on their own, and their right to keep and bear arms is more important than ever. 

While Kamala Harris proclaims that modern sporting rifles "have no place in a civil society", hundreds of thousands of residents in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia are using their AR-15s and other semi-automatic long guns to protect their families, along with whatever remains of their property. I hope and pray that they'll never need to pull the trigger in self-defense, but I have no doubt that these arms in the hands of responsible citizens are helping to keep them safe from those who would use Helene's horrors as an opportunity to prey on these devastated communities and the people who call them home.