The right to keep and bear arms is now recognized in the Czech Republic.
Under a constitutional amendment passed earlier in July by the Czech Parliament, the country’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms will include a section stating “The right to defend one’s own life or the life of another person with a weapon is guaranteed under the conditions laid down by law.”
This provision originated in response to a petition signed by 102,000 people, including Czech president Miloš Zeman, demanding such a constitutional amendment in response to the European Union’s crackdown on civilian firearm ownership. Following the amendment’s introduction in 2019 by 35 senators, the Chamber of Deputies (lower house) approved it on June 18, 2021, by a vote of 141-3, with the Senate following on July 21 by a vote of 54-13. The amendment will take effect between August 1 and September 1.
According to the senators who originally introduced the amendment, it “strengthens the fundamental rights of individuals. The proposal itself introduces a constitutional enshrinement of the right to defense with arms.… Given the importance of the right to life, which is the most basic right, because without life other human rights cannot be fulfilled, the proposal considers it appropriate to symbolically elevate this right to the constitutional level.”
The Czech lands have a history of firearm ownership, stretching back to the Hussite Wars where the proto-Protestant Hussites largely depended on firearms to defend themselves from the encroaching Catholic forces. Even today, the Czech Republic has relatively lenient firearm laws, with a quarter of a million people holding concealed-carry permits. Furthermore, Zeman, the Czech president, is a vocal advocate for firearm ownership.
In fact, this is not the first time a constitutional right to keep and bear arms has been proposed. In 2017, the Chamber of Deputies overwhelmingly approved a similar constitutional amendment, though it failed to pass the Senate.
However, the EU is imposing draconian gun controls upon the continent. The 2017 EU Firearms Directive, for example, enacted a wide range of gun controls, including making it harder for Europeans to own weapons and restricting semi-automatic firearms. This directive even affected non-EU countries such as Switzerland.
The new Czech constitutional amendment seeks to push back against the EU’s encroachment. According to one of its original proposers, Czech Senator Martin Červíček, “The proposal is not only symbolic in nature but can also serve as insurance for the future.” Accordingly, it overrides a Czech law implementing the EU directive that the country passed after unsuccessfully challenging the directive at the European Court of Justice. The amendment is also a first step toward further protections on the right to self-defense in the Czech Republic.
As globalist politicians in the EU — and the United States — increasingly violate the God-given right to self-defense, it is imperative that freedom-loving citizens stand up to defend that right. The Czech Republic’s new constitutional amendment is a positive step in that direction.
