Fortunately - and remarkably in our progressively urbanized culture - more and more Americans agree that Second Amendment rights must be protected.

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For decades, Second Amendment antagonists have alleged that its protections are an anachronism, an outdated relic of a bygone society of muskets and minutemen. 

In Los Angeles 23 years ago this week, riots that claimed 50 lives vividly refuted that claim. 

It is worth revisiting the graphic horror of that event to fathom the degree of lawlessness.  As racist rioters made their way toward Koreatown, shop owner Kee Whan Ha and fellow owners had no choice but to band together with whatever weapons they had to fend off approaching mobs.  "From Wednesday," Mr. Ha told NPR, "I don't see any police patrol car whatsoever.  That's a wide-open area, so it is like Wild West in old days, like there's nothing there.  We are the only ones left."  A horrified Mr. Ha even watched his security guard get killed before his eyes, saying, "I was so scared, I couldn't go there because his head off.  His body's all right, but head off.  So I was so scared."  Using firearms from atop their roofs, however, the owners successfully fought back the murderous and arsonist mobs. 

This week, events in Baltimore, Maryland provided a similar, albeit thankfully less deadly, reminder.    Amid the violent mobs, some citizens successfully protected their lives and livelihoods with firearms.  Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton provided one illustration, as reported by CNN: 

"I really can't explain it...  We got reports that about a mile south, a police officer was injured and a police car was being destroyed...  You could come to this place, and break into stores, and set fires, and you could stand on police cars and get selfies taken...  At one point, it was bizarre, this check-cashing place had been broken into, and it seemed like people had sufficiently raided it, and word must've spread on social media or something, that this was a place that you could break into because like 200 people rushed it at once...  A man with a hoodie pulled tight over his face approached me with mace, and he told me to take it out, he wanted my cell phone, and sprayed me in the head, and I retreated back to my safe spot where I was with a store owner who had a shotgun protecting his property." 

Every single day in America, armed citizens defend themselves via their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms on a smaller scale but in similar fashion. 

The simple fact is that murderous aggression isn't something that has disappeared from human nature since the Constitution was ratified in 1787.  It is unfortunately all too timeless.  And when criminal disorder breaks out or law enforcement is unavailable, armed self-defense becomes a potential victim's only hope. 

Fortunately - and remarkably in our progressively urbanized culture - more and more Americans agree that Second Amendment rights must be protected. 

A new survey from the left-leaning Pew organization shows that support for the individual right to keep and bear arms stands at a new high: 

"For most of the 1990s and the subsequent decade, a substantial majority of Americans believed it was more important to control gun ownership than to protect gun owners' rights.  But in December 2014, the balance of opinion flipped.  For the first time, more Americans say that protecting gun rights is more important than controlling gun ownership, 52% to 46%." 

That new Pew result parallels a similar recent Gallup poll: 

"And among the public at large, the latest Gallup survey finds that 63% of Americans now say having a gun in the home makes it a safer place, compared with 30% who say it makes a home more dangerous.  Fifteen years ago, more said the presence of a gun made a home more dangerous (51%) than safer (35%)." 

It's a testament to the excellent work of Second Amendment advocates and groups like the National Rifle Association that Americans have become increasingly supportive of gun rights despite urbanization and leftward drift on many other socio-political issues. 

Vivid illustrations like what happened in Baltimore this week or Los Angeles two decades ago help substantiate the public's perception.