As the tragic story of baby Alfie begins fading from headlines, it is important to point out what allowed this situation to unfold like it did. Guns. Before throwing your arms in the air and screaming out, “how the hell does this child’s death have anything to do with guns?” consider the following truth: The majority of the United Kingdom is unarmed, leaving most guns in the hands of criminals and government. When only government has guns, they can make decisions—like kidnapping a baby and starving him to death—without fear of recourse from the citizens, or even the family.

Officials in the UK sentenced baby Alfie to death this year when they denied his parents the ability to fly to Italy to receive free treatment at no cost the British government. The decision was entirely arbitrary as it had no bearing on Britain’s healthcare system. They had nothing to lose by allowing the family to fly to Italy and they had everything to gain.

Instead of allowing the family a last stitch effort to save their baby’s life however, the state effectively kidnapped him and had armed police officers standing outside the hospital to make sure he was left there to die. His parents, Kate and Tom, were helpless to resist.

With an open mind, consider the following tweet:

Why do I need an AR-15? Because some day the government may tell me I'm not allowed to put my sick son on a plane and fly him to Italy for treatment. And believe me when I tell you I WILL be putting him on that plane. #AlfieEvans

— Jesse Kelly® (@JesseKellyDC) April 24, 2018

While many will consider this tweet as a threat of violence toward government, it is nothing of the sort. Kidnapping a child and starving him to death is violence. Promising you’ll try to stop it by any means necessary is self-defense.

But no single person with a gun could ever prevent the state from carrying out a government-sanctioned death sentence on their child for being sick, right? Wrong.

George Pickering Sr., from Houston, Texas proved that this was possible, just three years ago.

Pickering’s son, George Jr. was declared “brain dead” in 2015 after suffering a massive stroke. The decision to end Pickering’s son’s life had been made. However, desperate to keep his son alive, seemingly knowing something that the doctors did not, George Sr. armed himself and intervened.

“I felt hopeless. They were moving too fast. The hospital, the nurses, the doctors,” this dedicated dad told Click 2 Houston at the time.

After entering the Tomball Regional Medical Center in Houston, Texas, determined to make sure his son was given more time to recover, a standoff ensued as George Sr. barricaded himself in his son’s room.

George Sr. was willing to risk jail time and even death if it meant getting his son a few more minutes on this earth and a chance to survive.

A SWAT team was kept at bay as an armed George Sr. sat with his son and prayed for a sign of life. George Sr.’s other son was allowed in the room and eventually talked down his father. However, because this father was armed, police were held off long enough for something amazing to happen.

“Towards the end of the standoff, which was about three hours long, he felt his son squeeze his hand,” the family’s lawyer Phoebe Smith said.

“At this time, the SWAT team had already opened the door to the critical care room and he had surrendered to the police, but he surrendered knowing his son had squeezed his hand,” she added.

Had he not been armed, police would’ve removed George Sr. in only a few minutes and he would’ve never felt his son squeeze his hand, and life support would’ve been pulled.

To confirm the father’s claims that his son had shown signs of life, the SWAT team even sent in their own doctors.

“The SWAT team had their own doctors and when they entered into the critical care room, they saw that my client’s son was not brain dead because he was making eye contact, was following their commands and they were completely amazed at this,” Smith added.

Had an armed father not decided to take a stand, his son would likely be dead right now.

“The amazing thing was that my client was right and that his son did survive. When you see him now, he is a picture of health. I don’t think he would have survived but for the fact that his father slowed the process down,” Smith said.

“This case has always been about a father protecting his son, when his son couldn’t protect himself,” she said.

George Sr. was charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but one was later dismissed and the other lessened to a state jail felony. However, this father of three doesn’t regret any of it—including the jail time he served after.

“There was a law broken, but it was broken for all the right reasons. I’m here now because of it,” George Jr. told Fox 6.

“It was love. It was love. It’s the duty of a parent to protect your children and that’s all he did. Everything good that made me a man is because of that man sitting next to me.”