Explore Freedom

Gun Control

The IRA and Defensive Violence

by
Lo, we shall rise up. And then we’ll make the bugger’s eyes water. — Pink Floyd, “Sheep” In the 1960s, inspired in part by the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, Catholics in Northern Ireland began agitating for radical changes to a system they believed had been oppressing them for nearly half a century. Six counties in Ulster, in the ... [click for more]

Libertarian Lessons: Gun Control

by
A free society respects each individual's right to pursue happiness. If our rights have been transgressed through some act of violence or fraud, it is the role of government to hold offenders accountable in a court of law, its rulings enforced by police officers and prison guards. But an officer of the law will not be available in a moment ... [click for more]

Yet Another Government Weapon for Compliance and Control

by
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana We never learn. In the right (or wrong) hands, benevolent plans can easily be put to malevolent purposes. Even the most well-intentioned government law or program can be—and has been—perverted, corrupted and used to advance illegitimate purposes once profit and power are added to the equation. The war on ... [click for more]

Are Europeans Re-Thinking Gun Control?

by
The civil unrest of the 1960s threatened many Americans, particularly those living in major cities, and the urban population was exploding. Rising crime and particularly armed violent crime shocked and scared voters, and for more than two decades the Second Amendment was the scapegoat — an anachronism, “misinterpreted” by “gun nuts,” deserving of repeal. Draconian gun laws, including gun ... [click for more]

Gun Control in Britain Has Failed

by
Around 1920, the British Parliament in London began whittling away at the right to own firearms. Recognized at least from the days of king Billy and his Glorious Revolution, the right to arms was slowly but steadily eviscerated as any rise in crime or some shocking event invigorated anti-gun sentiment in a country marching to the Left. New “common ... [click for more]

Gun Control Doesn’t Lower Crime (Or Make Us Safer)

by
The United Kingdom has historically enjoyed a low crime and murder rate, and has very strict gun laws. This fact has regularly been exploited by anti-gun politicians and cultural elites on both sides of the Atlantic to push the dangerous lie that gun control is necessary in the fight against crime and violence. But when the UK's crime rate – ... [click for more]

The “Guns Equal Crime” Mantra Doesn’t Hold Water

by
Ask any devoted gun-hater and he'll tell you it's just “common sense” that guns in the hands of private citizens will only lead to more crime. The high homicide rate in the United States (relative to other Western industrialized societies) and its high gun-ownership rate are cited without question as evidence for this position. The trouble is, a more thorough ... [click for more]

It Is Our Right to Have “Weapons of War”

by
The recent tragic mass shooting at a Florida high school has the usual suspects coming out in favor of gun control. Once more it is the AR-15 rifle – used by the killer to take 17 lives – that has come under fire. What kind of society, we're lectured, allows such weapons in civilian hands? Speaking on CNN on ... [click for more]

Gun Control is Elitist and Wrong

by
At its root, gun control is an elitist policy. One group of people decides that by virtue of birth, social status, economic status, or political persuasion, they should control the ownership of firearms. The framers of our Constitution explicitly rejected that notion, lauding instead the value of an armed populace. To protect the right to keep and bear arms, ... [click for more]

Lessons from the Latest Texas Massacre

by
On Sunday morning, November 5, 2017, another mass shooting occurred, this time during services at the First Baptist Church in the small, rural community of Sutherland Springs, Texas, not far from San Antonio. The shooter, 26-year-old Devin P. Kelley, appears to have had a grievance against his in-laws who belonged to the church and perhaps were expected to be in ... [click for more]

Gun Control Is a Losing Issue for Democrats – And They Know It

by
The high water mark for gun control in the United States was the so-called, but misnamed, “Assault Weapon Ban,” which was passed through Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 1994. A CNN/USA/Gallup poll the year before found that 77 percent of Americans supported the ban. The law didn't ban “assault weapons,” but merely the importation of certain ... [click for more]