Gun Control

Armed Self-Defense Is Essential in a Free Society

by Richard M. Ebeling April 20, 2021

The recent string of multiple-victim incidents of gun violence and police shootings of black Americans has once again resulted in renewed calls for restrictions on gun ownership. President Biden has said that executive instructions to various branches of the Federal government will attempt to reduce the frequency and possibility of such violence. Some of his proposals, however, are merely using ...

Anti-Gun Laws, Sanctuary Cities and the Second Amendment

by John W. Whitehead January 16, 2020

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” – The Second Amendment to the US Constitution 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 ...

Gun Seizures Could Lead to Civil War

by James Bovard December 1, 2019

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15,” declared “Beto” O’Rourke at a Democratic party presidential candidate debate in September. Compelling Americans to surrender their so-called assault weapons is “the newest purity test” for Democratic presidential candidates, according to the Washington Post. O’Rourke and other Democratic presidential candidates, including Cory Booker, Kristin Gillibrand, and Bill de Blasio (now withdrawn ...

Banning Guns Will Not Make Schools Safe

by James Bovard November 1, 2019

School shootings have become the latest pretext for politicians to destroy the Second Amendment. Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, declared in a Democratic presidential candidates’ debate, “I was part of the first generation that saw routine school shootings. We have now produced the second school-shooting generation in this country. We dare not allow there to be a ...

Is Federal Gun Licensing Constitutional?

by Laurence M. Vance October 7, 2019

Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is living proof that anyone in America can become a U.S. senator. According to Article I, Section 3, Clause 3 of the Constitution, there are three qualifications to be a U.S. senator: No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a ...

Who Inflicts the Most Gun Violence in America?

by John W. Whitehead August 15, 2019

“It is often the case that police shootings, incidents where law enforcement officers pull the trigger on civilians, are left out of the conversation on gun violence. But a police officer shooting a civilian counts as gun violence. Every time an officer uses a gun against an innocent or an unarmed person contributes to the ...

Gun Ownership: An Individual Right

by Matthew Harwood July 1, 2019

First Freedom: A Ride Through America’s Enduring History with the Gun by David Harsanyi (Threshold Editions, 2018); 321 pages. In David Harsanyi’s First Freedom, an entertaining jaunt through the gun’s important place in American history, the nationally syndicated columnist notes that the first real attempt to institute gun control was New York’s Sullivan Act. The impetus ...

Background Checks Violate Property Rights

by Benedict D. LaRosa June 18, 2019

In the early 1990s, I accompanied a friend and his 12-year-old son to a local gun show. My friend wished to purchase a .22 caliber rifle with which to teach his son to shoot safely and effectively. After much browsing, he found one at a reasonable price, one that suited both his needs and those of his son. The ...

The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment: Understanding the Court’s Landmark Decisions

by Brian Miller May 17, 2019

The Second Amendment is one of the most fundamental provisions of the Bill of Rights, and one of the most fiercely debated. Since it was first put to paper, legal scholars, gun owners and anti-gun activists have engaged in an endless discussion over the meaning and scope of the Second ...

Guns Rights and Property Rights

by Laurence M. Vance March 8, 2019

What is the relationship between gun rights and property rights? Because of recent actions by a state legislature, it might be best to look at this issue through the lens of church shootings. In October 2018, 11 people were killed and 7 injured in a mass shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In November 2017, ...

The Libertarian Angle: Venezuela and the Tyranny of Gun Control (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 27, 2019

Possession of firearms does not guarantee freedom, but it certainly doesn't hurt. The leaders of Venezuela surely understand this. FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Citadel professor Richard Ebeling discuss. Go to the podcast.

Libertarian Lessons: Gun Control

by Scott McPherson November 30, 2018

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 ...