Should the Government Stop You Protecting Yourself? Part 8 in the Right to Protect Yourself

Should government stop citizens protecting themselves from criminals? What would be the consequences? Yet this question misses the crucial point: If government carried out their fundamental job of protecting citizens properly, then citizens wouldn't need to protect themselves.

The need for you to protect yourself demonstrates the real problem: Government failure - the failure of politicians and bureaucrats to carry out their fundamental duty. Governments have arrogated so many tasks that they seem incapable of doing many if any of them effectively.

How Effective are Gun Bans Worldwide?
World-wide, bans on citizens protecting themselves with guns seem to be widely ignored, perhaps because they suspect the government's real reason behind such laws. The question is: Can you always trust your politicians to act in your best interests?

The answer is no - definitely not. In 1986, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to James Buchanan for his analysis of Public Choice. Professor Buchanan proved that both politicians and bureaucrats behave just as selfishly as the rest of the population in advancing their own interests.

This gives the lie to the very curious notion - promoted by government bureaucrats and politicians alike - that people change overnight to become selfless guardians of the public interest once they're appointed or elected. Yet they all fight so tenaciously to keep their positions, what on earth could be the reason?

Everyone Wants Freedom
Since you want the freedom to do what you think is right, then you need to protect yourself from others whenever they want to make you do something you don't choose freely.

Freedom means having the right to choose as you wish, so long as your choice doesn't impinge on the right of another to do as he wishes. My right to swing my arms stops at a distance from the end of your nose. And the choice of carrying a gun is one of the best ways to protect your freedom.

This doesn't mean you have to carry a gun, it only means you don't stop other people from protecting themselves as they see fit. But when you advocate gun control, you're saying your way is right and any other way is wrong. You're being prescriptive, a no-no avoided by all knowledgeable managers.

Beware of the law of unintended consequences, no matter how persuasive their words, the politicians currently running the government may not have your objectives as their number one priority!

Why Deny Freedom for Others?
Why do people who don't want to defend themselves also believing in stopping other people from defending themselves. Many people support gun control regulations because they believe that the average citizen is either incapable of using a gun in self-defense or may use the gun in a fit of anger over a petty matter. But this is patently untrue.

President Obama has had to chide gun safety advocates to accept the proposition that “almost all gun owners in America are highly responsible,” see previous article. Yet the safety of such government officials is protected by the guns carried by their protection team. You pay for those guns with your taxes and gun bans will have no effect on their safety.

Gun control advocates fail to see that although they may not be responsible, that doesn't mean others are also irresponsible. Such an unsubstantiated belief suggests they're gullible, lemmings who don't know how to think for themselves. They just believe others, no matter how little or no sense (often written as one word: nonsense) those others make.

They are willing to give up their right to protect themselves, and want to force others to follow them. But why give up your freedom to a government seemingly hell-bent on destroying the constitution which protects your freedom.

When Invaders Think you Cannot Protect Yourself
The most frightening violations are so-called “home invasions,” where those forcing their way are fully aware that the residents are home, but don’t care. It seems possible that such armed intruders are not planning on leaving witnesses, so defensive shootings are in light of what could have happened.

The Cato study - Tough Targets - found 1,227 such incidents, far more than the 488 incidents involving residential burglaries. This is likely because home invasions make far more dramatic stories that attract media coverage, and your opportunity to rely on the police in such cases is very limited.

You need protection against individual violence. The recent looting and riots in Britain, along with the abject failure of the British police to defend citizens and their property, show that even the effective British police and draconian British gun laws don't protect people against criminal activity.

The Value of Protecting Yourself
Lastly, explore the letter by retired Major Caudill, see link below, and then decide for yourself whether or not to use your right to protect yourself. You can refuse to carry a gun, but what about others? What makes you think you have the right to deny them the same choice?

Crucial question to consider, no knee-jerk answers please: Do you really want to stop your adult but vulnerable daughters, your aged and infirm parents, and your family from protecting themselves however they see best.

The abundant empirical evidence points to you needing to take responsibility for your own safety, which means you need the constitutionally guaranteed freedom for you, your loved ones, and your children to protect themselves.

© Copyright worldwide Cris Baker, www.LifeStrategies.net All rights reserved. Republishing welcomed under Creative Commons noncommercial no derivatives license preserving all links intact, so please +1 and share this widely!

Food for Thought
"Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect."

- Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962, longest-serving US First Lady with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ranked in the top ten of Gallup's 1999 List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.

The Cato Tough Targets study, detailing the results of over a thousand home invasions and residential burglaries, is at:
http://www.cato.org/publications/white-paper/tough-targets-when-criminal...