Banning Handguns Would Save Lives? It Just Aint So!
by Clayton E. Cramer
"Liberalization of concealed-weapon permit laws appear to have caused mild but
statistically significant reductions in rates for murder, rape, and robbery.
(See John R. Lott’s More Guns, Less Crime.)"
Does society really want to reduce rape?
December 9, 2005
by Derek Bernard
"Permitting armed self-defence to the general public significantly discourages criminal
violence, including rape, producing beneficial effects for the population at large,
including those who do not and would not carry a gun."
Firearms and Crime
by Daniel D. Polsby
A summary of this book against gun control.
Gun Control
by Dr. Mary Ruwart
The good doctor answers tough questions about weapons in a free society.
Gun Control in Britain
by Sean Gabb
Gun Control Misses the Target
December 12, 2002
by Scott McPherson
"The truth is, armed citizens discourage crime, and disarmed people are easy prey for
violent thugs. Instead of promoting the same failed paradigm of the last 30 years,
perhaps it would be wiser for gun-control advocates to investigate other reasons for
America's crime "epidemic." A likely candidate is our highly destructive war on drugs,
which breeds a large and vicious criminal class, misdirects police resources, and fills
prisons with nonviolent drug users while returning violent criminals to the streets."
Gun Control Restricts Those Least Likely to Commit Violent Crimes
April 6, 2009
by Don B. Kates, Jr.
"Felons commit over 90 percent of murders, with the remainder carried out primarily by
juveniles and the mentally unbalanced. The United States already has laws forbidding
all three groups from owning guns, which, by definition, are ineffective against the
lawless. “Gun control,” therefore, only “controls” those who have done nothing to merit
such regulations."
Gun Control: Schemed by Tyrants, Supported by Fools
October 23, 2009
by Michael Gaddy
"Those who advocate gun control as a means of enslaving the people will never be
influenced by an intellectual argument, presentation of facts and figures, or a simple
plea to do that which is right. Those who are influenced into making decisions based on
their emotions are now being motivated by a stronger emotion: fear, the fear that what
we have been telling them for years is true. Countless thousands of folks who previously
did not own a gun, have been purchasing guns and ammo at a record pace. Actions by this
criminal government have awakened some of the sheeple where our intellectual arguments
have failed."
Gun Control's Twisted Outcome
by Joyce Lee Malcolm
Restricting firearms has helped make England more crime-ridden than the U.S.
Guns and Our Freedom: You Can’t Have One without the Other
May 29, 1997
by Charley Reese
"You cannot have a government of the people, by the people and for the people that is
afraid of the people and wants to disarm them.
As an organization that calls itself Jews for the Preservation of Firearms has shown,
there is a strong association between a disarmed population and genocide. In every
totalitarian country in this century, the first step of government killers was to disarm
the people. The group has pointed out and proven that the 1968 Gun Control Act was
patterned after a Nazi gun-control act."
Guns are the only inanimate objects blamed for crime
by Daniel White
"Blaming the object is never going to solve the issue of violence, and taking away
defensive firearms only disarms the law abiding. Until the underlying causes of crime
are meaningfully discussed and addressed, all the gun control in the world isn't going
to solve the problem."
Guns, Crime, and Freedom by Wayne LaPierre
reviewed by Bowen H. Greenwood
"Wayne LaPierre's book Guns, Crime, and Freedom has a good many flaws. But in
spite of them all, LaPierre has rendered a valuable service to the defenders of the
Second Amendment. The primary virtue of Guns is that it collects nearly all of the
arguments and evidence against gun control into one tidy volume, and makes them
easily accessible to all."
Guns, Gun Laws, and Liberty
by Lawrence W. Reed
"Evidence is strong, based on data emerging in the last couple of decades, that the
one strategy that offers the best hope of curtailing crime and the misuse of guns
is swift and strong punishment of violent offenders. It may seem strange to some
advocates of more gun-control laws that going after the guilty offers more promise
than going after the innocent, but that’s what the facts show."
Here Are Some Answers to Often Asked Questions of Anti-Gunners
by Massad Ayoob
"When your beliefs and values are challenged, you want ready answers. The following have
worked for me when debating the civil rights of gun owners in this country."
The Horror of Gun Control in Mumbai
by Benedict D. LaRosa
"The headlines in India and across the world should have read, “Terrorists and Gun
Control Claim More Victims.” Instead, the complicity of the various Indian
governments – national, state, and city – was ignored and their inability to protect
the victims of that tragic event was barely questioned. The truth is that, except for
a few policemen on the scene, all the victims were unarmed by public policy."
HOW THE REPEAL OF ALL GUN LAWS WILL FREE AMERICA
August 19, 2009
by John Longenecker
"Repeal all gun laws as the beginning of getting out from under bigger government and
away from dependency on our very own public servants."
Just Dial 911? The Myth of Police Protection
by Richard W. Stevens
"The drive to prohibit private firearms ownership highlights the statists’ goals
in a way everybody can understand. They aim to disarm ordinary nonviolent citizens,
even those who face high risk of criminal attack, and substitute police protection
in place of self-defense. Meanwhile the police will not be held liable to individual
citizens for failing to defend them."
Results of Gun Control:
Derek Bernard's Firearms Law List
July 23, 2003
by Derek Brenard
"What this means in practise is that every dictatorial/murderous regime is
able to import/export whatever it wants, since it is able to stamp the
papers in all the right places; while the groups struggling for freedom from
oppression, or simply trying to protect themselves from being slaughtered,
are denied access to guns."
The Seen and Unseen in Gun Control
by Sheldon Richman
"A world without any guns would not be safer than one in which lawful people were
free to own them. Without guns, bigger, stronger thugs would have an advantage over
smaller, weaker victims. Women, especially, would suffer. In that world, the unseen
would be the victims of fatal beatings and stabbings who would have remained alive
had they possessed firearms with which to defend themselves."
Self-Control, Not Gun Control
by Catherine Farmer
"To remove guns from law-abiding citizens presumes that guns are to blame for violent
crime, and shifts responsibility from the individual to an object. It has been said
before. It's worth repeating: guns don't kill people; people do."
The Seven Myths of Gun Control: Reclaiming the Truth About Guns, Crime, and the
Second Amendment by Richard Poe
reviewed by Tom Welch
"In The Seven Myths of Gun Control he identifies common fallacies used to
promote gun control and sets forth arguments to refute them."
Street Fighting Man
Doug Casey
"A free person should have the right to possess whatever he desires. End of story. And
only slaves, or those with a slave mentality, comply with no thought of resistance when
they’re told what they can or cannot own, especially if compliance means disarming
themselves."
They're Just Dying to Be Rescued
by Karen Selick
"Those who campaign for gun control always use the argument that their proposed
restrictions on the freedom of law-abiding citizens are worth it even if they
save “only one life.” By this reasoning, private gun ownership, with its proven
record of saving lives, is unquestionably worth it."
Toward a Universal Libertarian Theory of Gun (Weapon) Control
by Walter Block and Matthew Block
From a purely libertarian point of view this paper explains the circumstances
when it is legitimate to ban particular kinds of weapons.
The Tyranny of Gun Control edited by Jacob G. Hornberger and Richard M. Ebeling
reviewed by George C. Leef
"This is just a sampling of the useful anti-gun-control material in this book.
I only wish that there were more of it."
The Uplifters Try It Again
by H. L. Mencken
"The new law that it advocated, indeed, is one of the most absurd specimens of jackass
legislation ever heard of, even in this paradise of legislative donkeyism. Its single
and sole effect would be to exaggerate enormously all of the evils it proposes to put
down. It would not take pistols out of the hands of rogues and fools; it would simply
take them out of the hands of honest men. The gunman today has great advantages
everywhere. He has artillery in his pocket, and he may assume that, in the large cities,
at least two-thirds of his prospective victims are unarmed. But if the Nation’s proposed
law (or amendment) were passed and enforced, he could assume safely that all of them
were unarmed."
Don't Let Them Disarm You
July 18, 2009
by Chuck Baldwin
"The Billings double murder is the latest example of just how vulnerable we all are to
the violent tendencies of evil people. For this reason (and more), every American
should (1) resist any and all attempts by government to curtail or restrict our legal
right to keep and bear arms, and (2) purchase, practice with, and always keep our own
personal firearms handy. Furthermore, we should always live in a heightened "state of
alert" (even in our own homes), because both our lives and our liberty may depend on it."
Girls, Get Your Guns
November 16, 2005
by Wendy McElroy
"Some advocates will be pleasantly surprised to see that the feminization of gun
ownership has continued throughout the chaos; guns have become a "women's cause" conducted
as Women Against Gun Control claims, by "ladies of high caliber [sic]" Others will be
appalled."
Guns for Protection, and Other Private Sector Responses to the
Government's Failure to Control Crime
by Bruce L. Benson
"Privatization of protection should be encouraged rather than discouraged
through restrictions like gun controls."
Machiavelli Was Right
by Charley Reese
"Niccolò Machiavelli, who was a sort of Karl Rove of his day, though with more
integrity, said of the Swiss that they were "the most free and most armed people" of
Europe. Get it? The connection between arms and freedom?"
Media Bias About Guns
by John R. Lott, Jr.
"I often give talks to audiences explaining that research by me and others shows
that guns are used much more often to fend off crimes than to commit them. People
are very surprised to learn that survey data show that guns are used defensively
by private citizens in the U.S. anywhere from 1.5 to 3.4 million times a year.
A question I hear repeatedly is: 'If defensive gun use occurs so often, why haven’t
I ever heard of even one story?'"
More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws by John
R. Lott, Jr.
reviewed by Dave Kopel
"To the anti-gun movement, the statistics on crime deterrence are irrelevant. But
anyone with an interest in rational firearms policy ought to thank John Lott for
writing this excellent book."
Mr. Party’s Gun Bible
by Terence Gillespie
"I’ve just read Boston T. Party’s Gun Bible and it transformed my thoughts
and skills in the areas of liberty and self-defense more than any book I’ve read."
76 Reasons To Have a Gun
by Terence Gillespie
"Before you reach the end of your life perhaps my 76 reasons for having a gun will help
you decide whether this power tool should be in Your Optimal Toolkit:"
They Didn't Attack Switzerland
by Bill Walker
"The features of the Swiss system for keeping the peace are simple. They mind their
own business, and they have very strict gun control. By which they mean that every
Swiss male must have a gun, except for those who have to carry a mortar or missile
launcher. Females are not subject to universal military training, but if you go to
a Swiss rifle range, there are always girls blasting away too. After 9-11, the Swiss
told passengers to carry their bayonets onto their airliners . . . somewhat different
from the US response of panicked victim-disarmament. (You are aware that 99% of US
pilots are STILL disarmed?)"
UN vs. Guns
by John R. Lott, Jr.
"What about the massacre of civilians in Bosnia? Would that have been so easy if
the Bosnian people had been able to defend themselves? And what about the Jews in
the Warsaw ghetto during World War II? Wouldn't it have been better if they had
more guns to defend themselves?"
What Should We Do about Guns?
A speech by Sharon Harris
"I submit to you that not only are guns not evil, but that guns are a great benefit to
our society. That's a view that's not heard very often, but is one that all Americans
need to hear. That's why I want to talk to you about it today. In fact, what I'm about
to share with you could save your life or the lives of your loved ones."
When Guns Are Outlawed...Only Government Will Have Guns
by John Bowman
"I earnestly desire that everyone in the world becomes or remains a staunch advocate
of widespread, unregulated gun ownership. There are few, if any, paradigms one could
adopt to better ensure personal safety and peaceful pursuits. Such a paradigm would
mitigate crime, reduce warfare, and, by far the most important, provide the ultimate
backstop – when unalienable rights and Constitutions fail – against the most heinous
danger all inhabitants of the world face: democide."
Women on Target: Preparing women to defend Liberty
by Howard Nemerov
"The United Kingdom and Australia instituted gun bans in 1997. Between 1995 and 2006,
women in the United Kingdom suffered a 76.5% increase in rape; by 2007 Australian women
experienced a 29.9% increase. Meanwhile, rape decreased 31.7% in America.*
Today, women are raped twice as often in the UK as America, and Australian women are
raped three times as often. This is damning evidence that gun control places women at
greater risk. American women are hearing this message, and more and more are
arming themselves every day, not only to protect themselves and their families from harm,
but to ensure our government doesn’t enact laws which disenfranchise women.
In support of this effort, the National Rifle Association developed the Women on
Target (WOT) program to introduce women to shooting sports in a safe and fun manner."
Leaving the NRA
by Jacob Halbrooks
"In the magazine I had chosen, the American Guardian, I read with great interest
the articles about gun rights and political actions and accounts of people defending
themselves with firearms. Unfortunately, lacking from the NRA was a consistent foundation
of principle, and I ultimately came to view the NRA as a statist organization that is
unfriendly to libertarian principles."
Reading the Second Amendment
by Sheldon Richman
"Perhaps the deterioration of American education is illustrated by the high correlation
between the number of years a person has attended school and his inability to understand
the words “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” It is
more likely, though, that those who interpret the Second Amendment to preclude an
individual right to own guns are driven by their political agenda. Whichever the case,
they do themselves no credit when they tell us that a simple, elegant sentence means
the opposite of what it clearly says."
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
by Jacob Hornberger
"Arguably, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution should have been made first
in the Bill of Rights because without the right to keep and bear arms, such rights as
freedom of speech and freedom of the press would be treated as nothing more than
meaningless “privileges” bestowed and taken away by government officials at will."
The Second Amendment in the Light of American Republicanism
by Joseph R. Stromberg
"The gun-controllers, to put it another way, can’t see why Americans are so
reluctant to submit themselves unquestioningly to the benevolent rule of a
social-democratic welfare-warfare state of the sort in place in the happy and
peaceful nations of western Europe. In such a state things will be very
orderly—and there is absolutely nothing to fear because we will all have that
all-important right to trudge to the polls every so often to show (perhaps under
threat of fines) our acquiescence in whatever the politicians decide to do with
our lives, incomes, and property. No matter how detailed bureaucratic oversight
of people’s lives may become, they can always vote for a change in personnel—if not
about anything substantive. This happy scenario looks to a re-creation of the
Old Order in which priests and warriors rule over the economic producers who,
after all, need only do what they are told."
The security of a free state
by Aaron Russo
"Many of my friends like to say -- and I tend to agree with them
-- that the Second Amendment should have been the First Amendment.
It is upon the right to keep and bear arms that all our other
rights depend. A right that we're not able or allowed to defend
is no right at all." (3/31/04)
Carnage from the Air and the Washington Consensus
by Tom Engelhardt
"Let's start with the nature of modern war. The very phrase "collateral damage" should
be tossed onto the junk heap of history. For the last century, war has increasingly
targeted civilians. Between World War I and the 1990s, according to Richard M. Garfield
and Alfred I. Neugut in War and Public Health, civilian deaths as a percentage of
all deaths rose from 14% to 90%. These figures are obviously approximate at best, but the
trend line is clear. In a sense, in modern warfare, it's the military deaths that often
are the "collateral damage"; civilian deaths – "including women and children" – turn out
to be central to the project."
The Evil of the “Axis”
October 10, 2006
by Per Bylund
"Can we trust political power with weapons to destroy us and our earth? Can government
be trusted?"
Gun Rights: The Final Extent
by Jacob Halbrooks
"If your neighbor possessed a warhead, that would be fine."
In the Freelance Nuclear Age, Government Is a Liability
December 5, 2006
by Sheldon Richman
"Now more than ever we need creative solutions in the provision of real defense. Any
state has a monopoly on the defense of “its” territory and people; that’s one of its
defining characteristics. But that means this vital function is left to a bureaucracy,
with all the inefficiency, incompetence, and self-serving corruption it entails."
Military Precision versus Moral Precision
by Robert Higgs
"What are the odds that the damage wreaked by exploding 2000-pound JDAMs and other
powerful munitions, such as the 1000-pound warheads on the Tomahawk missiles, will not
touch the ordinary people of the city? Well, the odds are zero. Such powerful warheads,
which the U.S. forces are expending by the thousands, cause explosions whose effects
undoubtedly reach vast numbers of the city’s civilian inhabitants. To conclude otherwise,
one would be obliged to deny either the well-advertised power of the weapons themselves
or the axioms of geometry."
Nukes and the Second Amendment
by Mike Blessing
"NOW for the purposes of discussion, let's assume that my next-door neighbor actually
has a fully-functional 20-kiloton fission device in his garage."
Rights Without Exceptions
by Jeff Snyder
"Thus I would consider the question of whether the right to keep and bear arms
includes a right to keep or carry stinger missiles or nuclear or biological weapons
a question of the limits of the right, not of exceptions to the right. Historical
customs and practices may reveal that our forefathers understood the right to include
only such arms as are suitable to private and individual self-defense and the basic
weapons required for service in a militia, and not weapons whose overly powerful or
indiscriminate nature render them specialized weapons of mass destruction suitable
for use only in war. To use my terminology, cannons, tanks, stinger missiles, and the
like would be outside the ambit of the right, rather than exceptions to it."
The State as the Only Defense Against Nuclear War
by Roy Halliday
This paper draws out the implications of the argument that a state with nuclear
weapons is the only defense against other states with nuclear weapons.
U.S. Must Resign Itself to “Rogue” State Nukes
September 26, 2005
by Ivan Eland
"U.S. administrations, the American foreign policy establishment, conservative hawks and
arms control doves all wring their hands over new countries trying to develop nuclear
weapons, but none of them ever seem to realize that U.S. military interventions overseas
are creating powerful incentives for countries to acquire such weapons to gain some
respect from the superpower. Regrettably, in the long run, both Iran and North Korea will
probably be and remain nuclear powers, but it’s not too late to reduce the likelihood
that other nations will go down that path. If the United States meddles less into the
affairs of other nations, those countries will have less incentive to develop nuclear
weapons. Thus, U.S. nonproliferation policy should begin at home."
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This page was last updated on November 12, 2009.