THE CLASSICAL LIBERAL

Leah Libresco at the Washington  Post shows us what a real dialogue on guns can be in America, she is not a fan of guns but yet she took the time to actually research the effects of gun control and instead of the usual push to "act" she points out things are not as clear cut as they might seem. If more people on both sides can look at this issue with an open mind and with an eye to the truth, not hyperbole, then maybe we can come together and find solutions to violence and gun crime that both promote public safety and respect the fundamental rights of citizens to defend themselves with the best available tools.  "By the time we published our project, I didn't believe in many of the interventions I'd heard politicians tout. I was still anti-gun, at least from the point of view of most gun owners, and I don't want a gun in my home, as I think the risk outweighs the benefits. But I can't endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate the...

Another horrible tragedy perpetrated by a madman for reasons as yet unknown. Whatever his motivation, the President’s characterization of the Las Vegas massacre as an act of “pure evil” is probably the most truthful thing he has said in months. Yet before the victims had even been given a proper burial activists, celebrities and politicians were already taking aim at the 2 nd  amendment and calling for more gun control. It is a sad testament to the state of our country that we cannot refrain from trying to score political points and insult one another for even one day after something like this occurs.  Some people even went so far as to imply that those who attended the country music festival were complicit in their own murders because they might have supported gun rights and voted for Republican candidates. Because of course everyone knows that listening to country music makes you a gun toting ignorant Republican. What is sadder still though, is that there are things we ...

As we have seen, standing armies create perverse incentives not only to engage in warfare, but also to permanently divert part of the productive capacity of a nation towards the perpetual preparation for war, leading to the rise and dominance of a military-industrial-complex. Further, the militarism and exceptionalism that arises from these circumstances erode at the foundations of liberty and the expediency of war-time powers become coveted objects sought after by all sorts of policy makers, leading to the militarization of more and more problems. This is what helps create the various “wars” on what are essentially societal problems such as the personal use of narcotics. While a well-regulated militia is by no means enough to really roll back the rampant militarism of the last half century, it is a very strong step in the right direction. A well-regulated militia, as conceived herein, entails the coming together of the body-politic, armed with appropriate weaponry, trained in ...

"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".   Few words written in the constitution have caused such controversy and bitter disagreement as the text of the second amendment. The controversy has grown more contentious in light of the growth in firearms related violence which has gripped the country over the past half century, especially when we consider such violence punctuated by barbarous acts of madmen looking to gain infamy and release themselves from their pain through the destruction of the innocent.   Columbine, Aurora, Sandy Hook, these places can no longer be mentioned without the images of lost hope and lost lives burning indelibly within our minds. They speak to us of a humanity cast asunder in the gratification of pure evil within the souls of paranoid, forgotten men. Yet it is not so much the internal constitution of those villainous animals that concer...