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Once upon a time, patriots who loved liberty, in other words, ordinary Americans, rose up with firearms against tyrants and threw them off these shores. Ever since, the story has inspired people all around the world. And the first thing the tyrants do is to round up all the guns, so that the government has a monopoly on the tools of violence. I'm really skeptical of the proposition that we are all safer, more free, and happier, when only people with badges have the guns. I think that invites tyranny. I don't think that anyone is safer when the basic means of self-defense that evens the playing field with criminals is taken away from peaceable citizens. I don't think it makes for a reduction in crime for bad people to know with reasonable surety that potential victims are unarmed.
I live in the last American jurisdiction that makes it always illegal for an ordinary citizen to go about armed, in fact it's a felony carrying 1-3 years in prison. Illinois. The other day, the Seventh Circuit declared the law unconstitutional and stayed the mandate for 180 days to give the legislature time to regulate our right to self defense. 180 days from now, I'll be one of the first in line for whatever permit may be required. Sanity finally comes to Illinois.
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Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice. . . Restraint in the pursuit of Justice is no virtue.
Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964
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