Freedom Daily Archive

Packing Heat, Part 3

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 I confess that walking around armed for the first time felt strange. I was self-conscious, as though everyone knew I was carrying. Of course, no one knew. There are many ways to conceal a handgun on one’s person, thanks to the imaginative entrepreneurs who have deftly responded to the expanded ...

Political Plundering of Property Owners

by James Bovard November 1, 2002

For the first 175 years of the American republic, it was clearly recognized that government should not casually seize people’s property and give it to other people for their private use. The Supreme Court ruled in 1937 that “one person’s property may not be taken for the benefit of another private person ...

Some Reflections on the Right to Bear Arms, Part 2

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 Many have been surprised by the lack of resistance by the European Jews who were killed by the millions in the Nazi concentration and death camps during the Second World War. For the most part, with a seemingly peculiar fatalism, they calmly went to their deaths with bullets to the back of the head ...

Can Gun Control Reduce Crime? Part 2

by Benedict D. LaRosa November 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 What about the experience of other countries? In 1997, just 12 months after a new gun law went into effect in Australia, homicides jumped 3.2 percent, armed robberies 44 percent, and assaults 8.6 percent. In the state of Victoria, homicides went up 300 percent. Before the law was passed, statistics showed a steady decrease ...

Book Review: Economics for Real People

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2002

Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School by Gene Callahan (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2002); 349 pages; $19.95. Back in 1932 an economist named Broadus Mitchell wrote an introductory principles textbook entitled A Preface to Economics. When he came to the discussion of supply and demand, he stated, “I hate graphs, anyhow. They are the only pictures economics books ...

Economic Liberty and the Constitution, Part 5

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |  Table of Contents In the Slaughterhouse Cases (1872), the U.S. Supreme Court, ...

Capitalism, Scandal, and the Government

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2002

Every few years voices are heard heralding and warning of a “crisis of capitalism.” The 20th century saw an unending series of such voices of doom that the free market had shown its injustice towards and exploitation of the ordinary working man or that free enterprise fostered ’merchants of death” who dragged ...

Packing Heat, Part 2

by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 As I described last month, Jeffrey Snyder’s path-breaking article, “A Nation of Cowards” (The Public Interest, Fall 1993), transformed guns and gun control from abstract philosophical and policy issues into a personal moral issue. We cannot — morally or existentially — truly delegate our right and responsibility to ...

The Folly of Protecting Teens from Work

by James Bovard October 1, 2002

Protecting teenagers from work is one of the worst things you can do to kids. Some child-labor groups are campaigning to impose new restrictions on freedom of contract. While some prohibitionists might have good intentions, pervasive restrictions on youth labor would be a menace both to kids and to society. The Associated Press reported that 73 teens were killed on ...

Can Gun Control Reduce Crime? Part 1

by Benedict D. LaRosa October 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 In the wake of the shootings at Columbine High School in April 1999 and other schools across the country, there has been a chorus calling for more gun-control measures to prevent similar incidents and to control crime in general. Setting aside the obvious emotional response that such tragedies always engender, is it realistic to ...

Some Reflections on the Second Amendment, Part 1

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 For millions of Americans the Second Amendment and its guarantee of the right of the individual to bear arms appears irrelevant and practically anachronistic. It seems a throwback to those earlier days of the Wild West, when many men, far from the law and order provided by the town sheriff and circuit judge, had ...

Book Review: Should We Have Faith in Central Banks?

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2002

Should We Have Faith in Central Banks? by Otmar Issing (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 2002); 53 pages; $12. One of the momentous events of the new century has been the establishment of a single, common currency for many of the member nations of the European Union. The German mark, the French franc, the Austrian schilling, the Italian lira, the Irish ...