Gun Control

Gun Control Doesn’t Lower Crime (Or Make Us Safer)

by Scott McPherson April 10, 2018

The United Kingdom has historically enjoyed a low crime and murder rate, and has very strict gun laws. This fact has regularly been exploited by anti-gun politicians and cultural elites on both sides of the Atlantic to push the dangerous lie that gun control is necessary in the fight against crime and violence. But when the UK's crime rate – ...

If You Really Want to Save Lives, Take Aim at Government Violence

by John W. Whitehead March 28, 2018

“It is often the case that police shootings, incidents where law enforcement officers pull the trigger on civilians, are left out of the conversation on gun violence. But a police officer shooting a civilian counts as gun violence. Every time an officer uses a gun against an innocent or an unarmed person contributes to the culture ...

The “Guns Equal Crime” Mantra Doesn’t Hold Water

by Scott McPherson March 9, 2018

Ask any devoted gun-hater and he'll tell you it's just “common sense” that guns in the hands of private citizens will only lead to more crime. The high homicide rate in the United States (relative to other Western industrialized societies) and its high gun-ownership rate are cited without question as evidence for this position. The trouble is, a more thorough ...

It Is Our Right to Have “Weapons of War”

by Scott McPherson February 21, 2018

The recent tragic mass shooting at a Florida high school has the usual suspects coming out in favor of gun control. Once more it is the AR-15 rifle – used by the killer to take 17 lives – that has come under fire. What kind of society, we're lectured, allows such weapons in civilian hands? Speaking on CNN on ...

Gun Control is Elitist and Wrong

by Scott McPherson November 20, 2017

At its root, gun control is an elitist policy. One group of people decides that by virtue of birth, social status, economic status, or political persuasion, they should control the ownership of firearms. The framers of our Constitution explicitly rejected that notion, lauding instead the value of an armed populace. To protect the right to keep and bear arms, ...

Lessons from the Latest Texas Massacre

by Benedict D. LaRosa November 8, 2017

On Sunday morning, November 5, 2017, another mass shooting occurred, this time during services at the First Baptist Church in the small, rural community of Sutherland Springs, Texas, not far from San Antonio. The shooter, 26-year-old Devin P. Kelley, appears to have had a grievance against his in-laws who belonged to the church and perhaps were expected to be in ...

Gun Control Is a Losing Issue for Democrats – And They Know It

by Scott McPherson October 31, 2017

The high water mark for gun control in the United States was the so-called, but misnamed, “Assault Weapon Ban,” which was passed through Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 1994. A CNN/USA/Gallup poll the year before found that 77 percent of Americans supported the ban. The law didn't ban “assault weapons,” but merely the importation of certain ...

The Libertarian Angle: Gun Rights and the Second Amendment

by Future of Freedom Foundation March 7, 2017

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling discuss gun rights. Go to the podcast.

The Easter Rising and the Anglo-Irish War: 1916–1921

by Scott McPherson April 25, 2016

In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. — from the Proclamation of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic, April 1916 As Great Britain entered the ...

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms as a Check on Tyrants

by Scott McPherson February 1, 2016

Whatever makes kings can unmake them. — Isabel Paterson, The God of the Machine Service in the militia, for purposes of national defense, suppression of rebellion, and answering the “hue and cry,” was widely understood as an ancient right and duty of the free citizen. By securing to individual citizens “their private arms,” the Framers of the Constitution were also ...

Lesson of the Paris Massacre

by Benedict D. LaRosa November 17, 2015

Once again, free fire zones have turned into shooting galleries, this time in Paris.  On November 13, 2015, Islamic militants struck six sites in Paris almost simultaneously killing 129 people, and injuring some 350 more with bullets and explosives.  (These figures may change as better estimates become available.)  Some were killed and wounded in drive-by shootings as they sat ...

The Libertarian Angle: Gun Control and the Holocaust (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation October 27, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard M. Ebeling discuss the hot topics of the day. This week, Jacob and Richard discuss how arms may have aided the Jews during World War II. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.