Politics

In the Wake of Sandy Hook

Note: The Columbine massacre, which happened at the end of my senior year of college, is the first mass shooting that I remember. In the twenty-five years since, it seems undeniable to me that mass shootings of this type have increased in frequency and severity. While I believe the primary cause is not the guns themselves (guns have been been woven into American society since the beginning) it seems increasingly clear that we as a society cannot be entrusted with guns without more effective limits. I wrote this Facebook post in the wake of Sandy Hook to explore foundational principles that we would have to observe and incorporate into our thinking as we explore more effective gun control as a society. (DL, June 10, 2023).

In the wake of the terrible sadness of Sandy Hook, we need to reevaluate the place of guns in our society—specifically the place of the modern weapons that have done so much to increase the average person’s lethal potential.

This is a contribution to that reevaluation. It is a statement of principles that I believe to be true.

To my many friends who view increased restrictions on gun ownership as the best means to end the horror of mass gun murder in our land: Please take the time to examine the principles that follow and offer your comments on them. Reasoned, frank, and irenic discussion is the lifeblood of democracy. I hope for it here.

A Statement of Principles in Defense of the Private Ownership of Deadly Weapons

  1. It is every lawful person’s right to respond to imminent dire threats to their person with deadly force.
  2. It is every lawful person’s right to defend their friends, family, and fellow citizens against deadly threats, using deadly force if necessary.
  3. It is every lawful person’s right to defend their home from unlawful invasion with violent force—even deadly force.
  4. If a state of lawlessness arises, lawful persons have the right to work collectively to restore order, using even deadly force to secure the rights and liberties and to defend the lives and property of themselves, their loved ones, and their fellow citizens from unlawful threats.
  5. In the event of foreign invasion, lawful citizens have the right to resist the invader with deadly force.
  6. If unlawful tyranny arises to usurp the powers of legitimate constitutional authority, it is the right of lawful citizens to resist that unlawful authority with deadly force.
  7. It is every lawful person’s right to prepare and maintain a means for exercising legitimate deadly force should the need arise.
  8. In the commission of unlawful violence, invasion, theft, or rapine, a person forfeits any legitimate right to exercise deadly force and by reason of their unlawfulness may forfeit their right to thenceforth maintain a weapon of deadly force.
  9. A person who as a result of mental unsoundness is prone to unlawful violence forfeits the right to maintain a weapon of deadly force by reason of their mental unsoundness.
  10. One person’s rights are never forfeit on account of the misdeeds or forfeiture of another. Depriving one person of liberty on account of another is unjust and tyrannical.
  11. Government’s responsibility and primary role is to secure the rights and preserve the liberty of citizens.
  12. Securing the personal safety and the property of citizens is also an essential responsibility and role of government, and fulfilling this responsibility is a corollary to the primary responsibility of securing liberty, but it is not itself the primary responsibility. Securing life and property should not be done at the expense of liberty, and liberty is not to be traded for life and property.
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