How does the right to own a gun fit in with the general program for liberty? I discussed the matter September 10 at an event hosted by the Evergreen Tea Party.
I really enjoyed talking with members of the group; around 40 people attended.
Some of the material I covered I also wrote about in a first and second article for TOS blog. I also referenced several other articles.
See the Cato report, “Tough Targets,” concerning defensive gun use.
I also quoted from the Christian Science Monitor:
In the past 20 years . . . the murder rate in the United States has dropped by almost half, from 9.8 per 100,000 people in 1991 to 5.0 in 2009. Meanwhile, robberies were down 10 percent in 2010 from the year before and 8 percent in 2009.
ABC carries one of the many stories on the fast pace of gun sales.
Gallup reports:
Forty-seven percent of American adults currently report that they have a gun in their home or elsewhere on their property. This is up from 41% a year ago and is the highest Gallup has recorded since 1993. . . .
Finally, NPR reports:
The Los Angeles riots stunned the nation in 1992, claiming more than 50 lives in that city. As the unrest approached Koreatown, store owner Kee Whan Ha mobilized his fellow business owners to arm themselves and defend their property.
Check out the entire talk for these points in context.