The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

"The right to buy weapons is the right to be free" -- The sign on the door of every Weapons Shop. A choice quote from A. E. van Vogt's (1914-2000) classic science fiction piece "The Weapons Shop." Among many other places, you can find it in Adventures in Time and Space, ed. by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis MaComas.

How to be free in one easy lesson, a nice rant that I have the ranters permission to quote.

Organizations

• Citizen's Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
• Concealedcarry.org "Concealed Carry, Inc. is dedicated to passing a Conceal Carry law in the 19 states that do not have one. We are starting with Illinois." Bonzai! (A short note on carrying in Illinois).
• Law Enforcement for the Preservation of the Second Ammendment
• Grass Roots South Carolina
• Law Abiding Unregesisterd Firearms Association. Canadian.

People

• Stephen Halbrook, author and lawyer.
• Clayton Cramer, author and scholar.
• Suzanna Gratia-Hupp lost her parents at the Luby's Resturant incident because she obeyed the law and left her gun in the car. She's a Texas state rep. now, and by all reports a very eloquent proponent of RKBA.
• An interview with John Lott in Reason magazine.
• Don B. Kates attorney.
• Mossad Ayoob, teacher. Ayoob is a cop who's been writing and teaching on the application of lethal force for a number of years. Among many others he wrote In the Gravest Extreme.

Books and articles

• RKBA.org
• Unintended Consequences by John Ross.
• The Mitzvah by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith. How does a mind change?
• A Nation of Cowards by Jeffrey R. Snyder. Why do they say we must surrender to the predators and thugs? I was sick and tired of that in grade school. Nation of Cowards, with other essarys on the ethics of gun control, is now a book.
• H. L. Mencken on gun control, from 1925. Some things don't change.
• Some people seem to have trouble parsing the Second Ammendment. A Gramatical Analysis of the Second Ammendment:

  [Schulman:] "(3) Is the right of the people to keep and bear arms conditioned upon whether or not a well regulated militia, is, in fact necessary to the security of a free State, and if that condition is not existing, is the statement 'the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed' null and void?"

  [Copperud:] "(3) No such condition is expressed or implied. The right to keep and bear arms is not said by the amendment to depend on the existence of a militia. No condition is stated or implied as to the relation of the right to keep and bear arms and to the necessity of a well-regulated militia as a requisite to the security of a free state. The right to keep and bear arms is deemed unconditional by the entire sentence."

• The dictionary definition of infringe
• The Embarassing Second Ammendment
• Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws: Contrasting Private and Public Law Enforcement by John Lott, Jr. and William Landes, which I first saw the very same day as the Littleton HS shoot-em-up. You can't get any more timely than that.

Abstract: Few events obtain the same instant worldwide news coverage as multiple victim public shootings. These crimes allow us to study the alternative methods used to kill a large number of people (e.g.,shootings versus bombings), marginal deterrence and the severity of the crime, substitutability of penalties, private versus public methods of deterrence and incapacitation, and whether attacks produce "copycats." Yet, economists have not studied this phenomenon. Our results are surprising and dramatic. While arrest or conviction rates and the death penalty reduce "normal" murder rates, our results find that the only policy factor to influence multiple victim public shootings is the passage of concealed handgun laws. We explain why public shootings are more sensitive than other violent crimes to concealed handguns, why the laws reduce both the number of shootings as well as their severity, and why other penalties like executions have differential deterrent effects depending upon the type of murder.

Media

• If you click only one link on this page, click this one: Oleg Volk's RKBA site. Get a color printer -- you will want to print some of these off. Some of the more interesting gun images on my site are from here.
• Citizens of America aiming to do "extremely aggressive advertising (TV, print, radio, outdoor, and guerilla), with a single purpose: to destroy those who are tampering with 2nd Amendment freedom. This campaign will not be apologetic, it will not play fair, it will hit below the belt whenever the opportunity presents itself, it will not take prisoners." Drive them into the sea.
• The Stentorian's free downloadable pro gun propaganda leaflets "The National Rifle Association is too nice when it comes to dealing with antigun politicians and activists. Tentative half-measures and rational discourse do not work when one is dealing with demagogues and propagandists."
• Guntruths.com's free downloadable posters.

Lies, Damned lies and Statistics

• Bureau of Justice Statistics Alphabetical Listing. Want numbers? we got numbers.
• National Safety Council more numbers
• The CDC's Injury Mortality Reports

• CCW abuse. In "may issue" jurisdictions (where the issuing of the license is at the discression of (usually) some local police official, abuses are common. Friend of Da Mayor, contribute to somebodies reelection, etc., you get a license. This site documents this.
• If you can do it in Kentucky, can you do it in Minnesota? Packing.org
• Florida will license out of staters for CCW, even if they've never been there.

Vendors

• Concealed Carry Clothiers the mechanics of doing it and looking good.
• AKJ Concealco
• Smartcarry deep concealment holsters.
• Gungear
• Thunderwear (not lynx friendly)
• Polite Society dot com more deep concealment holsters
• Galco
• Jagwear
• KG Products
• Toler's Leather Depot

Women and RKBA --making up for the downside to sexual dimorphism.

• The Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane, by Martha Canary. From the Gutenburg Project.
• Lady Derringer, on American Derringer's website. "Women in the gun industry are a rare find. I have to admit that I was once "Anti-Gun". When I was attacked at the age of 25, I realized that protection of some kind was necessary, though I still was not convinced that it was guns. I had a fear of guns." Now she makes derringers and the astonishlingly expensive Semmerling .45.
• Women Against Gun Control "ladies of high caliber"

• Guns Empower Women at Keepandbeararms.org"I now firmly believe that many people, especially women, become victims because they avoid (unconsciously) taking responsibility for their protection, which comes in many forms, not just guns. I have a sister who has 9 police reports for crimes committed against her and yet she continues to dye her brown hair blonde and act like the stereotypical blonde. She has become an easy target. When I have my gun on, I carry myself differently, I am more alert and more confident. Predators can smell this and stay away from me. Carrying a gun is an extra layer of protection I have added to the many other tools I employ."
• Listen to the Women an essay. "men are strategically oriented and women tactical: male gunfolk typically focus on history, the Constitution, the significance of the Second Amendment in maintaining individual liberty, social democracy, and Western civilization; females tend to focus on protecting themselves from mutants lurking at the edges of that civilization. "
• Womens Firearm Network "This web site is dedicated to making firearms and self-defense info available to women everywhere. We feature info on guns, rifles, handguns, shotguns, hunting, self-defense and more. "
• Woman's Voice for the Second Amendment on GOAs page
• Suzanna Gratia-Hupp
• Gun Controllers Hate Women by "Emily X", rape victim.
• The Equalizer "Col. Colt's revolver earned the nineteenth-century nickname "the equalizer" for good reason. As a weapon of self-defense, it ended the age of brawn and put clerks and school-teachers on a par with bruisers for the first time since ... well, ever."
• Liz Michael on the Million Mom March. "The so-called "Million Mom March" represents a clear and present danger to every woman in this nation, especially every teenage girl in this nation. Every woman participating in this march is particpating in an act that may very well lead to her own death, assault, or rape, as well as the death, assault or rape of any woman or young girl in her family. Every individual participating in this march or financing this march is effectively sponsoring a future criminal assault on me and people I love, and I hold them as responsible as the criminal himself."
• Women, Firearms and Self-defense (a links page)
• AWARE Arming Women Against Rape and Endangerment,
• The Second Amendment Sisters
• Paxton Quigley's book Armed and Female
• Tactical Ladys Home Page
• Women and Guns a periodical publication of the Second Amendment Foundation. On line editorials.
• The --ahem!-- gundykes mailing list at yahoo.
• Mothers Arms.

Non RKBA Women's self defense sites -- martial arts and the like.

• Safety Tips for Women
• Women Self Defense martial arts, lots of links

Urban Legends of the Gun Culture

• Bogus gun control quotes. Gun nut urban legends -- some of the best, most over-the-top totalitarian gun grabber quotes are, alas, bogus
• as are some of the best quotes from the Founding Fathers.
• Gun Nut Urban Legends and Questionable Quotes
• Do not try to tell me about the General, the female reporter and the Boy Scout troop training with rifles. I've seen it in many different places, with different details. It's too good to be true. Until someone can play me a tape of the incident, I say it's an Urban Legend.

Gunsandcrime.org

Eugene Volokh's gunscholar.org, "The Journalist's Guide to Gun Policy Scholars and Second Amendment Scholars"

RKBA Web Ring get 'em all !

U.S. vs. Emerson read it. This one might make it to the Supreme Court.

The Article the NRA refused to publish. On jury nullification.

Guns and Civilization: an Economist's Viewpoint

The Time magazine gun poll. This thing's been up since June 1998 (now closed, but the results are still visible). They reset the poll a few times, but the overwhelmingly (>90%) pro gun results kept coming back. These results are typical results for gun issue related polls run on the Internet.

The False Promise of Gun Control "The root cause of crime is that for certain people, predation is a rational occupational choice."

"We license cars and drivers. We should license guns and their owners too." That's a rhetorical point. If guns really were treated like cars it would be an improvement over the way things are now. Hint: in how many states (and foreign countries) is your drivers license valid?

(Funny)Someone elses take on "guns like cars"

KeepAndBearArms.com

The Tao of Gun a New Age (flake) perspective on gun control. (Sorry, I have a hard time taking anything New Age seriously. It's always struck me as a feel-good syncretistic mush.)

Direct Action. RKBA activism in Maryland. Win cool toys.

Politically Corrected Glossary of Gun Terms use the language. Example: Magazines over 10 round capacity aren't "high capacity", they're "full capacity".

Sportsman's Committee for Political Education

RKBA Under Attack another personal page.

CPHV (dot com) and Handguncontrol (not net).

Get your GUN OWNER$ stamp.

Sam Kersh's Pro RKBA site

Directedfire.com wants you to vote.

Oh, yeah, and Front Sight is giving away a Free submachinegun course

Gun Grabbers got too big so I moved it here

Metal & Wood. Don't mess with people's cherished symbols.

Mad Prophet Parody Alert! Gun Free Camps!

More from the Mad Prophet: Time to Decide, and Reading the Second Amendment