Gun Rights

Overview

The American Founders understood that the right to keep and bear arms was essential for a free, democratic society.  Guns are essential for private citizens to protect themselves, their family, and their property from dangerous citizens, or more importantly, a tyrannical government.

Guns are private property, and should not be placed into a specific, regulated class.  Like any other type of property, guns can be used to harm another person.  Those people that use guns to damage someone else or their property should be punished to the full extent of the law, but they should not be subject to prior restraint. 

Opinions

Significantly, the Second Amendment refers explicitly to "the right of the people," not the rights of the states or the militia.  And the Bill of Rights is the section of our Constitution that deals  exclusively with individual liberties. That is why there has been an outpouring of legal scholarship -- some from prominent liberals -- that recognizes the Second Amendment as securing the right of each individual to keep and bear arms.

Robert Levy, The Cato Institute 

The Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms and does not specify any limitations on the definition of “arms.”

Dave Nalle, Republican Liberty Caucus

The private ownership and use of firearms or other weapons in a non-invasive way is fully legitimate.  Government regulation, licensing, and registration of guns should be abolished while property owners may have such rules over their domains. 

David Theroux, The Independent Institute

Guns are a kind of private property and should be accorded the same amount of respect that other forms of private property receive.  Gun ownership is an issue of the right to own property, not a question of Second Amendment protection.  What the Constitution may protect one day, may be confiscated another after the Constitution has been “amended.”

Carl Watner, The Voluntaryists

The Founding Fathers believed that the rights to keep and bear arms is the guardian of every other right.  Laws banning any particular type of gun or requiring gun registration violate the constitution and threaten liberty.

Congressman Ron Paul, (R-TX)

Guns, just as kitchen utensils, may be privately owned and used provided it’s done peacefully.  In some cases the law may get complicated, as with huge weapons that tend to pose a clear and present danger.

Tibor Machan, Chapman University

People should never be guilty of a crime simply because they own a gun. Using it or threatening to use it against any innocents should be the crime.

Lawrence W. Reed, Foundation for Economic Education