What is the libertarian position on gun control?
Gun control advocates may have the best of intentions, but in actual practice gun control laws just don’t work. They don’t discourage crime or homicide or suicide. Sw itzerland, where every home has a weapon, has one of the lowest rates of death and suicide anywhere. On the other hand, Japan, where guns are strictly controlled, has a dismal suicide rate producing an overall violent death rate higher than the US. When Florida made it easy for private citizens to get concealed weapon permits, all categories of crime dropped. One terrible thing about gun control laws — especially controls on handguns — is that they deny the poor an important means of self defense. A gun is an equalizer; most of us don’t need one but there are people out there who live in really bad neighborhoods. There are people whose lives have been threatened. People who are too old or frail or small to defend themselves without a weapon. People who the police either won’t or can’t help. I hope that you personally ne
