Citizens Must Be Able to Defend Their Property

From David Almasi:

Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the first major case dealing with the 2nd Amendment right for citizens to own a firearm in almost 70 years. Wednesday, readers of the Examiner newspaper chain were able to read Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli’s comments on the case and gun rights in general.

Wrote Deneen, in part:

…Besides violating the Second Amendment, D.C.’s gun ban is a violation of the fundamental rationale of law.

In “The Law,” noted political theorist Frederic Bastiat wrote: “It is evident, then, that the proper purpose of law is to use the power of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunder instead of to work.

All the measures of the law should protect property and punish plunder.” [But] D.C. promotes the opposite, effectively protecting the plunderer and punishing the property owner.

Looters, for example, know it’s easier to steal another man’s property than to earn their own.

When government can’t perform a basic function like protection, it’s naturally up to the citizens to defend their property.

The duty becomes harder when the property owner is hobbled by things like Washington’s ban on gun ownership.

To read the Examiner piece, click here. To read all of Deneen’s commentary, click here. Project 21’s press release on Tuesday’s arguments can be found here.

To contact author David Almasi directly, write him at [email protected]


The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today’s public policy problems. We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century.