The Price of Liberty

Libertarian Commentary on The News 27 July - 02 August
By Nathan A. Barton © 2009

A very short set of commentaries this week, with my apologies.

Our Right to Self-Defense
Florida: 82-year-old kills robber in home
Panama City (FL) News Herald
Octavious Barnes died Sunday still clutching the $1,100 he took from an 82-year-old bar owner before he was shot. Now, three Blountstown women accused of helping Barnes, 24, face murder charges in connection to his death. ... Jessica Nicole Long, 19; Heather Marie Ammons, 22; and Mandy Allen, 43, planned and aided Barnes in the robbery of 82-year-old Bradley Harvil, owner and operator of the Slip N’ Slide bar, Shuler said.On Sunday, authorities said Barnes broke into Harvil’s house, which is connected to the bar, and demanded money. Shuler said Barnes was waving a black pistol and assaulted Harvil with a shocking device used to debilitate people with heart conditions. Harvil gave Barnes about $1,100, but then a second struggle ensued, authorities said. Harvil was knocked over and a TV set fell on top of him, but Harvil was able to reach his own gun, a .357 magnum. He fired twice, hitting Barnes once in the chest and a second time in the eye. The second shot killed Barnes, Shuler said. Only later was it learned Barnes had robbed Harvil using a toy pistol made to look like a real weapon. “He had blackened the gun with a magic marker,” Shuler said.

Mr. Harvil will be lucky if this murderous thug's relatives don't sue him for killing the robber.

Mama's Note: In Chicago or NYC, maybe... but they have a somewhat healthier attitude toward these thugs in Florida.
(Read the rest here)

Out On A Limb
by The Hunter

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and disagree quite publicly with my esteemed editor. Freedom is like that sometimes. In today's comments on the defeat of the Thune amendment, which would have required any state's concealed carry license to be honored by every other state with a CCW system, MamaLiberty opined that defeat of this measure was a good thing. I'll trust her to link back to the note so you can follow her reasoning.

Now, having both been a long time holder of such a state license, and more importantly having been semi-unsuccessfully prosecuted for ignoring the restrictions on my "unalienable rights", I have a pretty firm opinion about this issue. Mama is absolutely right, we don't need no stinkin' piece of paper (or laminated card, whatever) to exercise our fundamental right to self-defense. (Read the rest here)
[Includes editor's note]

Another Open Carry Day
By Susan Callaway, Editor

We were about 90% finished shopping and I was checking my list when I looked up to see that Jubal was suddenly - and literally - surrounded by three unidentified WalMart employees. He said they started with the usual, "you can't have that gun in here" stuff, and he told them that open carry in South Dakota was perfectly legal. Then, of course, they trotted out the old, "customers are uncomfortable" nonsense. I loved Jubal's response: "That's their problem."

I asked them if we were harming or threatening anyone, and of course they said, "Oh no!" But somehow they seemed to think that some unnamed and probably non-existent "uncomfortable" customer was the only important factor and WE should leave because of it.

Jubal and I decided to check out, then we stopped at the "Customer Service" and asked to see the manager. An assistant manager was in the store, and he came out right away to speak to us. He said he had called the police, but after they had determined no shots were being fired and we were causing no problems, he was told that open carry was legal in SD and, I guess, the conversation ended there. No police were dispatched. (Read the rest here)

Cover-Up: No Cause for Worry at Florida Abuse Shelters
Carey Roberts

The nation’s abuse shelters are bedeviled by an epidemic of violence, illicit drug use, shoddy financial procedures, ill-trained staff, and more. Last year I wrote a series of columns detailing widespread child abuse, misuse of public monies, and lack of public accountability at Florida domestic violence shelters. Recently the Florida Department of Children and Families released the results of two investigations that confirmed my earlier reports.

One such shelter is Harbor House, located in Orlando. Before delving into the findings of the probe, I’ll excerpt the message I received last year from a distraught Caucasian woman whom I’ll call Mrs. R:

“I went to a shelter in Orlando, Fl. Orange County called Harbor House back in 1990…There were women there who were there to get welfare benefits only. One woman stole quite a bit of cash from me.” (Read the rest here)

Our Right To Defend Ourselves
RKBA Resources

National Gun Rights Examiner
LA gun bust raises questions
by David Codrea

What this means is, somebody didn't just saunter into a gun store or gun show and pick these up or make a "straw purchase". And any "legal" registered owner would be suicidal to illegally sell his registered guns, as they would be so easy to trace back to him.

So that leaves us two options as I see it:

Either the suspects are the legal registered owners ( not bloody likely in California for machine guns, and the "Streetsweeper" is specifically named in the Roberti-Roos list), or they got their guns from...

Who? And might it be fair to ask if there's any chance some of those weapons are coming back north across the border...?
(Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

Check out the latest from other Gun Rights Examiners

Atlanta: Ed Stone

Austin: Howard Nemerov

Boston: Ron Bokleman

Charlotte: Paul Valone

Chicago: Don Gwinn

Cleveland: Daniel White

DC: Mike Stollenwerk

Denver: Dan Bidstrup

Los Angeles: John Longenecker

Minneapolis: John Pierce

National: David Codrea

Seattle: Dave Workman

St. Louis: Kurt Hofmann

Wisconsin: Gene German

National Self Defense Examiner
Topeka employee fends off robbers with his handgun
By Eric Puryear

Once again, we have a defensive gun use that resulted in no deaths or injuries. Those opposed to self defense would call this a self defense failure because the employee didn’t manage to shoot the robber, however shooting the robber is not really the goal. Instead, when using a gun for self defense, the goal is to put an end to the threat posed by the criminal. Shooting the criminal is certainly a very effective way of ending the threat, as a dead or sufficiently injured criminal is incapable of continuing to attack innocent people. However firing at criminal, even if one misses, will often accomplish the same goal, since a criminal who is being shot at will often duck or flee, preventing them from harming their victims. Here, the criminals fled empty-handed, leaving behind valuable evidence that may allow the police to find them, and no innocent people were harmed. That is what I call a successful self defense gun use. (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

External Articles
Praetorian presumptions
by William Norman Grigg

“Here’s how it breaks down from the statist perspective: When civilians carry firearms because they don’t know who the bad guys are, we’re being pathologically insecure; when police not only carry them but routinely use them to make others submit to their will without reasonable cause, they’re merely exercising a professional prerogative. As things presently stand, any reaction to police other than immediate, unconditional submission is treated as a threat to ‘officer safety’ and grounds for arrest or the exercise of lethal force. ‘The rule is, if a police officer stops you in a car or on the street, he’s the captain of the ship, and whatever he says goes,’ insists Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police. ‘If you’ve got something to address, do it later. Do what he says, or else only bad things can happen.’ Do what he says, or else only bad things can happen. Isn’t that the essence of any illicit demand made by a criminal or terrorist?” (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner
Why 'anarchy' is superior to statism
By Kent McManigal

Only anarchists can exist in society without feeling a compulsion to know everyone's business and control it. I can pass people on the street, and whether they are a Nazi, a Republican, or a Communist, it doesn't matter to me as long as they do not attack me or anyone else while I am around. They can have absolutely disgusting authoritarian personal views and "morals", but it doesn't matter as long as they do not act upon them. As an anarchist I understand that the lives of others are none of my business unless they choose to make itmy businessby initiating force.

Therefore, I do not "need" government to control other people. That would require a police escort for each of us, and while it seems this is where things are headed, it is not a good development, nor will it be successful at ending "crime". (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

Anchorage Libertarian Examiner
Who knows about Xeer?
By Kevin Wilmeth

Today, I ran across an interesting tidbit I hadn't been aware of before, and thought I would put out an open question for discussion on it. (If you can believe it, another oblique reference to it came out in a completely separate conversation over at Kent McManigal's Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner page, just a few hours later. Weird.)

The topic is Xeer, a legal system found in Somalia that may be of considerable interest to libertarian-minded people. I don't yet know much about it myself, and although Wikipedia has an interesting and reasonably detailed article about the system, it seems prudent to follow up and see what others may know. I'd like this article to be the entry point for as much dialogue as may be appropriate about it (and you can certainly insert whatever joke you like here, about the sound of one hand clapping, etc.); depending on how it goes, I may proceed from there. (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

Dallas Libertarian Examiner
Boss Barack, Everything-In-Chief
By Garry Reed

Most people in the United States probably thought they had elected a President on November 4, 2008. But what we apparently ended up with is a King of America, Emperor of the World and God of the Universe. And now we can add the title Adjudicator of All Things Public and Private.

This is because The Man, not content with being limited to head of the executive branch of government, Commander-In-Chief of the military, and the guy who gets to spend the last days of his lame duck term pardoning all of his cronies convicted of corruption crimes, wants to poke his nosey parker proboscis into every tiny detail of civil society as well, whether it's waging a war of words with Limbaugh, firing the head of a company, or calling a local law-enforcer stupid. (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

Features From The Last Issue

Obama’s Betrayal of the Working-Class Male
ByCarey Roberts

Our Right To Defend Ourselves
RKBA Resources

National Gun Rights Examiner
Are those against nationwide concealed carry for states' rights?
by David Codrea

External Articles
There ain't no such thing as a right to health care
by F. Paul Wilson

Politicizing Crime
by Daniel Coleman

Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner
Examining the 'social contract'
By Kent McManigal

Anchorage Libertarian Examiner
Non-aggression 101
By Kevin Wilmeth

Dallas Libertarian Examiner
ASBOs for America
By Garry Reed

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