This is a collection of files related to liberty, the right to bear arms, and the like. It contains mostly ancient philosophy rather than fast breaking news. The issues discussed here have been discussed for centuries or millennia, and the newest facts and newest arguments on these issues are mostly few decades old
Collected, edited, and sometimes written by jamesd@echeque.com
Some other sites relevant to liberty
“[...] it is the right of anybody and everybody – of any one man, or set of men, no less than another – to repel injustice, and compel justice, for themselves, and for all who may be wronged, [...]”
“If anyone maintain that men ought to be compelled by fire and sword to profess certain doctrines [...] it cannot be doubted indeed but such a one is desirous to have a numerous assembly joined in the same profession with himself; but that he principally intends by those means to compose a truly Christian Church is altogether incredible.”
Sir B. Brodie, after observing that man is a social animal (Psychological Inquiries, 1854, p. 192), asks the pregnant question, “Ought not this to settle the disputed question as to the existence of a moral sense?” Similar ideas have probably occurred to many persons, as they did long ago to Marcus Aurelius.
“What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.
Each of us has a natural right [...] to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. [...]
[...] Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force – for the same reason – cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.”
we must assent to a maxim which will make the hair of protectionists stand on end -To break, to spoil, to waste, is not to encourage national labor; nor, more briefly, “destruction is not profit.”