Academic

DOWNLOAD IT WHILE IT?S HOT: The Right to Armed Self-Defense in the Light of Law Enforcement Abdicati?

By David Bernstein

DOWNLOAD IT WHILE IT’S HOT: The Right to Armed Self-Defense in the Light of Law Enforcement Abdication.

This is my contribution to the Scalia Law School’s Liberty and Law Center’s series of working papers on the Second Amendment. It’s forthcoming in the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy.

The article notes that gun control advocates argue that to the extent the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms was meant to ensure people can defend themselves, that concern is anachronistic in modern times when we have professional police. I then argue that this claim is undermined by what happened in cities across the country this past Summer, when police were given stand-down orders by mayors and public safety chiefs, mostly for political reasons, allowing rioters and looters carte blanche to destroy significant swathes of urban America. Finally, I give examples of individuals and groups defending themselves and their property with firearms in the face of police abdication.

Among other contributions that the article makes, people who should know have told me that the article has by far the most detailed and extensive account of stand-down orders, police abdication, and attendant violence they have yet seen. I also point out that progressives who have taken up the “defund the police” mantra are in no position to argue that the police will protect us if people are not allowed to own guns. So what are you waiting for?

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on October 04, 2020 (boomark / email).