Recommended Reading: Aiming For Liberty by David Kopel

There are a lot of folks who don't trust the People. “The People” are seen as an aimless mass, wandering helplessly without the guidance of an enlightened leadership class. These folks don't have much use for the idea of individual liberty.

That's why Dave Kopel's new book Aiming for Liberty is so important.

Kopel is unlikely to be unfamiliar to anyone stumbling on this little corner of Al Gore's Intarwebz, and this book in fact collects some of his writings together into a wide ranging exploration of individual liberty and its enemies. He starts with the Heller decision, handed down by the Supreme Court in 2008, but expands the discussion to give added depth, both historical (the racist roots of gun control) and modern (the utter failure of Canada's Gun Registry and the shameful – no other word will do – and repeated disarming of helpless populations, to be butchered by tyrants).

This book is simply hair raising, in its detailed and repeated examples of people being crushed by the jack boot, with the full connivance of what we can call (for lack of a better term) the Global Intellectual Elite. I'd forgotten – put out of my mind, really – the UN's role at Srebrenica, where a population was lured into a so called "safe haven", and then massacred under the eyes of UN "Peace keepers":

By the summer of 1995, the population of Srebrenica, a designated safe area, had swelled with refugees. By the time of the massacre, it was an island of Bosniacs in Bosnian Serb territory - an island the UN had sworn to protect.

But the UN would not honor its pledge. As the BBC later reported, "A former United Nations commander in Bosnia has told a Dutch parliamentary inquiry into the Srebrenica massacre that it was clear to him that the Dutch authorities would not sacrifice its soldiers for the enclave."

Same as in Darfur. Or East Timor.

Kopel reminds us that some folks have a love of their intellectual theories, which revolve around how the world can be improved if only the "right people" are allowed to run things. In none of these cases - "zero tolerance" policies in schools, or the availability of firearms for lawful defense of people's homes and families - does personal freedom or "trust the people" enter into the calculation.

He also reminds us of the repeated willingness of these folks to lie - no, this is not too strong a word - to advance their agenda, or to excuse excesses of the state.

After Hurricane Katrina, the government of New Orleans devolved from its traditional status as an elective kleptocracy into something far more dangerous: an anarcho-tyrrany - that is, a government that refuses to protect the public from criminals and does prevent people from protecting themselves. At the orders of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the New Orleans Police, the National Guard, the Oklahoma National Guard, and the US Marshals began breaking into homes at gunpoint, confiscating lawfully-owned firearms, and evicting the residents. "No one is allowed to be armed. We're going to take all the guns," said P. Edwin Compass, III, the superintendent of police.

But of course, they didn't take all the guns. Gangs of armed looters filled the streets. Some folks want to ignore the failure of the Organs of the State to fulfill their responsibilities, once power have been wrested from the People.

The Heller decision has shown a recent advance in individual rights to be possible, but by no means is continued advance guaranteed. As long as some folks continue to distrust the People, while simultaneously excusing the repeated failures of the State, the words of Thomas Jefferson should be heeded: Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Get this book, and give it to people you know who believe that the Organs of the State, guided by the firm hand of the "right people", can bring about the New Jerusalem.