ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the contemporary gun rights movement in the United States poses a threat to rule of law. Gun rights advocates consider John Locke, a political philosopher, a natural ally, for one thing, because he acknowledges a natural and God-given right of self-defense. This is cited as the main justification behind stand-your-ground legislation. There are few figures more revered on the right than Milton Friedman, the University of Chicago economist and laissez faire capitalist, who inspired monetary policy from the Reagan Administration onwards. Friedman was also a proponent of strong rule of law. Another respected conservative thinker, twentieth-century British philosopher Michael Oakeshott, was a major concern of our founding fathers, who aimed to construct a government where lawmakers' arbitrary power was constrained as far as possible. Gun rights advocates cite this same fear of government power as a principal justification for expansive gun rights.
