ABSTRACT
If there is a right of self-defense, there is necessarily an auxiliary right to the tools necessary for self-defense. This chapter surveys the universal human right of self-defense, from ancient China to the present. The preamble of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) declares itself "mindful of" the legitimate use of firearms for "recreational, cultural, historical, and sporting activities, where permitted or protected by law". This is the only sentence in the thirteen-page treaty which recognizes any legitimacy for guns in non-government hands. According to Aristotle's Politics, each citizen should work to earn his own living, should participate in political or legislative affairs, and should bear arms. Roman law comes closer than any other legal system to being the common heritage of all mankind. Even in 1900, an international law treatise stated that deductions from Roman law provided "by far the greater part of the system of international law as it exists to-day".
