From cops killing innocents in their living rooms to private citizens shooting down criminal gunmen, 2019 provided some highlights of why so many Americans choose to arm themselves rather than trust in government protection.
When governments raise the cost of obtaining a good, many people will opt for buying a higher quality (or more potent) version of the good with each transaction.
The government accepts no legal obligation to provide specified law enforcement services in exchange for the taxes it forcibly extracts from the citizenry. A clearly defined and voluntarily accepted reciprocal agreement between the government and the citizens has never existed.
Since no specific victim and no specific crime has been identified, this is no case of reparation as exists under real justice. It is simply a transfer of wealth from one group to another based on some sort of general "exploitation."
School children learn that there are three branches of government. In actual practice, there is a fourth branch, the permanent bureaucracy which includes legions of civilian and military agents, officers, and administrators committed to protecting their own interests.
Government police, analysts, and lab workers have been repeatedly shown using faulty technology, forging documents, and falsifying lab results to arrest, prosecute, and convict innocent citizens.
Governments routinely bribe suspects into accusing others in exchange for reduced sentences. Thus, suspects are willing to say pretty much anything prosecutors want them to. Governments are fine with this.
In spite of the fact we are told the US is in the grip of a gun violence crisis, new FBI data shows murder rates dropped for the second year in 2018, falling back near 50-year lows.
