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By Root 721 0

United States. A “hot burglary” is one where a resident is at home when the criminal strikes. In Canada and Great Britain, both with stringent anti-gun laws, nearly half of burglaries are “hot”; the burglars are not concerned with the victims being armed. Comparatively, the rate is only 13 percent in the United States, where we have relatively less restrictive gun laws. Moreover, convicted American felons reveal that they are much more worried about armed victims when committing a crime than they are about running into the police. In fact, interviews with convicted felons, in ten state correctional systems, reveal that 56 percent would not attack a known armed citizen.15 When one burglar entered a Colorado home, the owner promptly aimed a gun at him and waited for police to arrive. Police Sergeant Roderick O’Connor recalled that the intruder pleaded, “Those guys pointed guns at me. They should be arrested.” Apparently, the government would agree with him.

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Another example of this is Switzerland, where gun ownership rates are high and burglary rates are low. James A. Donald describes Switzerland as a nation where in peacetime, there are no generals or a central command; rather, every individual is his own policeman. As Donald explains,

Almost every house in Switzerland contains one or more automatic weapons, the kind of guns that the American federal government calls “assault rifles with cop killer bullets.” Switzerland has strict gun controls to keep guns out of the hands of children, lunatics and criminals, but every law abiding adult can buy any kind of weapon. Almost every adult male owns at least one gun, and most have more than one, because of social pressures and the expectation that a respectable middle class male citizen should be well armed and skillful in the use of arms. It is also no coincidence that respect for property rights in Switzerland is amongst the highest in the world, possibly the highest in the world.16

This description clearly demonstrates the importance of the right to keep and bear arms in relation to our property rights.

In America, you are instilled from a young age with the belief, “guns kill,” but you are never informed of your natural right to own and use a gun to save your own life or defend your property. You never learn how vital guns or weapons were in securing the independence of this nation and many other nations. You are never taught that guns can help prevent crimes by deterring criminal activity, nor are you taught how gun laws can actually increase crime.

For example, take the 2010 case of Michael Lish, an Oklahoma homeowner. Upon returning home with his wife around 10:00 p.m., Lish noticed the back door ajar and a window open. Lish then entered the house and searched it to make sure everything was okay. Unsuspectingly, a nineteen-year-old intruder, Billy Jean Tiffey III, jumped out at Lish while brandishing a sword. Lish, who had a concealed-weapon permit, pulled out his gun and shot Tiffey in the abdomen. Tiffey dropped to his knees and reached behind his back, upon which Lish fired a second and third shot, killing him. Investigators found Tiffey was carrying not only a sword, but also a .38-caliber pistol, the homeowner’s 9 mm pistol, a knife, and a stun gun. Fortunately for Lish, he did not face prosecution because Oklahoma maintains the “Make My Day” law, where a person can use force— including deadly force—to defend his home.17 In my home state of New Jersey, had Michael Lish endured this ordeal, he’d have faced twenty years in prison.

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What Could Have Been: Two Fewer Days of Remembrance?

As the previous statistics prove, these bans do not help protect you. In fact, you are worse off with gun prohibitions because you are unable to protect yourself, and criminals know this. This can only be exemplified by two tragic incidents at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The events leading up to the collapse and destruction of the World Trade Center do not need to be repeated. However, it is important to consider what would have happened if the passengers or