Release Date: Friday 2nd June 2006
Release Time: Immediate

Contact Details:
Dr Sean Gabb (Director), 07956 472 199, sean@libertarian.co.uk

For other contact and link details, see the foot of this message
Release url: http://www.libertarian.co.uk/news/nr040.htm

"LIBERALISE WEAPONS LAW NOW: END VICTIM DISARMAMENT", FREE MARKET AND CIVIL LIBERTIES THINK TANK TELLS HOME SECRETARY

The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties policy institute, today calls on the Home Secretary to ignore the media-led hysteria over knife crimes, and to legalise the carrying and use of weapons for self-defence.

Libertarian Alliance Director, Dr Sean Gabb, says:

"Laws against carrying knives in public - or any weapons - are an infringement of our liberties and are a waste of police time. The only people who obey such laws are the respectable, and these cause no trouble. Those who do commit assaults are no more likely to obey the existing or prospective law on weapons than they are to stop listening to horrid music or to wash their hands after using the toilet.

"Even turning the country into a police state, with powers of random stop and search and scanners in public places, will do nothing to disarm these creatures. Such laws will only inconvenience the respectable. They disarm us to the point where criminals can roam among us like a fox among chickens. If we are already disarmed, we still face the indignity of being searched by police officers who are increasingly useless and corrupt.

"We need to get back to the sane legal climate of the Victorian era, when citizens were expected to take part in defending themselves, and were encouraged to use lethal force when they believed it necessary.

"We must be allowed to carry knives for our self-defence if we so wish. But we should also be allowed to carry guns. After all, using a knife requires skills in which the criminal classes tend to have an advantage. But guns equalise, regardless of age or sex; and nothing beats a bullet.

"To be precise, we need to go back to the laws of our ancestors when a person could walk into a gun shop and, without showing a licence or any form of identification, buy as many guns and as much ammunition as he pleased, and could keep these at home, or carry them about in public, for the defence of his life or property.

"At the same time, we need real punishments for real crimes. Those who commit assaults on others should be caught and punished with terrifying swiftness and severity. Assuming due process of law, I see no objection to the use of the death penalty.

"But the only certain way to clear away the human trash who infest our streets is to let us, the respectable public, take part in the cleansing.

"Further laws to criminalise the carrying of weapons is a retrograde step and should be resisted by the authorities. They are nothing more than victim disarmament."

The Libertarian Alliance believes:

* That there should be no controls on possessing and carrying weapons, including handguns, for self-defence, and that accordingly the Firearms Acts and all other restrictive laws should be repealed;

* That there should be a legal and moral climate in which, where believed necessary, the use of lethal force to protect life or  property is celebrated;

* That all persons found guilty under the existing  laws against self-defence should be pardoned and where appropriate compensated;

* That all criminal laws should be repealed except those directed against force or fraud;

* That all agencies of inspection and control set up to implement laws against victimless crimes should be immediately abolished, and that their records be destroyed;

* That all investigatory powers given to the authorities for the prosecution of victimless crimes should be immediately abolished;

* That any organisation arguing against the above should receive no public funding.

END OF COPY

Note(s) to Editors

Dr Sean Gabb is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance and edits its journal Free Life. His latest book, Smoking, Class and the Legitimation of Power, is available at Amazon. His other books are available from Hampden Press at http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.

He can be contacted for further comment on 07956 472 199 or by email at sean@libertarian.co.uk

Extended Contact Details:

The Libertarian Alliance is Britain's most radical free market and civil liberties policy institute. It has published over 700 articles, pamphlets and books in support of freedom and against statism in all its forms. These are freely available at http://www.libertarian.co.uk

Our postal address is

The Libertarian Alliance
Suite 35
2 Lansdowne Row
Mayfair
London
W1J 6HL
Tel: 07956 472 199

Associated Organisations

The Libertarian International - http://www.libertarian.to - is a sister organisation to the Libertarian Alliance. Its mission is to coordinate various initiatives in the defence of individual liberty throughout the world.

Sean Gabb's personal website - http://www.seangabb.co.uk - contains about a million words of writings on themes interesting to libertarians and conservatives.

Hampden Press - http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.- the publishing house of the Libertarian Alliance.

Liberalia - http://www.liberalia.com - maintained by by LA Executive member Christian Michel, Liberalia publishes in-depth papers in French and English on libertarianism and free enterprise. It is a prime source of documentation on these issues for students and scholars.