The strange belief of many modern liberals [is] that chains of cause and effect are always associated with objects rather than with people (as indicated by the obsessive use of the phrase "gun violence," as opposed to, say, "teenage violence" or just "violence.")

From Photon Courier

From All the way down the slippery slope:

Dicey illustrated the prevention-of-felony rule by quoting a judge's advice that the proper action to take upon discovering a nighttime burglar was to shoot him in the heart with a double-barreled shotgun.

All the way down the slippery slope: Gun prohibition in England and some lessons for civil liberties in America, Joseph E. Olson and David B. Kopel

Extended essay published by the Independence Institute though I found it via the Libertarian Alliance.

It seems that the Telegraph has a "mole". How else can one explain the following words in an editorial:

"Most of the young men who carry and use guns in Britain are consumers or dealers in drugs. In that sense, any crime in which they carry a gun is therefore "drug-related", to use the fashionable term. But it would be more accurate to say the crime is "drug law-related". If drugs were not criminalised, dealers would not need to carry guns any more than brewers or distillers would feel the need to be armed today."

It seems it's not just the Americans who have a Second Amendment. We Brits do too and it goes all the way back to the Glorious Revolution. See this letter in the Telegraph

Yet another good article on the subject in Reason Magazine. Thanks to David Farrer for the heads up.

New York or California? Which will collapse first? - Samizdata
Pro-gun stats wrong - Mr Happy?
Imports, not exports, make countries richer - Liberty Log
MEP - "doesn't understand" - Freedom and Whisky
Fun in the sun - the TCS way - Samizdata
Death penalty still good - The Edge
Airport security questions to be dropped? - The Captain
"Hysterical morons" sign of the times - Public Interest
Natalie Solent is back
Mark Steyn - serious - Conservative Commentary
Iraq is likely to end up as roadkill on the third way - Airstrip One
Why is acting on the radio so crap? - Mr Happy?

A new book backs up calls for the relegalisation of guns. Guns and Violence: The English Experience by Joyce Malcolm points out that when Brits were armed there was less crime.

Reviewing the book, legal bigwig Glen Reynolds said: "...the English experience provides a concrete example of American gun owners' worst fear: A patient political establishment steadily whittling firearms rights away over a period of decades through means both open and covert as circumstances permitted, in order to bring the citizenry under more complete political control."