About a week ago, I wrote that people in western nations need the freedom to own guns just in case there are riots, chaos, and social disarray when welfare states collapse.
Much to my surprise and pleasure, this resulted in an invitation to appear on the National Rifle Association’s webcast to discuss the issue.
As I noted in the interview, I’m just a fiscal policy wonk, but the right to keep and bear arms should be a priority for anyone who believes in freedom and responsibility. And even though I only have a couple of guns, you can see that I’m raising my kids to have a proper appreciation for the Second Amendment.
I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point where we suffer societal breakdown, but I won’t be too surprised if it happens in some European countries. We’ve already seen the challenges faced by disarmed Brits during recent riots in the United Kingdom.
In the NRA interview, I pointed out that law enforcement is one of the few legitimate functions of government, so it is utterly despicable when politicians fail to fulfill that responsibility and also deprive households from having the ability to protect themselves.
Last but not least, watch this video if you want to be inspired about protecting the Second Amendment. Pay close attention around the five-minute mark.
International Liberty 
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Congress cannot control the Federal Reserve and its interest and money printing policies! Don’t be so naive.
Who will defend us from Homeland Security which is in the process of purchasing 7,000 fully automatic assault weapons with 30 round clips for use in close quarters? Why do they need these weapons when we have the Army, the National Guard, State and local police, FBI, Secret Service and sheriffs? Who will they use them on? Us? They must be expecting some great social upheaval as a result of government policies which are destroying the value of the dollar.
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Hi Eitan: For me it is crystal clear that “tight money” causes recessions, including the 1929 recession. In this post http://latforum.org/forums/showthread.php?2282-Parece-claro-que-la-Reserva-Federal-causa-las-recesiones-con-quot-dinero-dif%EDcil-quot (in spanish) I explain my point. I will translate it to English soon and will post the link, but the relevant graphs are there.
As for Mr. Ron Paul. Well, he looks ill tempered, smiling is difficult for him and he does not look warm. That is very important matter in the TV era. People will not elect a person that looks cold because coldness is the most feared trait in a person that has such insane power.
For instance Ludwig Von Mises looks so arrogant that he is scary. Hayek too looks arrogant and ill tempered. Such people cannot win an election (wisely they never ran for election)
But Dan has got that sport star look and natural warmth that a candidate needs. Dan, if elected, would never throw the country into a recession because he is very open minded: He has posted here different views of the Great Depression and he does not relies uniquely on those Austrian theories that worsened the Great Depression. Of course I may be totally wrong and the austrians may be right.
What I mean is that there are better candidates than Mr. Ron Paul. I am shocked by the arrogance that one often sees in libertarians. Well, Mr Dan Mitchell lacks that arrogance. Probably there is someone that is a better candidate than Mr. Mitchell but I have never heard about him or her. Sarah Palin is awesome but she never ran. Just my humble opinion that nobody asked for.
@Luis Di Mare
Hey, I like your adulation of Dan, but why so negative on Ron Paul?
“In my opinion Ron Paul would probably create a deep recession if elected because he believe in those monetary theories that created the 1929 recession and transformed it into the Great Depression with higher taxes, higher spending, more regulations and tighter money”
Ron Paul would lower taxes, spending, and regulation. As for tightening the money supply, he has legislation, “The competition in currency act” which would potentially form the basis for a free market system of currency, that’s completely different than the sort of monetary system that existed in that era, when the Fed expanded money supply too much in the twenties and then contracted money supply too much in the thirties. A free market monetary system would allow money supply to reflect money demand, so that prices can reflect real economic output.
Speaking of which, Dan, you promised to make a video about free banking vs. central banking like a year ago! I really want to hear your take on it 🙂
Hey Dan, who was the English MEP? Was it Dan Hannan?
Posting this is probably a mistake, with no doubt someone will say that I am an adulator -perhaps I am being one- but I am doing this post anyway since for months I was thinking about posting this. You could be a great libertarian candidate for president Mr. Mitchell. I only met in person, for a short moment, 5 or 6 famous people in my life, Mikhail Gorbachov and you are two of them. You have the same warmth that Mr Gorbachov has, even your adversaries admit your warmth and that warmth comes from the fact that you really care about people´s well being, every one of your posts shows that. Same thing for Mr. Gorbachov, one of the greatest men alive in my humble opinion. The american people will be grateful with you for your relentless courageous fight for people´s well being. Probably your courageous defense of tax havens is too politically incorrect but you deserve enormous praise for that fight.
A person like Ron Paul in my opinion will never win the presidency because he lacks the warmth a politician must have. I wonder if a libertarian can ever win the presidency. But you have a TV charisma that Mr. Paul never has. One of the things that I respect the most of you is that you never ran for politics even tough you have what is needed for achieving very high power. You are continually winning the confidence and gratitude of the american people and of foreigners that follow you.
In my opinion Ron Paul would probably create a deep recession if elected because he believe in those monetary theories that created the 1929 recession and transformed it into the Great Depression with higher taxes, higher spending, more regulations and tighter money
Representative democracy is finally falling apart. Thanks God! Representative democracy It is one of the worst institutions that mankind has. We will get legislative bodies -as in Switzerland- but people will be able to vote in referendum -in direct democracy- when they do not agree with what the political class legislates
We won’t collapse per se, but we will go into a hyper-inflation mode when the Euro collapses and we are called to bail out even more un-secured debt. At some point China also will go down or will decide that they really don’t need us since we keep inflating our currency (aka “disrespecting our debt”). We are now under 5% of what is holiding up their economy and they don’t really need us that badly any more, not like they once did.
And then the hyperinflation starts here, as the warehoused pallets of dollar bills and 10s, 20s, 50s, and 100s are forklifted out, broken out and then flushed into circulation to cover what they can’t borrow. And then inflation will rise into the teens. Just the teens if we’re lucky, as the number of American dollars chasing the same number of goods rises astronomically. And folks will find that that little extra cushion that they had at the end of the month goes away. And the welfare folks will get an automatic kick in to cover their cost of living, even with the government STILL not including the cost of food and energy, they will not have enough to get by at the same level.
And the subsistance folks, well they won’t do well at all as the cost of drugs and alcohol along with basic needs rises along with inflation.
That’s what is in the cards for us.
Hore you’re right, Mr. Mitchell, about society not destabilizing when that happens. Because it doesn’t take VERY much insight for folks to realize that this is something that has been done to them by the folks in DC, even though the folks in DC deny it. And if the OWS crowd got so incensed over corparations that the group formerly known as ACORN pointed them at, it wouldn’t take much for a few bright people to point the upset crowd at the DC boys as well.
“A government that can do anything for you can do anything to you.” — Ronald Reagan