Cultural Libertarianism Against Law And Order

Some gun rights advocates care more about protecting criminals than the public

President Trump’s crusade against crime in Washington was celebrated by most conservatives. They view it as a necessary action to clean up the nation’s capital. But not everyone on the Right was thrilled.

A number of gun rights advocates and libertarians attacked Trump’s law-and-order measure because it’s leading to more firearm arrests. To the surprise of no one, DC’s black criminals walk around with unregistered guns. Police are now stopping and arresting them for this offense. That’s apparently an attack on the Second Amendment, according to these critics.

“I’m all for cracking down on crime in DC, but arresting law abiding citizens and confiscating their firearms solely because they don’t have government paperwork will not ultimately improve public safety,” Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie said.

“Every American has a right to own and carry a firearm for self defense or in defense of our communities and nation,” a Gun Owners of America state director posted on X. “Well, that is unless you look a certain way, then the White House boasts about having stolen your property and freedom for exercising your rights.”

The White House has posted images of those arrested for carrying illegal guns.

They don’t look like law-abiding citizens. But to libertarians, the black youth dressed like a gangbanger in a crime-ridden area is just a proud Second Amendment activist. It doesn’t matter if he has a criminal record or was near the scene of a crime. These libertarians delude themselves into seeing a liberty-loving patriot oppressed by the state.

Support for gun rights in America is growing. That’s a good thing. A well-armed citizenry was desired by the Founders to allow the people to protect themselves, their families, and their property. Concealed carry permits and other means legal gun ownership carry on that tradition.

But the cultural libertarianism that makes gun rights popular also conflicts with basic demands for law and order. The gun rights movement is not exactly the same creature it once was. Many of its adherents subscribe to a silly version of gun rights maximalism that demands illegal aliens and ex-cons be armed. It sacrifices common sense and public safety on behalf of the misguided belief that every person should have a gun. Most Americans should be able to own guns. But criminals and illegal aliens should not. They don’t live up to the “good guy with a gun” principle.

Gun culture is changing thanks to YouTube and shifting demographics. Numerous reports and studies show increased interest in gun ownership beyond the traditional conservative white male demographic. Blacks, Hispanics, gays, and even leftists are now into guns. Right-wing white guys still love guns, but they’re just one part of a broader market. That persuades some gun enthusiasts to back Black Lives Matter, illegal immigrants, soft-on-crime policies, anti-cop rhetoric, and other nonsense in order to appeal to what they think is their new base. They dress up these leftist overtures in the anti-authoritarian libertarianism favored by the traditional gun crowd. They depict the DC arrests as the work of an aggressive nanny state cracking down on citizens exercising their rights. That makes it more appealing to gun owners. It becomes a matter of liberty rather than a matter of social justice.

It’s still dumb no matter how it’s portrayed. It’s not a matter of authoritarian government restricting the rights of citizens. It’s a matter of protecting citizens from threats and enforcing basic laws. We shouldn’t look the other way as people carry around stolen weapons. These are the kinds of weapons used to kill. Americans who go through the process of legally-obtaining a gun aren’t the ones committing crime in DC. It’s the ones who don’t bother with the process in the first place. Getting rid of those laws just makes it easier for criminals to prey on the innocent.

These libertarian critics ignore the fact that the Trump administration made it easier for DC residents to get a gun permit. Under the federal takeover, the wait time to get a permit has been slashed from months to days. The law now allows those who want to protect themselves to do so thanks to the president. It makes it even more inexcusable to walk around with an illegal firearm. This move both secures gun rights and makes the city safer.

But that move doesn’t matter to these libertarian critics. They demand the government do nothing towards anyone carrying a gun, permit or no permit. Individual rights matter far more than public safety.

This is a sentiment that’s encouraged by the prevailing cultural libertarianism in our country. There are both good and bad aspects to it. The good is that cultural libertarianism is usually opposed to wokeness and rebels against leftists telling people how to think and live. It’s harder to maintain white privilege checking and mandatory pronouns in a culturally libertarian society. But it’s also increasingly hostile to any standards or common values. The cultural libertarian moment brings us OnlyFans, FanDuel, legal weed, and visible tattoos. “Mind your own damn business” is the rejoinder to whoever may take issue with these trends. “They’re not harming anyone, so why should you care?” would be another response to defend these developments.

This same thinking extends to supporting groups that shouldn’t have guns brandishing firearms. “They’re not harming anyone” clearly falls apart when the very purpose is to use these weapons to hurt people. That doesn’t matter to libertarians. They’re too in thrall to the fantasy that anyone who owns a gun must be a natural libertarian defending the Constitution to think logically about this.

Libertarians want no limits on individual rights, public standards be damned.

This mentality is taken to its most irrational extreme when they begin to defend hoodrats carrying around illegal guns. This is not what the Founders had in mind when they wanted a “well-regulated militia.”

Our society should encourage law-abiding citizens to carry licensed weapons. The key phrase here is “law-abiding.” We all know gun laws don’t stop criminals from packing. The recent arrests in DC prove that. But we shouldn’t pretend we want all groups to own guns. Background checks and concealed carry training aim to weed out those who can’t be trusted with a lethal weapon. We should still block illegal aliens, felons, and the severely mentally ill from owning guns. Common sense and public safety should matter more than their individual rights.

The silent majority would agree with this. It’s only silly libertarians who would see this as “fascism.”