Like free speech, for most of our history, self-defense was seen as an immutable right that
existed with or without the sanction of the state. “Remember that the musket — the United States musket with its bayonet of steel — is better than all mere parchment guarantees of liberty,” is how Frederick Douglass made the case for natural rights. He did it better than many of the Founders did, though all of them defended it.
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