Violence - Not A Market Phenomenon

Since the free market is defined, in part, as free of force and fraud, violence is something the market cannot deal with.  It is to be dealt with outside the market, like love and altruism.

Certainly you have an inalienable right to self-defense, but like love, it is foolish to delegate this to someone else.  The state pretends it offers security, that it will fight your battles for you.  What the state offers is security up to what you can easily handle for yourself.  if the job gets tough, you are on your own.

If you believe violence is warranted in self-defense, up to and including killing, then you must act on this belief.  But it is an error is to assign your right to self-defense to others.

Here in USA, when things get dicey, the cops run away.  Police in USA have a general obligation, according to the US Supreme Court, to respond, but not a specific obligation.  They can decline any time they like.  Officer safety first.  They ran away in the Rodney King riots.  They failed in the WTO riots in Seattle, and many other times.  If the police cannot bring overwhelming resources to an incident, they do not respond. Then what?

In the UK, the shopkeepers are not allowed to defend their stores from the outside, only within their stores, and under no circumstances with a gun. That is a bit late.  Note the commentary, "The more police arrive, the more aggressive the crowds are becoming..."  Just so. Note the police withdrawing.

In USA you can defend your stores from the outside.  In the same LA riots above, the Korean section of LA was assaulted, but the rioters moved onto easier targets.

That is sociology, too.  If you believe in lethal self-defense, then it seems you have an obligation to prepare for that, but also an obligation to be expert in their use. A growing business would be the selling of arms and training therein. Gun training tourism, where you bring people from overseas to train in gun use in USA, and send USA citizens to train in weapons not allowed, yet, in USA.

 Macchiavelli noted the Swiss were the most armed and the most free.

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