BUNKERSVILLE, NV–The feud raging in Nevada is far from over, despite reports to the contrary. Protestors are still heading to the area and are uploading videos to YouTube of federal agents and equipment moving in. Former Sheriff Richard Mack stated that the Las Vegas Police are planning a SWAT raid on the Bundy Ranch.
Mack recently came under fire for tactics involving putting women on the front line of the fight, but insists his words were taken out of context, stating, “I would have been next. I would have been the next one to be killed. I’m not afraid to die here, I’m willing to die here. But the best ploy would have been to have had women in front because one, I don’t think they would have shot them. Two, if they had it would have been the best thing to show the rest of the world that these ruthless cowards will do anything they are told. If they are told to shoot they will shoot. Just like when they shot Vicki Weaver when they blew her head off in front of her little girl while she was holding a baby.”
With statements like these being latched onto by the media, it’s easy to dismiss this fight as the work of riled up red necks. Sen. Harry Reid criticized the whole affair, claiming, “We can’t have Americans violate the law and then walk away from it.”
Yet is Bundy even violating the law, or is Team Bundy engaging in a war that is completely justified by the Constitution? Overall, the idea of a libertarian war is not an absurd one. After all, the non-aggression principle, which libertarianism is largely based upon, permits violence even to the point of killing someone if it is an act of reasonable self defense.
As renowned political theorist and economist Murray Rothbard said, “If every man has the absolute right to his justly-held property, it then follows that he has the right to keep that property–to defend it by violence against violent invasion.”
This assertion can be justified when self defense is viewed as a philosophical extension of property rights, as Bundy supporters maintain is at the core of the dispute. However, if one attempts to hold a belief in property rights, and simultaneously hold a belief in absolute pacifism (i.e., a belief which admits no exceptions to the rejection of war and violence), then they are caught in what Rothbard would call, “…an inescapable contradiction[.] [F]or if a man owns property and yet is denied the right to defend it against attack, then it is clear that a very important of that ownership is being denied to him. To say that someone has the absolute right to a certain property but lacks the right to defend it against attack or invasion is also to say that he does not have total right to that property.”
If one follows Rothbard’s extension of Lockean property rights, that one must also, in the act of defending their person and property against attack, have the right to hire or accept the aid of other individuals to do such defending, so long as the act of collective self defense consists solely of consensual agreements. To place this notion into context, an individual may employ or accept defenders just as one may either employ or accept the volunteer services of gardeners on his lawn.
Clearly the federal government would disagree with this analysis, but that should only serve to validate it. 16 militia members have been arrested by federal agents, and are being held without bail. They’re being charged with domestic terrorism, yet the tactics being employed by federal agents are undoubtedly more treacherous.
Federal agent Paul Horner stated, “Under direct orders from the FBI and the DOJ, on behalf of the BLM, we have infiltrated the crowd with armed undercover agents. The agents are collecting intel and coordinating that information with drones that are also overseeing the disturbance. In addition, we have positively identified approximately 85% of the crowd and are running background checks for previous violations, warrants, etc. License plate numbers of protesters are being collected and entered into the national database as well. These right-wing extremists pose a serious threat to the safety of the operation and we have orders to make arrests and confiscate firearms.”
These actions will likely only further rally those who believe in Bundy’s cause, which in turn affects anyone who claims to believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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