(By Patrick Culley, a Hoosier Libertarian)
The government that governs least, governs best. Take Libertarian City-County Councillor Ed Coleman’s proposal to end the ban on firearms in city parks for example. Coleman’s timely proposal addresses a glaring problem with our city’s current laws. As it stands now, you have the right to defend your life from an armed assailant on the street, in a supermarket, in a department store, a state park, a federal park, just about everywhere except a city park. Are Indy’s public parks such utopian safe zones that you don’t need to worry about protecting yourself there? What makes a city park safer than a state or federal park where you are allowed the right to defend your life?
Let’s be clear: this proposal is not about “gun rights”. It’s about the most fundamental of human rights; the right to self defense.
Coleman’s proposal would finally allow law-abiding citizens to exercise their natural right to self-defense while on the grounds of a city park, rather than having to give up their safety at the park entrance. How does a firearm ban deter an armed criminal who is intent on breaking the law anyway? By the time they are caught (if they are caught) and the additional gun charge is tacked on to their sentence, they have already shattered the lives of their victims and their victims’ families. While our law enforcement officers are fine men and women who risk their lives every day to protect us, they simply cannot be everywhere at once. We owe it to them, and to each other, to keep ourselves from becoming victims in the first place.
Our Mayor, Republican Greg Ballard, has stated that he will veto Coleman’s proposal if it is passed. This would only serve to remind criminals that if they want to rob someone without getting shot, they should do so in a city park. While Democrats are usually the ones who deny you the right to self-defense, it appears that there is now a bipartisan assault on your rights. When you keep electing members of the same two old parties, you keep losing your freedoms bit by bit. It’s time to say, “No more!” It’s time to vote for real change! It’s time to vote Libertarian!