One example is a gas station in Philadelphia (a city that has frequently been in the news lately due to growing crime problems, having set a new personal record for annual murders) that has hired security armed with rifles to protect patrons, mainly from car jackings, since motorists are especially vulnerable to attack while pumping gas.

One thing I found notable from a Fox News interview of the head of security Chief Andre Boyer (other than the fact that journalists at a “conservative” outlet are just as clueless as other journalists about what an AR15 is) is his response to a question about whether he and his agents will intervene when witnessing a crime in progress. Chief Boyer responds, “We have to. We have a contract to protect our clients and our clients’ assets.”

As I have noted previously, the fact that voluntarily hired security has a contractual obligation to provide services to the people who pay them is in stark contrast to government police. On multiple occasions, the US Supreme Court has opined that US citizens have no constitutional right to police protection and officers cannot be held legally liable for failing to protect them. You must pay them under penalty of law, but they are not required to provide anything in return.

Also noteworthy is a comment the interviewer makes that “the number one job of the government, whatever level, whether federal, state, local, is to keep their citizens safe. So, if you’re hiring an outside agency that’s a clear indicator that government is failing its people.” Regarding the first part of that statement, Judge Andrew Napolitano would strongly disagree: it is not the job of the government (if it is to have any job at all) to keep you safe but rather to keep you free.

Regarding the second part of that statement, the interviewer gives far too much credit to the government. To say categorically that any hiring of private security means the state is failing to do its job assumes godlike powers on the part of the state. As mentioned above, it is wrong to assume that the state’s threat of capturing and punishing lawbreakers is primarily responsible for the peace and orderliness we enjoy under normal circumstances. Perhaps since there are an estimated three to four people employed in private security for every government police officer, the Fox News interviewer would consider this proof that the government cannot do its number one job and is unfit to exist.

Car theft is not only a major issue in Philly but in Portland, Oregon, as well. Both cities are experiencing historic highs in crime. In response to the explosion of car theft in Portland, a Facebook group named “PDX Stolen Cars” was formed to crowdsource locating stolen vehicles. According to the founder of the Facebook group, Titan Crawford, “I had found a stolen car in my neighborhood. I knew it was stolen. I contacted the police and they said there’s not a whole lot we can do right now. So I was like, ‘Well see if I can do something.’”

Mr. Crawford has been disillusioned of the idea that the government is the ultimate protector of property rights: “It would be cool if the city could do this and I didn’t have to.” I imagine many people thought the same thing about government schools. Fortunately, an increasing number of parents are able to get some of their tax money back to send kids to a school of their choice. Instead of being taxed to pay for police services they don’t receive, perhaps some residents of Portland would be interested in “police choice.”

Burlington, Vermont, is having a similar experience with bike thefts, along with the Facebook groups created to deal with it because the government police are too busy. They are too busy to deal not only with bike thefts but property destruction, retail larceny, assaults by homeless people in parks, and open-air drug markets (financed by stolen bikes). And, as elsewhere, residents have found that they are on their own in dealing with these things.

One might point out that another common theme among these cities is the fact that their politicians all committed to “defunding the police” to some degree. This movement, while short-lived and ultimately overstated in how much budgets were cut, was successful in reducing police staffing and recruitment. Does the corresponding rise in crime and disorder indicate, then, that government police are crucial in maintaining order?

No. Rather, the lesson one should take from the “defund the police” experience (to the extent that one believes that it was a misguided, if not horrible, idea) is that it is an outcome that is only possible when policing is under political control. It was not a case of individuals deciding to abstain from buying when they no longer wanted a particular service.

The taxpayer-funded monopoly on policing became even less effective without leaving any more money in taxpayers’ pockets. Drawing another parallel with government schools, which closed without returning the taxpayers’ money, several cities cut police funding and staffing while keeping the money that taxpayers ostensibly paid for that purpose. It truly is only the government that can take your money, barely provide a service they’ve monopolized, and then insist on how necessary they are for the provision of that service.

Now, especially with the rise of the Soros-funded district attorneys, Americans are realizing that they are responsible for their own safety and security. This function, like the education of their children, cannot be outsourced to the government. The silver lining is that, as people build parallel institutions, the less dependent upon government they become and the more obvious the overstatement of the state’s necessity for order becomes. This is a necessary step for getting us on the road to rediscovery of an ethos of liberty and self-reliance.

About the Author

Tate Fegley is Chair of Business and Economics at Montreat College and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute.

Article cross-posted from Mises.

Yes, I know that school security has come a long way. But it hasn’t come far enough.

The Covenant School in Nashville had their doors locked, but Audrey Elizabeth Hale just shot through the glass doors and let herself in…

Hale can be seen arriving at the school and then shooting through the locked glass door, which shatters.

Wearing a red baseball cap worn backwards, a white t-shirt covered in a tactical vest, and combat trousers, Hale is caught on camera stalking the corridors. Her victims were killed at random, police said.

From this point forward, no school in America should ever have glass doors again.

From a security standpoint, they are almost completely useless.

Some schools have designated panic rooms, but they only work if the children are herded into them in time.

In Nashville, the attack took everyone by surprise, and one 9-year-old girl was actually gunned down as she was trying to pull the fire alarm…

A schoolgirl who was shot and killed while trying to pull the fire alarm to stop a transgender shooter from opening fire on her classmates has been pictured for the first time.

Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, was one of the victims shot by Audrey Hale, 28, after she opened fire at the private Christian school on Monday.

Her family has described her as a ‘shining light’ and said that they are ‘completely broken’ by her death.

Many on the left are using this tragedy as an opportunity to advocate for more gun control.

But criminals will always find a way to get guns.

Just look at Chicago.  It has some of the strictest gun control laws in the entire nation, but it is known around the world for the rampant gun violence that never ends in the streets.

If there had been armed security at the school, Audrey Elizabeth Hale may have been stopped before she could start gunning down innocent people.

Instead, she was able to kill six before the police were finally able to kill her.

And it turns out that “death by cop” was precisely what she had planned…

The transgender school shooter who killed six people including three innocent children yesterday before being gunned down by police sent a message to a friend moments before the rampage, telling her: ‘I’m planning to die today… you’ll probably hear about me on the news.’

What a tragedy.

She could have had such a bright future if she had chosen to turn her life around.

But now she is dead.

It appears that Hale had carefully planned out all the details of her attack in advance…

“We have a manifesto,” said Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake. “We have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident. We have a map drawn out of how all this was gonna take place.”

As for motive, Drake said, “There’s right now a theory that we may be able to talk about later, but it’s not confirmed.” Drake appeared to hint that the shooter’s transgender identity factored into her motive.

REPORTER: "Do you have any reason to believe that how she identifies has any motive for targeting the school?"

NASHVILLE POLICE: "There is some theory to that."

REPORTER: "So was this a targeted attack?"

NASHVILLE POLICE: "It was." pic.twitter.com/NDfm9XBCcV

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 27, 2023

Will the public ever get to see the full manifesto? I doubt it.

My guess is that authorities will want to try to cover up what Audrey Elizabeth Hale really felt about Christians.

But at this point it is obvious to everyone what this incident was.

As U.S. Senator Josh Hawley has aptly pointed out, this was a hate crime…

Josh Hawley:

"This murderous rampage was a horrific crime, but more specifically it was a hate crime. A crime, that according to Nashville police, specifically targeted the members of this Christian community." pic.twitter.com/lxbiF0TGvq

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) March 28, 2023

In recent months, legislation that is designed to protect children from the radical trans agenda has been introduced in states all over the nation, and this has produced an absolutely furious backlash.

Social media has been filled with threats of violence and “vengeance”, and now all of that hateful talk has resulted in a mass shooting.

Of course this is not the first mass shooting of this sort that we have seen.  In fact, there have been a number of them in recent years…

In November of 2018, Snochia Moseley, a man who identified as a woman, wounded three and killed three after opening fire at his place of employment in Aberdeen, Maryland.

In May of 2019, a Colorado woman who identified as male shot up a school, killing one and wounding eight.

In November of 2022, a Colorado man who shot up a gay nightclub, killing five and wounding 18, was identified as transsexual.

On Monday, 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a woman who identified as a man, entered a Nashville Christian elementary school with a firearm. She murdered three adult staffers and three nine-year-old children.

Unfortunately, the fractures that are bitterly dividing our nation just continue to get even worse, and so it is likely that there will be much more violence in the months and years ahead.

Why does it have to be this way?

Why can’t we all just learn to live in peace with one another?

Hating others doesn’t lead anywhere good, and right now there are millions of other Americans that are absolutely seething with hatred just like Audrey Elizabeth Hale was when she decided to gun down completely innocent people at a school that she once attended.

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.

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Article cross-posted from End of the American Dream.