• Frame the history of the debate over personal and civil defense
• British Common Law and Bill of Rights
• Declaration of Independence and Revolution
• Constitution

Further Reading List:

• Declaration of Independence
• US Constitution
• Missouri Constitution
• "That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right" Stephen P. Halbrook The Independant Institute, 1984, 1994, 2000
• "The Law" Frederik Bastiat circa 1850
• The Federalist Papers (and Anti-Federalist papers)
• "Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788" Pauline Maier, Simon and Schuster, New York 2010
• "Commentaries on the Laws of England" Sir William Blackstone, circa 1765

Approach to reading:

• Don't accept any author as authoritative!
• Frame the arguments in the context of longstanding debate over Rights, Duties, and Authority.
• When someone claims authority, where does it come from?
• When someone has a Right, what does it mean?
• Who do you owe Duties to?
• How do we balance liberty and civility? Is it really a "balance"?
• What is nature of crime and punishment?
• I select quotes often because they are the most conservative: define edges of debate.