Ayn Rand on Gun Ownership.

Ayn Rand was the champion of individualism, “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities,” so the following isn’t surprising.

“InAtlas Shrugged, Hank Rearden carries a handgun: “He carried a gun in his pocket, as advised by the policemen of the radio car that patrolled the roads; they had warned him that no road was safe after dark, these days.” Passing over the irony that Rand has the police in a highly collectivist state advising a private individual to carry a gun, there is nothing in this passage to suggest support for gun control. It could be interpreted to suggest the opposite, since Rand has one of her heros carrying a privately owned gun, and even contemplating (later in the passage) its use against the police. (In subsequent passages of the novel, other of Rand’s heros, including Dagny Taggart and Francisco D’Anconia, use guns. However, in the later parts of the novel the culture has broken down into open armed conflict, so these passages are not as clearly relevant to the question of carrying arms in a peaceful society.)”

Good to know.