This snippet of the article is particularly instructive:
Palmer said the lofty principles of individual liberties did not enter his mind 25 years ago when he and a male companion were threatened by a group of 19 or 20 young men on a deserted street in San Jose, Calif.
“They shouted anti-gay epithets and they made death threats,” Palmer said. “We ran and they chased us.”
Seconds later, Palmer pulled out a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol he owned legally and pointed it at the youths, whom he was certain had planned to harm or kill him and his companion in a gay bashing incident.
“It stopped them in their tracks,” he said. “The leader of the group stared at the gun and said, ‘Do you have a permit for that?’ I said if they came any closer I would shoot. They backed off.”
Gun permits, bans on firearms, and other illiberal anti-victim laws are not only unconstitutional, but they're also pro-violent-criminal.
The hooligans who assailed Palmer and threatened to injure or even kill him viewed gun permits as a permit to gay-bash. Similarly, restrictions on guns around the world serve as permits to rape, murder, assault, molest, rob, lynch, and gay-bash.
Libertarians know this. Survivors of assault, who survived due to self-defense, know this. Even hooligans and criminals know this.
Democratic politicians probably even know this -- they just don't care.
And if they don't care about our basic right to defend ourselves from those who would maim or murder us, why should we trust them with any other sort of power over our lives?
And as you reflect on the preservation of the right of self-defense in this country -- a right vanishing from many other places around the world -- be sure to thank your local libertarians for their efforts to preserve your freedom and safety.
