[marktwain]

For centuries people have accepted that only The State has the Moral Authority to use violence.

I think it is much more recent than that. It was 1918 when German Sociologist Max Weber defined a "state" as a human community where the government successfully claimed a monopoly on legitimate violence.

In the Anglosphere, there has always been the acknowledgement of the right to defense of self.

Natural Law conflicts with Weber on this.

[wastoute]

When the lead starts flying here in Virginia which side is going to be “The State”?