My friend, and an occastional reader of the site, Goatroaper forwarded me an email this evening and I’m not sure how long it has been floating around. I wasn’t prepared for how it would make me feel.

They’re letting the thugs get away with everything. And you’re coming to honest, good citizens and taking away their protection, and it’s wrong.

I wasn’t upset about Katrina in quite the same way that others were, but now I’m downright angry. In this lengthy video--which is also a sort of advertisement for the NRA--there are outlined numerous abuses of power and the individual rights of citizens.

I’m not what any reasonable person would call a gun rights nut. I’m an advocate, to be sure, but not in the same, absolute way that many of my friends are (and the debate about what our rights are is best held some other day). What government agents did in the wake of Katrina, though, has to count as an outrageous violation of individual rights to everyone, with the notable exception of the most rabidly anti-gun believers.

Gun rights aren’t just a matter of quaint constitutional interpretation. Gun rights and gun ownership, especially in times of serious crisis where the government agents cannot be relied on to safeguard citizens, is symbolic of what I consider to be one of the most basic of human rights: the right to self-defense.

People talk about rights in ways that confound me, to be honest. The right to a “living wage.” The right to unrestricted health care. These are just ways to say that they believe in their “right” to have someone else pay for their doctor visits and lifestyles. These aren’t rights as I see them.

The right to self-protection, on the other hand, isn’t reliant on anyone to give you anything other than the opportunity to keep safe your own physical being. It doesn’t get much more basic than that. In the best of times, the police can’t guaranty your safety. How safe should citizens feel when those same government agencies have lost control of a city and looters are running the show?

I’m a gun rights advocate all the time, but to see these officers leaving citizens essentially naked and unprotected in the face of Katrina’s violent aftermath is sickening. Hearing stories of them confiscating--and in some cases, destroying--citizens’ private property was grotesque.

Quick update: And, yes, this ties nicely into the “feel good story of the day.” It would have felt even better if the protagonists had aimed better and fired less, I have to admit. Updated update: Of course, on two minutes reflection, this is probably the real feel good story of the day. Makes me feel good, anyway.