The early 20th-century sociologist Max Weber starkly observed that a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence is what defines a state.  In other words, only a county's own acknowledged government has the ultimate right to use force against its citizens. With the very limited exception of immediate self-defense, the use of force by anyone other than the government must be seen as an act of either criminality or war.  A federal system such as ours may complicate things a little — but the principle still holds true.  If anyone outside the legitimate government is ceded the right to use violence to achieve his own ends, the government becomes a nullity to the extent of that allowance. Ugly and un-utopian though this principle may sound, it benefits society as a whole.  It cannot be denied that there are, and have always been, people in civilized societies who are unfit to live in them.  There have always been murderers,...(Read Full Article)