Is it a fundamental right or not? Just come out and scream it!

I haven't paid much attention to the Gunwalker Scandal here, not because I don't think it's important but just because it's so much more competently covered elsewhere.  But this Pajamas Media article that has been getting so much play everywhere makes some interesting peripheral points.

If a right to self-defense actually exists, it is in a very real sense the highest law of the land and all lesser laws must pay it deference. It fundamentally defines the social contract, the nature of the relationship between man and the state.

But if there is no such inalienable right, the entire nature of the social contract is changed. Each man’s worth is measured solely by his utility to the state, and as such the value of his life rides a roller coaster not unlike the stock market: dependent not only upon the preferences of the party in power but upon the whims of its political leaders and the permanent bureaucratic class. The proof of this analysis surrounds us.

I've made my own view on this subject known as unambiguously as possible, and won't belabor it here.

Except to repeat:

[Society] Ain't The Boss Of Me.