In the wake of the recent well-publicized shootings in a Michigan classroom and on the streets of Pittsburgh, gun control advocates have renewed their calls for disarming American citizens. (And one can only assume that these calls will get louder after today's shooting of a sheriff's deputy and a firefighter in Memphis.)

Meanwhile, after the scandal surrounding the LAPD's "anti-gang" units and the acquittal of the four white New York police who gunned down Amadou Diallo, civil rights activists have been working for more controls on police forces that seem to be out of control.

It is ironic that in many instances, these are the same people. Because the two issues are not unrelated.

There are essentially two approaches that we can take in defending against violent crime. One is to maximize the ability of citizens to defend themselves, to ensure that we can protect ourselves (and our families, friends, and neighbors) against those who would harm us; the other is to appoint special guardians on whom we rely for protection.

The self-reliance approach has met with more and more resistance in popular opinion in recent years, as media attention has focused on the use of force by violent criminals to the exclusion of the use of defensive force by intended victims. Estimates of defensive gun use by civilians range from 108,000 (US DOJ) to 2 million (Kleck and Gertz) incidents per year (quite a range of estimates!), but these incidents go largely unreported. Therefore, those not knowledgeable about firearms or self-defense have only the headline-grabbing accounts of murder and mayhem committed with firearms with which to form their opinions.

It's little wonder, then, that many citizens believe that firearms are mostly used to commit crimes, instead of being a useful tool of self-defense. Rather than arming themselves, they demand the disarmament of their neighbors and turn to the police for protection. And when the police prove unable to stop violent crime, confused citizens yield more and more power to them.

And this, as we should all know, is a dangerous game. "Power corrupts" and "Who watches the watchers?" are proverbs because long experience has shown them to be true. Recent years have seen well-documented abuses by police in many large cities, as well as by federal paramilitary law enforcement (ATF and FBI).

We cannot stop this abuse without reducing police power. And if we reduce police power, we must take up responsibility for defending ourselves and our communities. And we need the tools to do the job - firearms..

That doesn't mean that violent criminals or children should have easy access to guns. Everyone agrees on that point. But we need to understand that gun control laws keep guns away from bad guys about as well as drug laws keep heroin away from addicts; and that responsible gun-owning parents can and mostly do keep their kids away from guns, just as they keep them away from power tools, household poisons, and matches. Neither of these concerns - legitimate though they are - justify preventing us from defending ourselves.

Especially given the risks of turning to the police for protection, as minority residents of many cities are painfully learning.