which all other rights depend. if you can t defend yourself, te can t defend your family and your property, you don t have any rights at all. you re a l.. by definition. so you may be wondering in this moment of creeping authoritarianism, how is the right to self defense doing in our country? ou we can give some kind of long lecture, but instead, how about some examples? consider two shootings that took place at gas stations in the past year in the united states . the first shooting occurred around two p 2:0m.m on october a the state of missouri, a twentyo three year old felon called javon taylor with a long criminal record convictiontaylor armed robbery, for example, began threatening a female clerk, apparently becausn es st the gas station didn t carry the kind of cigars that he wanted. that s when an off firemanat sw called anthony santae, who was inside, decidehed to step in.or. he told javon taylor to leave ty the storloe. response to that, taylor began threatening h