Authors talked about the belief that guns are needed to stave off government tyranny. Mr. Horowitz argued that the belief is fundamentally incorrect and that insurrectionists are the real threat to freedom. Then Mr. Churchill talked about libertarian concerns and the origins and growth of the militia movement in the principle that the people must be willing and able to resist tyranny. He also talked about the politics of fear. After remarks made in rebuttal, both authors responded to questions from members of the audience.

Joshua Horowitz is the co-author, with Casey Anderson, of Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea (University of Michigan Press; April 29, 2009). Mr. Horowitz is executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. An attorney, he was a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Robert Churchill is the author of To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrant's Face: Libertarian Political Violence and the Origins of the Militia Movement (University of Michigan Press; March 3, 2009). He is an associate professor of early American history at Hartford University and has published numerous articles on the American Revolution and American political violence.