I lived in New Orleans until hurricane Katrina, and I agree with everything except the article's first sentence. What do you mean, "what happens when the government loses its monopoly on force"? Since when has our government ever claimed such a monopoly? Our federal constitution and most state constitutions promise that there will be no such monopoly—and throughout our history in most places there has been no such monopoly. Given New Orleans's inability to discourage the breeding and training of violent criminals, and its inability to weed them out of society, the right of vetted trained private individual citizens to have at hand the means of deadly force—and to use it legally in self-defense—is the only thing that kept this city even half-way livable.

I spent parts of four summers in NOLA from 1985-1988, and was a frequent weekend visitor after that through the 90's and early 2000's. I found all the good things you mentioned at the end of your piece and tremendous food and music, too. However, somewhere between having a master planner like Hitler's Reichsarchitekt and the devil-may-care neglect that has gone on in too much of the city, they need to rediscover the will to have some law and order there. Your piece was clear and pulled no punches. I hope the people there who are fed up have the will and the energy to prevail. It would be such a shame for such a historic place to go down the drain.