Why Liberty? For Author and Activist Brian Aitken, It's About Firearms, Family, and Freedom

In 2009 Brian Aitken, a media consultant and web entrepreneur, ran afoul of New Jersey’s draconian gun laws when he was arrested while transporting two handguns unloaded and locked in the trunk of his car. Despite the fact that Aitken owned the guns legally and had called the New Jersey State Police for advice on how to legally transport his firearms, he found himself sentenced to seven years in prison.

In 2010 New Jersey governor Chris Christie commuted Aitken’s sentence. But a criminal conviction makes life difficult, and, for Aitken, that meant difficulties with child custody, his credit, and his right of self-defense. Aitken’s experience, like that of other law-abiding gun owners who’ve faced long prison sentences for honest mistakes, raises troubling questions about gun-law overreach, prosecutorial discretion, and judicial abdication.

In a new video from Cato's Why Liberty video series, Aitken discusses what his harrowing experience taught him about the value of freedo m.