This is the audio recording of an essay published in the Fall of 1993 in The Public Interest magazine. The essay is titled: "A Nation of Cowards" by Jeffrey Snyder. You can access a text version of this essay here: http://rkba.org/comment/cowards.html I'm publishing this essay for you as a thought-provoking defense of the morality of your being well-armed. In today's political climate where critics are drawing a moral equivalence between mass murderers and an average armed citizen, I think this moral defense is warranted. The facts and names of the essay are dated. The arguments are not. As you consider this essay with 25 years of hindsight, do some research into how well the arguments have weathered the test of time. Joshua