Ayn Rand was none of the above. I will grant that perhaps like everyone really, Ayn Rand only engaged in hard reasoning to validate her emotional assumptions. Does that invalidate her claims? Rand's thesis was not complicated. The only purpose of a handgun is to kill someone. You have no right to kill someone. Therefore, you have no right to a handgun. She allowed that this does not answer other questions about your right to self-defense. Thus, it is a complicated issue. It is a trope in Hollywood westerns that when you come into town, you leave your gun with the sheriff. I don't know if it was real or not, but it was understandable and acceptable to the audiences of those movies, very few of whom were mainstream media Marxists. Ayn Rand was none of the above. I will grant that perhaps like everyone really, Ayn Rand only engaged in hard reasoning to validate her emotional assumptions. Does that invalidate her claims? Rand's thesis was not complicated. The only purpose of a handgun is to kill someone. You have no right to kill someone. Therefore, you have no right to a handgun. She allowed that this does not answer other questions about your right to self-defense. Thus, it is a complicated issue. It is a trope in Hollywood westerns that when you come into town, you leave your gun with the sheriff. I don't know if it was real or not, but it was understandable and acceptable to the audiences of those movies, very few of whom were mainstream media Marxists. Rand was reasonable and 100% correct.