One Clarification

I wrote out a long point-by-point.... well you get the drift.

But given that your last point was the most important, and that addressing your concern was more important....

But since I do tend to bloviate about Positive and Negative Rights from time to time...

A right to self-defense, where it doesn't involve State Monopolies on the use of power, is a negative right.

"How so? According to you and to the Wikipedia page you linked: "negative rights permit or oblige inaction." Explain to me how self-defense is an inaction, please. Self-defense, by definition, requires an action: defense."

Lets expand that paragraph:

"Philosophers and political scientists make a distinction between negative and positive rights (not to be confused with the distinction between negative and positive liberties). According to this view, positive rights permit or oblige action, whereas negative rights permit or oblige inaction. These permissions or obligations may be of either a legal or moral character. Likewise, the notion of positive and negative rights may be applied to either liberty rights or claim rights, either permitting one to act or refrain from acting, or obliging others to act or refrain from acting. However, this article and most literature discusses them as applied to the latter sense."

The clarification ( boldface ) explains the exception ( italics ) which is not under discussion in most literature, as ones own choices, where they only impact oneself, don't cause as much concern as the obligations ( legal and moral ) of Society ( read, "bystanders." )

In short, Negative Rights are "leave me alone" where the lack of obligation permits me to leave you alone. Positive Rights are "my needs require me to take your resources" ( where those resources aren't the shared-planet air-in-Scranton kind, but the sort whose loss you notice immediately because you had need of them yourself. )

So, Negative Rights impinge on nobody, and Positive Rights always impinge on a Negative Right; the one you would be exercising had I not denied you the resources.

At which point, the political POVs come into it and value judgments get attached to a distinction which is not loaded with value judgments.

Dante