At United Nations conferences and in other international fora, many diplomats and NGOs have called for prohibiting or severely limiting firearms possession by “non-state actors.” Use of the phrase “non-state actors,” however, reveals a profound misunderstanding of the nature of sovereignty. While the phrase implies that sovereignty belongs to the government, sovereignty properly belongs to the people and is merely delegated by them to the government. In this article, we examine the connection between arms possession and sovereignty and we detail the horrible violations of human rights that have so often resulted from the prohibition of guns to “non-state actors.” From ancient Athens to modern Zimbabwe, weapons bans for “non-state actors” have often led to human rights abuses by illegitimate governments; these abuses are perpetrated against the legitimate sovereigns: the people of the nation.