Full Idea
Max Weber observed that states possess a monopoly of legitimate violence.
Gist of Idea
States have a monopoly of legitimate violence
Source
report of Jean-Paul Sartre (Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions [1939]) by Jonathan Wolff - An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev) 2 'State'
Book Reference
Wolff,Jonathan: 'An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev)' [OUP 2006], p.36
A Reaction
This sounds rather hair-raising, and often is, but it sounds quite good if we describe it as a denial of legitimate violence to individual citizens. Hobbes would like it, since individual violence breaches some sort of natural contract. Guns in USA.