By your reasoning we should have blamed police officials for the beltway sniper shootings.

No. We should blame them for not stopping the shootings, if they had evidence that would lead a reasonable person to conclude they should've been able to stop the guy. If someone gives the police the guy's name and phone # (kinda like the CIA got one of the hijacker's names and phone # before 9-11), it's reasonable to expect that the police should act on that information in a timely manner.

Were people blaming Roosevelt at the time for Pearl Harbor? (I know some do now)

Some people undoubtedly blamed him for not preventing it, but not for the act itself. The government heavily censored the information about the Pearl Harbor fiasco and the public didn't learn about the full extent of the damage until after the war (when FDR was dead).

I think a government that limits the right to self-defense partly assumes responsibility for that defense, particulary when taxes are spent to provide security. Unfortunately, the courts don't see it that way, as in this case:

In 1959, New Yorker Linda Riss was terrorized by an ex-boyfriend with a criminal record. Over several months he repeatedly threatened her; she repeatedly sought police protection. Nothing was done. When her ex-boyfriend threatened her with immediate attack, she again urgently begged the New York City Police Department for help. Her pleas were ignored. The next day, a "thug" hired by her persecutor threw lye in her face. She was blinded in one eye and her face was permanently scarred.





The Court of Appeals of New York ruled that Linda Riss had no right to protection. Judge Keating dissented, bitterly noting that Ms. Riss was victimized not only because she had relied on the police to protect her, but also because she obeyed New York laws that forbade her to own a weapon. Judge Keating wrote:

What makes the city's position particularly difficult to understand is that, in conformity to the dictates of the law, Linda did not carry any weapon for self-defense. Thus, by a rather bitter irony she was required to rely for protection on the City of New York, which now denies all responsibility to her.

(Riss v. City of New York, 293 N.Y. 2d 897)

I agree with Keating. If government doesn't allow citizens to provide for their own defense, it had damn well better be assuming that responsibility.