GUN CONTROL
210 Carefully Selected Quotations Divided into 8 Sections.
1. Essence - 1 | 5. Negative - 123
2. Opposites - 27 | 6. Advice - 166
3. Insight - 46 | 7. Poetry & Prose - 201
4. Positive - 96 | 8. Jokes & Humor - 207
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GUN CONTROL 1. Essence
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1 "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security
of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear
Arms, shall not be infringed."
United States Constitution, Amendment II
Bill of Rights
2 The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to
keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect
themselves against tyranny in Government.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
3 The constitutions of most of our States assert that all
power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right
and duty to be at all times armed;...
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
letter to Justice John Cartwright, June 5, 1824
4 The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of
himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it
from the State government. It is one of the "high powers"
delegated directly to the citizen, and 'is excepted out of
the general powers of government.' A law cannot be passed to
infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and
independent of the lawmaking power.
Texas Court Decision
Cockrum v. State, 24 Tex. 394, at 401-402 (1859)]
5 All we ask for is registration, just like we do for cars."
Charles Schumer (b. 1950)
has sworn an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution
Press conference, 1993,
6 Waiting periods are only a step.
Registration is only a step.
The prohibition of private firearms is the goal.
Janet Reno (b. 1938)
7 All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The
communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns
can ever be used to command the party.
Mao Tse Tung
Problems of War and Strategy, Nov 6 1938
8 We, the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and
the courts - not to overthrow the Constitution, but to
overthrow men who pervert the Constitution.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
9 The framers gave us the Second Amendment not so we could go
deer or duck hunting but to give us a modicum of protection
against congressional tyranny.
Walter E. Williams (b. 1936)
10 ...As we enter the 21st Century, rates of taxation have
reached oppressive levels. To statists (who seek only to
expand government power), growing resentment on the part of
people who work, produce wealth, and pay oppressive taxes
presents a serious threat. Disarming ordinary Americans who
will be called upon to pay ever higher taxes is seen by them
as necessary to minimize that threat.
Howard J. Fezell, Esq.
http://www.secondamendment.net/2amd8.html
11 That is why our masters in Washington are so anxious to
disarm us. They are not afraid of criminals. They are afraid
of a populace which cannot be subdued by tyrants.
Jeff Cooper
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, Vol. 2, No. 5, May 1994
12 The thought that average citizens will somehow be better
able to successfully defend themselves more effectively than
our nation's trained professionals is absurd.
Handgun Control, Inc.
Official statement from Handgun Control, Inc.
13 It is also interesting to note that the top officials of
Handgun Control Institute are gun owners themselves. They
also intend on keeping them. It's other people's guns that
bother them...
Mark Urbin
14 95% of all 911 responses are too late to stop the crime!
So, the average 911 caller, terrified for his/her life,
has only a 1-in-20 chance of having the police arrive in
time.
(But, why call the police in the first place? Because the
police are armed! Well, why are so many people unarmed?
Often, because the law required it! Hmmm.)
Boston's Gun Bible, p. 32/6
15 When seconds count between living or dying,
the police are only minutes away.
Phillip Van Cleave
16 Gun laws are an attempt to nationalize the right of
self-defense. Politicians perennially react to the police's
abject failure to prevent crime by trying to disarm
law-abiding citizens. The worse government fails to control
crime, the more the politicians want to restrict
individuals' rights to defend themselves. But police
protection in most places is typical government work -
slow, inefficient, and unreliable...
James Brovard
Quoted in "Dial 911 and Die - The Shocking Truth about...
17 After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns
away from the people who didn't do it.
I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the
only people allowed guns are the police and the military."
William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)
18 Gun Control is not about guns;
it's about control.
Anonymous
Pro-Gun "One-Liners"
19 Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human
freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of
slaves.
William Pitt (1759-1806)
Speech - British House of Commons, Nov. 18, 1783
20 The desire to order other people around and make them
conform to one own's vision takes many forms.
Thomas Sowell (b. 1930)
21 The maintenance of the right to bear arms is a most
essential one to every free people and should not be
whittled down by technical constructions.
North Carolina Court Decision
State vs. Kerner, 181 N.C. 574,...1921
22 By calling attention to 'a well regulated militia,' 'the
security of the nation,' and the right of each citizen 'to
keep and bear arms,' our founding fathers recognized the
essentially civilian nature of our economy... The Second
Amendment still remains an important declaration of our
basic civilian-military relationships in which every citizen
must be ready to participate in the defense of his country.
For that reason I believe the Second Amendment will always
be important.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
1959 letter to E.B. Mann quoted: Gun Digest 1974
23 Nowhere else in the Constitution does a 'right' attributed
to 'the people' refer to anything other than an individual
right. What is more, in all six other provisions of the
Constitution that mention 'the people,' the term
unambiguously refers to all members of the political
community, not an unspecified subset... The Second Amendment
extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute
bearable arms... The very text of the Second Amendment
implicitly recognizes the pre-existence of the right and
declares only that it 'shall not be infringed.'
Justice Antonin Scalia (b. 1936)
District of Columbia v. Heller, June 26, 2008
24 The fundamental force behind the Second Amendment is to
empower the people and give them the greatest measure of
authority over the tyranny of runaway government.
Bob Schaffer (b. 1962)
25 To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war
arm... is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional
right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable
men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns,
the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows,
and not by a general deprivation of constitutional
privilege.
Arkansas Court Decision
Wilson v. State, 33 Ark. 557, at 560, 34 Am. - 1878
26 ...the reason that the gun lobby is so powerful, is not the
NRA but the basis on which the NRA's power rests; i.e., the
Second Amendment. The truth about the Second Amendment is
something that liberals cannot bear to admit: The right wing
is right. The amendment does confer an individual right to
bear arms, and its very presence makes effective gun control
in this country all but impossible.
Daniel Lazare
"Your Constitution is Killing You" Harpers Magazine, 1999
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GUN CONTROL 2. Opposites
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27 Gun bans don't disarm criminals, gun bans attract them."
Walter Mondale (b. 1928)
U.S. Ambassador to Japan, April 20, 1994
28 The nation's murder rate is near a 40 year low and the
number of privately owned guns in the U.S. is at an all-time
high and rising by about 4.5 million annually.
Right-to-Carry states had lower violent crime rates on
the average than the rest of the country. Total violent
crime in Right-to-Carry States was 24% lower; murder
28% lower; robbery 50% lower and aggravated assault 11%
lower.
The cities with the highest murder rates were cities with
severe gun control.
FBI Crime Report 2007
FBI Crime Report is Bad News for Anti-Gunners 1/2009
29 Good people do not need laws to tell them to act
responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the
laws.
Plato (428 B.C. to 348)
30 The course of history shows that as a government grows,
liberty decreases.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
31 Gun bans disarm victims, putting them at the mercy of
murderers or terrorists who think nothing of breaking the
gun laws.
Michael Badnarik ( b. 1954)
32 Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those
who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...
Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for
the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to
prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with
greater confidence than an armed man.
Cesare Beccaria (1735-1794)
quoted in Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776
33 ...Kennesaw, Georgia, which in 1989 passed a law that
mandated all homeowners to have a gun in their house.
Burglaries dropped by 89%. (Conversely, Morton Grove,
Illinois banned handguns and crimes of all sort went up.!)
Boston T. Party
Boston's Gun Bible, p. 32/28
34 The media insist that crime is the major concern of the
American public today. In this connection they generally
push the point that a disarmed society would be a crime-free
society. They will not accept the truth that if you take all
the guns off the street you still will have a crime problem,
whereas if you take the criminals off the street you cannot
have a gun problem.
Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)
35 Laws can't control the lawless.
Wayne LaPierre
36 Dangerous laws created by well intentioned people today can
be used by dangerous people with evil intentions tomorrow.
Alan Eppers
37 It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen
from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen
to keep the government from falling into error.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954)
38 This battle for 'common-sense' gun control laws pits emotion
and passion against logic and reason. All too often in such
a contest, logic loses. So, expect more meaningless, if not
harmful, 'gun control' legislation. Good news - if you're a
crook.
Larry Elder
39 I sympathize with people who want to ban guns, but I can't
agree with them. We have to be careful in our zeal to
abolish guns that we don't wind up with counter-productive
legislation that will leave armed only the people most
likely to do harm with them.
Hugh Downs (b. 1921)
40 Guns are not always the answer, but obtaining a firearm has
saved the lives of many... While I favor keeping guns out of
the hands of felons, youths and the mentally impaired, I
oppose adding more bureaucratic obstacles that attempt to
fight crime by disarming its victims.
Peter Kasler (????- 2001)
New York Times, July 13th 1991
41 They have gun control in Cuba.
They have universal health care in Cuba.
So why do they want to come here?
Paul Harvey Aurandt (1918-2009)
42 I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending
too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree
of it.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
letter to Archibald Stuart, Dec. 23, 1791.
43 In my opinion, neither money nor greed (cupiditas) is the
root of all evil. The root of all evil is envy. The
non-coper hates the coper, and thus the non-shooter hates
the shooter. I see no other explanation for the
pointless and irrational activism of the gun grabbers on the
political scene. They know that their machinations
can have no effect upon crime. Guns have no effect upon
crime, but they do make all men equal, as the saying
goes. This puts the coper on top, and infuriates the
non-coper.
Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Volume Nine, No 3. 16/73
44 Doctors have been caught using poisons, and those who
falsely assume the name of philosopher have occasionally
been detected in the gravest crimes. Let us give up eating,
it often makes us ill; let us never go inside houses, for
sometimes they collapse on their occupants; let never a
sword be forged for a soldier, since it might be used by a
robber.
Marcus Fabius Quintilian (35-100 A.D.)
Institutio Oratoria, II, xv
45 One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their
purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people,
and making it an offense to keep arms.
Joseph Story (1779-1845)
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GUN CONTROL 3. Insight
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46 In recent years it has been suggested that the Second
Amendment protects the "collective" right of states to
maintain militias, while it does not protect the right of
"the people" to keep and bear arms... The phrase "the
people" meant the same thing in the Second Amendment as it
did in the First, Fourth, Ninth and Tenth Amendments - that
is, each and every free person...
Stephen P. Holbrook
That Every Man Be Armed: Evolution of a Constitutional...
47 Never Forget, even for an instant, that the one and only
reason anybody has for taking your gun away is to make you
weaker than he is, so he can do something to you that you
wouldn't allow him to do if you were equipped to prevent it.
This goes for burglars, muggers, and rapists, and even more
so for policemen, bureaucrats, and politicians.
L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
"Hope" by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
48 Just as the First and Fourth Amendment secure individual
rights of speech and security respectively, the Second
Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear
arms. This view of the text comports with the all but
unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers.
John Ashcroft ( b. 1942)
49 The provision in the Constitution granting the right to
all persons to bear arms is a limitation upon the power of
the Legislature to enact any law to the contrary. The
exercise of a right guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be
made subject to the will of the sheriff.
Michigan Court Decision
People vs. Zerillo, 219 Mich. 635,... 1922
50 The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting, and I know
I'm not going to make very many friends saying this, but
it's about our right, all of our right to be able to protect
ourselves from all of you guys [politicians] up there.
Suzanna Gratia Hupp (b. 1959)
Testimony before Congress about the Assault Weapons Ban
51 My view of guns is simple. I hate guns and I cannot imagine
why anyone would want to own one. If I had my way, guns for
sport would be registered, and all other guns would be
banned.
Deborah Prothrow-Stith (b. 1954)
52 Indeed, the tendency among sophisticates to blame inanimate
objects such as knives or guns is a kind of defense
mechanism against the principle of personal responsibility.
Wall Street Journal
"Wall Street Journal" quoted in J. Cooper's Commentaries
53 The usual road to slavery is that first they take away your
guns, then they take away your property, then last of all
they tell you to shut up and say you are enjoying it.
James A. Donald
54 If I could have banned them all...I would have!
Diane Feinstein (b. 1933)
Gun owner with concealed carry permit
Statement on TV program 60 Minutes, Feb 5 1995
55 No matter how many speeches a politician gives in favor of
gun control, it's a safe bet that his own bodyguards are
still packing heat. Even if he's giving a speech at a
school or post office or other gun-free zone. The Secret
Service and other professional-bodyguard types apparently
don't trust the ability of "No guns allowed" signs to keep
shooters from hitting their targets.
That's the difference between public servants and the
public they serve. Our servants' lives are considered much
too valuable to risk in a gun-free zone.
Jennifer Abel
"Who has advantage in a gun-free zone?" Middletown Press
56 We're bending the law as far as we can
to ban an entirely new class of guns.
Rahm Emmanuel (b. 1959)
57 How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you
how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy
and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that
needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken
care of.
Suzanna Gratia Hupp (b. 1959)
58 A sword never kills anybody;
it is a tool in the killer's hand.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (54 BC-39 AD)
Roman Rhetorician and Writer
59 False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real
advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that
would take fire from men because it burns, and water because
one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except
destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are
laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are
neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.
Cesare Beccaria (1735-1794)
quoted by Thomas Jefferson in his Commonplace Book
60 The ruling class doesn't care about public safety.
Having made it very difficult for States and localities to
police themselves, having left ordinary citizens with no
choice but to protect themselves as best they can,
they now try to take our guns away.
In fact they blame us and our guns for crime.
This is so wrong that it cannot be an honest mistake.
U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop (b. 1933)
61 We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless
legislative strategy! We're going to beat guns into
submission!
Charles Schumer (b. 1950)
has sworn an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution
quoted on NBC, December 8, 1993
62 ...If "gun control" meant only keeping guns out of violent
hands, I'd not only use the phrase, I'd support it. But
"gun control" means much more than that. It has to, because
every criminal use of guns is already against the law!
It is already unlawful to use a gun to: rob, intimidate,
rape, assault, kidnap, hijack, murder, etc.
Its purpose is not to control guns, or even criminals.
Its purpose is to control people by making them helpless,
and thus requiring police (i.e. government) protection.
Boston T. Party
Boston's Gun Bible, p 32/2
63 Expecting a carjacker or rapist or drug pusher to care that
his possession or use of a gun is unlawful is like expecting
a terrorist to care that his car bomb is taking up two
parking spaces.
Joseph T. Chew
Usenet posting in talk.politics.guns
64 Laws do not prevent any serious crimes, because serious
criminals do not obey laws in the first place! Every nasty
criminal activity possible is already prohibited by law, so
there's really no further way to legislatively affect the
criminal. (Some psychiatrists explain insanity this way:
repeating an action over and over again with the expectation
of different results. Restrictive laws relating to peaceful
American gunowners have never reduced crime, yet with each
new law a "different result" of crime reduction is
anticipated. Sounds crazy to me!)
Boston T. Party
Boston's Gun Bible, p. 32/30
65 Without either the first or second amendment, we would have
no liberty; the first allows us to find out what's
happening, the second allows us to do something about it!
The second will be taken away first, followed by the first
and then the rest of our freedoms.
Andrew Ford
66 One correspondent, who is into psychology, notes that in his
experience people who are hoplophobes are nearly always
nutty in other ways, too. Hoplophobia [fear of guns], of
course, is not simply an attitude but rather an aberration
in which the sufferer clings to an idea which he himself
knows to be unsound, such as the idea that inanimate
instruments have a will of their own or that lawbreakers
abide by the law.
Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Volume Nine, No 7. 35/73
67 I don't believe anybody has a right to own any kind of a
firearm. I believe in order to obtain a permit to own a
firearm, that person should undergo an exhaustive criminal
background check. In addition, an applicant should give up
his right to privacy and submit his medical records for
review to see if the person has ever had a problem with
alcohol, drugs or mental illness... The Constitution doesn't
count!
John Silber (b. 1926)
Speech before the Quequechan Club, MA., 8/16/1990
68 No slaves shall keep any arms whatever, nor pass,
unless with written orders from his master or employer,
or in his company, with arms from one place to another.
Quote from A Bill Concerning Slaves, 1785
The Essential Jefferson (Collier Books, 1963), p. 140.
69 ...How can Americans living in the freest country in the
world be 'slaves'?
We don't even enjoy the liberty of serfs. ( A serf paid
only 25% of his earnings to his feudal lord. How much
income tax do you pay?) Don't kid yourselves, we're slaves.
Slaves with weekends off.
Boston T. Party
Boston's Gun Bible, p. 33/9
70 [W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in
Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an
artful man, who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the
people; that it was the best and most effectual way to
enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but
weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally
disusing and neglecting the militia.
George Mason (1725-1792)
from Debates Virginia State Ratifying Convention - 1788
71 They will never outlaw all of your guns at once. But every
'reasonable' control they can impose without your resistance
gives them one more bit of leverage to make gun ownership
for you and your children and your grandchildren as
difficult as possible.
David Kopel
72 The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in
most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine
this right within the narrowest possible limits. ... and
[when] the right of the people to keep and bear arms is,
under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty,
if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.
George Tucker
73 Before a standing army can rule, the people must be
disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The
supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the
sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and
constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops
that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States
Noah Webster, 1888
"An Examination into...the Federal Constitution" 1787
74 Our right to keep and bear arms - personally - is the
essential element of political liberty, without which we
would stand as mere slaves of any current administration, as
do most of the people in the world today. We treasure our
right to be armed, not only as defense against tyrants, but
also as defense against evil men acting alone. Our right to
defend ourselves against felons by force of arms protects
not only our liberty but also - and this is often overlooked
- our dignity. Dignity is a word not often used in the Age
of the Wimp, for by definition a wimp has no dignity.
But dignity remains not only desirable but essential to
persons of consequence. This concept is rejected by the
socialist, who feels that dignity resides solely in the
state. But we Americans are not socialists (at least most of
us are not) and we prize our unique status in world society.
Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Volume Nine, No. 7 34/73
75 ...And I cannot see why arms should be denied to any man who
is not a slave, since they are the only true badges of
liberty; and ought never, but in times of utmost necessity,
to be put into the hands of mercenaries or slaves: neither
can I understand why any man that has arms should not be
taught the use of them.
Andrew Fletcher(1653-1716)
A Discourse of Government With Relation to Militias
76 Crime is a human behavior problem, not a mechanical problem.
Furthermore, if firearms were not very useful for
self-defense, then police wouldn't carry them.
In a free country, if the government can go armed,
so should the citizens, if they so choose.
Charley Reese (b. 1937)
77 Firearms have been around for over 400 years, yet it is only
in the last 20 years that people have begun shouting "gun
control". Why then, only recently, has this become such an
issue? Moreover, why are there more mass-murderers than at
any other time in our known history? It is not because
weapons are more powerful - 200-year-old muzzleloaders have
a much greater force-per-round than today's "assault
rifles". It is not because weapons are semi- or
fully-automatic - rapid-fire weapons have been available
for most of the last century. It is not due to a lack of
laws - we have more "gun control" laws than ever. It IS,
however, because we have chosen to focus on "gun control"
instead of crime control or "thug control." It IS because
only recently has the public become complacent enough to
accept, by inaction, the violence present in our society.
Kevin Langston,
Tuesday, 29 October, 1991
78 Assault is a type of behavior, not a type of hardware.
Alan Korwin
79 But to ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the
innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties
depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the
guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to
have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will
allow. ... For society does not control crime, ever, by
forcing the law-abiding to accommodate themselves to the
expected behavior of criminals. Society controls crime by
forcing the criminals to accommodate themselves to the
expected behavior of the law-abiding.
Jeff Snyder
Washington Times, August 25, 1994
80 A government that intended to protect the liberty of the
people would not disarm them. A government planning the
opposite most certainly and logically would disarm them. And
so it has been in this century. Check out the history of
Germany, the Soviet Union, Cuba, China and Cambodia.
Charlie Reese (b. 1937)
81 They [the makers of our Constitution] conferred, as
against the government, the right to be let alone - the most
comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by
civilized men.
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to
protect liberty when the government's purposes are
beneficial ... the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in
insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but
without understanding.
Louis D. Brandeis (1856 - 1941)
1928
82 What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the
establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty....
Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties
of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia,
in order to raise an army upon their ruins.
Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814)
I Annals of Congress at 750 {August 17, 1789}])
83 It would also be strange to find in the midst of a catalog
of the rights of individuals a provision securing to the
states the right to maintain a designated "Militia."
Dispassionate scholarship suggests quite strongly that the
right of the people to keep and bear arms meant just that.
Justice Antonin Scalia
A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law
84 "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not
be infringed." The right of the whole people, old and
young, men, women and boys, and not militia only, to keep
and bear arms of every description, and not such merely as
are used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed,
or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for
the important end to be attained: the rearing up and
qualifying a well-regulated militia, so vitally necessary to
the security of a free State. Our opinion is that any law,
State or Federal, is repugnant to the Constitution, and
void, which contravenes this right.
Georgia Court Decision
Nunn vs. State, 1 Ga. (1 Kel.) 243, at 251 (1846)
85 When a commissioned officer takes the oath, he swears
"To support and defend the Constitution of the United
States of America against all enemies foreign and
domestic."
We know about these foreign enemies of the US Constitution,
but who are the "domestics"? For my money the most
conspicuous domestic enemy whom I have sworn to confound is
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
It is not clear to me that the BATF does anything that
needs doing. Contrarily, it does a great deal that does
not need doing. I do not know how many people are currently
employed by this unpleasant agency, but I do feel it to be
my duty to support the US Constitution against domestic
enemies by advocating abolition of the BATF. I have been
told by people in Washington that when I make statements
like this, I am laying my head on the block. So be it.
Better men than I have done just that.
Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries - Volume Five
86 What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are
not warned from time to time that the people preserve the
spirit of resistance?
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
87 As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second
Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the
only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come
to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land,
in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts
and speech are mandated.
Charlton Heston (b 1924)
88 Registration today always leads to confiscation later.
"We're only asking for registration today because we want to
be able to trace a gun back to its rightful owner," they
claim. That's what the City of New York told it's residents
years ago. That's what Great Britain and Australia told
their citizens years ago. And in all those places the
government went back on its word and banned guns...Naturally
compliance has not been 100%, so the government threatens
holdouts with 4 years in prison and $100,000 fines. It then
uses the registration lists to go house-to-house and
forcibly steal private property....leaving the people
defenseless against the new violent crimes that predictably
followed...
Boston T. Party
Boston's' Gun Bible p. 32/32
89 I have not one doubt, even if I am in agreement with the
National Rifle Association, that that kind of record keeping
procedure (gun registration) is the first step to eventual
confiscation under one administration or another
Charles Morgan
In a 1975 hearing before the House Subcommittee on Crime
90 You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get
yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is
to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding
fathers used in the struggle for independence.
Charles A. Beard (1874-1948)
91 In my studies as an attorney and as a United States
Senator, I have constantly been amazed by the indifference
or even hostility shown the Second Amendment by courts,
legislatures, and commentators.
James Madison would be startled to hear that his
recognition of a right to keep and bear arms, which passed
the House by a voice vote without objection and hardly a
debate, has since been construed in but a single, and most
ambiguous Supreme Court decision, whereas his proposals for
freedom of religion, which he made reluctantly out of fear
that they would be rejected or narrowed beyond use, and
those for freedom of assembly, which passed only after a
lengthy and bitter debate, are the subject of scores of
detailed and favorable decisions.
Thomas Jefferson, who kept a veritable armory of pistols,
rifles and shotguns at Monticello, and advised his nephew to
forsake other sports in favor of hunting, would be astounded
to hear supposed civil libertarians claim firearm ownership
should be restricted.
Samuel Adams, a handgun owner who pressed for an amendment
stating that the "Constitution shall never be construed...to
prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable
citizens from keeping their own arms,’ would be shocked to
hear that his native state today imposes a year's sentence,
without probation or parole, for carrying a firearm without
a police permit.
Orrin G. Hatch (b. 1934)
92 The founders faced the very same kind of abuses of power we
experience today, outrage in abuses of powers. The founders
declared that we, the people, are the sovereign, and not the
government. As with all sovereigns, it is we who have the
monopoly on force, and we delegate what we want to without
surrendering any of our own. As the sovereign, the monopoly
on force is only one part of our total authority: the
electorate's direction of servants is being defied in nearly
every single issue and crisis, not only in violent crime.
Gun rights and freedoms are a very sensitive bellwether of
future abuses of all rights like broken windows are a
92 bellwether of urban blight... Some have lost sight of what
it is to be free.
John Longenecker
LA Gun Rights Examiner, 1/27/09
93 The National Firearms Act fit in perfectly with the
systematic creation of government programs and deficit
spending that Franklin Roosevelt immediately began to
institute the instant he took office. The NFA was a model
vehicle for the continued expansion of government power: It
was arbitrary (i.e. the 18-inch rule); it gave the
government sweeping authority over something very common; it
focused on inanimate objects rather than criminal behavior;
it levied draconian taxes on these objects; and most
importantly, it created millions of criminals with the
stroke of a pen, just as Prohibition had.
John Ross
"Unintended Consequences," 1991 by Accurate Press
94 ... That the United States was born out of an armed
rebellion fueled, in large part, by resentment over
excessive taxation is a bit of history that makes statists
extremely uncomfortable. It should, therefore, come as no
surprise that congressmen and senators who dream of an
ever-expanding welfare state consistently vote to restrict
individual gun ownership or even ban the production of
certain classes of firearms....
Howard J. Fezell, Esq.
AMERICAN SURVIVAL GUIDE, April 1997
95 The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden
to have in their possession any swords, short swords, bows,
spears, firearms, or other types of arms. The possession of
unnecessary implements makes difficult the collection of
taxes and dues and tends to foment uprisings.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598)
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GUN CONTROL 4. Positive
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96 Banning guns addresses a fundamental right
of all Americans to feel safe.
Diane Feinstein (b. 1933)
Gun owner with concealed carry permit
97 The welfare of the people has always been the alibi of
tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the
servants of tyranny a good conscience.
Albert Camus (1913-1960)
98 I don't care about crime, I just want to get the guns.
Howard Metzenbaum (1917-2008)
99 Those who would give up essential liberty
to purchase a little temporary safety,
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
from PA Assembly's reply to the Governor of PA - 1755
100 I am one who believes that as a first step the U.S. should
move expeditiously to disarm the civilian population, other
than police and security officers, of all handguns, pistols
and revolvers ...no one should have a right to anonymous
ownership or use of a gun.
Dean Morris
Testimony to Congress
101 No slaves shall keep any arms whatever, nor pass, unless
with written orders for his master or employer, or in his
company, with arms from one place to another. Arms in
possession of a slave contrary to this prohibition shall be
forfeited to him who will seize them."
A Bill Concerning Slaves
Virginia Assembly, 1779
102 Gun Control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and
gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I'm a bad guy, I'm
always gonna have a gun. Safety Locks? You will pull the
trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger. We'll see
who wins.
Sammy "the Bull" Gravano (b. 1945)
Asked about Gun Control in an interview in Vanity Fair
103 One man with a gun can control 100 without one.
Lenin (1870-1924)
104 The Chinese, the Russians, the Nazis
and Saddam Hussein all agree!
Gun Control Works!
Dean Armstrong
105 There are some weapons that are just so dangerous
that society has a right and the obligation even
to take those weapons out of circulation.
Jim Florio (b. 1937)
106 Every Swiss man from 18 to 50 has a fully automatic
"assault rifle" with a 25-round mags, and ammo. His rifle
is not stored at the army base (as here) - he gets to keep
it at home!...Yet criminal use of these powerful weapons is
almost unheard of. Also, the Swiss have no gun restrictions
for sane non-felon adults. Buy what you want, and carry it
where you want to.
You see, the Swiss government and the Swiss citizens trust
each other, because they are the same people....versus here
where we suffer a professional political class ruling from
on high what they to be their "subjects."
Boston T. Party
Boston's Gun Bible, p.32/25
107 I do not believe in people owning guns. Guns should be owned
only by the police and military. I am going to do everything
I can to disarm this state.
Michael Dukakis (b. 1933)
108 Only Vermont perfectly recognizes your right to be
peaceably armed without permit - openly or concealed. So,
Sarah Brady and Josh Sugarmann - why isn't Vermont a hotbed
or gun violence when it should be by your arguments?
Conversely, why is Washington, D.C., where they've banned
handgun ownership, our nation's murder capital? CHL states
have lower crime rates. This is indisputable. Every Swiss
male keeps at home his fully-automatic, militia-issued rifle
(along with grenades, mortars, etc.), and Switzerland has
the lowest crime rate in the West.
Boston T. Party
Boston's Gun Bible, p. 30/18 www.javelinpress.com
109 We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion:
the stage where the government is free to do anything it
pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission;
which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history,
the stage of rule by brute force.
Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
The Nature of Government
110 If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United
States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them...
'Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in,' I would have done
it.
Diane Feinstein (b. 1933)
Gun owner with concealed carry permit
60 Minutes episode
111 Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the
SA - ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns
doesn't serve the State.
Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945)
112 We protect aspirin bottles in this country better than we
protect guns from accidents by children.
Gloria Estefan (b. 1957)
113 " If I had my way, sporting guns would be strictly
regulated, the rest would be confiscated
"
Nancy Pelosi (b. 1940)
114 Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an
alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is morally
superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker
got that fatal bullet wound.
Women Against Gun Control
http://www.wagc.com/
115 If those states which did not have right-to-carry concealed
gun provisions had adopted them in 1992, approximately 1,570
murders; 4,177 rapes; and over 60,000 aggravate assaults
would have been avoided yearly.
Professor John Lott
http://deepwaterweb.com/gunstudy.htm
116 We're here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true...
Charles Schumer (b. 1950)
has sworn an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution
quoted on NBC, November 30, 1993
117 I didn't see any NRA officials killing babies in Waco...
P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947)
118 I honestly think - and I am not an expert on the amendments
- I think the only people in this nation who should be
allowed to own guns are police officers. I don't care if you
want to hunt, I don't care if you think it's your right. I
say, 'Sorry. It is 1999, we have had enough as a nation. You
are not allowed to own a gun and if you do own a gun, I
think you should go to prison.'
Rosie O'Donnell (b. 1962)
April 21, 1999
119 These Sarah Brady types must be educated to understand that
because we have an armed citizenry, that a dictatorship has
not happened in America. These anti-gun fools are more
dangerous to Liberty than street criminals or foreign
spies.
Theodore Haas (b. 1917)
120 I want to make it as hard as possible. Gun owners would have
to be evaluated by how they scored on written and firing
tests, and have to pass the tests in order to own a gun. And
I would tax the guns, bullets and the license itself very
heavily.
Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)
121 The history of liberty is a history of limitation of
government power, not the increase of it.
Woodrow Wilson
122 A militia law, requiring all men, or with very few
exceptions besides cases of conscience, to be provided with
arms and ammunition... is always a wise institution, and, in
the present circumstances of our country, indispensable.
John Adams (1735-1826)
Thoughts on Government, 1776.
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GUN CONTROL 5. Negative
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123 [Washington D.C. is the nation's Murder Capital with a
murder rate of 78 per 100,000] "But how can that be when
Washington, D.C. has a total ban on privately-owned
handguns?...And yes, criminals often do get their illegal
guns from Virginia and other neighboring or nearby states.
But here's what I can't figure out: If guns cause crime, or
if easy criminal access to guns causes crime, then why
doesn't Virginia suffer a murder rate like Washington,
D.C.'s?
Criminals in both places can get guns. In Washington,
D.C., however, law abiding citizens cannot get guns. Thus
they can't protect themselves, so they much more often get
murdered. Simple, isn't it?
Boston T. Party
Boston's Gun Bible, p. 32/29
124 ...It is statistically irrefutable that those American
cities with stringent "gun control" (e.g. N.Y.C., D.C.,
Chicago, L.A.) have higher crime rates. It is also
irrefutable that those 31 states which have made conceal
carry of handguns easy for law-abiding citizens have
correspondingly enjoyed significant drops in their crime
rates.
Boston T. Party
Boston's Gun Bible, p. 32/2 www.javelinpress.com
125 People who object to weapons aren't abolishing violence,
they're begging for rule by brute force, when the biggest,
strongest animals among men were always automatically
'right.' Guns ended that, and social democracy is a hollow
farce without an armed populace to make it work.
L. Neil Smith (b. 1946)
The Probability Broach
126 Gun control has cleared the way for seven major genocides
since 1915, in which governments gone bad murdered
56,000,000 persons, including millions of children.
Aaron Zelman
127 A little Gun History Lesson:
* In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From
1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend
themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
* In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to
1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves,
were rounded up and exterminated.
* Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to
1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable
to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
* China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952,
20 million political dissidents, unable to defend
themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
* Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to
1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves,
were rounded up and exterminated.
* Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to
1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were
rounded up and exterminated.
* Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to
1977, one million 'educated' people, unable to defend
themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
* Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the
20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.
The tragic history of civilian disarmament cries a warning
against any systematic attempts to render innocent citizens
ill-equipped to defend themselves from tyrant terrorists,
despots or oppressive majorities.
Daniel Schmutter (b. 1964)
128 Before Adolf Hitler came to power, there was a black market
in firearms, but the German people had been so conditioned
to be law abiding that they would never consider buying an
unregistered gun. The German people really believed that
only hoodlums own guns. What fools we were. It truly
frightens me to see how the government, media and some
police groups in America are pushing for the same mindset.
Theodore Haas (b. 1917)
129 At Waco, was there really an urgency to get those people
out of the compound at that particular time? Was the press
going to make it look heroic for the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms?
At Ruby Ridge, there was one guy in a cabin at the top of
the mountain. Was it necessary for federal agents to go up
there and shoot a 14-year-old in the back and shoot a woman
with a child in her arms? What kind of mentality does that?
Clint Eastwood (b. 1930)
Parade Magazine, 01/12/97
130 The militia of these free commonwealths,
entitled and accustomed to their arms,
when compared with any possible army,
must be tremendous and irresistible.
Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves?
Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms
each man against his own bosom.
Congress have no power to disarm the militia.
Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the
soldier, are the birth-right of an American ...
the unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands
of either the federal or state governments,
but, where I trust in God it will ever remain,
in the hands of the people.
Tench Coxe (1755-1824)
Pennsylvania Gazette, February 20, 1788
131 And that the said Constitution be never construed to
authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the
press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people
of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from
keeping their own arms...
Samuel Adams
Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, August 20, 1789
132 No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms (within his own
lands or tenements).
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Draft Virginia Constitution 1776. Papers 1:353
133 No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of
construction be conceived to give to congress a power to
disarm the people.
William Rawle (1759-1836)
Rawle, A View of the Constitution, p. 125-6, 1829
134 The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed
for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other
rights have failed - where the government refuses to stand
for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts
have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to
enforce their decrees. However improbable these
contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a
mistake a free people get to make only once.
Alex Kozinski (b. 1950)
US 9th Circuit Court, 2003
135 The American Revolution would never have happened with gun
control.
Anonymous
136 One of the arguments that had been made against gun control
was that an armed citizenry was the final bulwark against
tyranny. My response had been that untrained, lightly-armed
non-soldiers couldn't prevail against a modern army.
I had concluded that the qualitative difference in firepower
was such that all of the previous rules of guerilla war no
longer applied. Both Vietnam and Afghanistan demonstrated
that wasn't true. Repelling an armed invasion is not
something that American citizens are likely to face, but the
possibility of a despotic government coming to power is not
wholly unthinkable. One of the sequellae of Vietnam was the
rise of the Khmer Rouge and slaughter of perhaps a million
Cambodian citizens. Those citizens, like the Jews in
Germany or the Armenians in Turkey, were unarmed and thus
utterly and completely defenseless against police and
paramilitary. An armed minority was able to kill and
terrorize unarmed victims with total impunity.
Paul Hager
"Why I Carry"
137 Gun control has not worked in D.C. The only people who have
guns are criminals. We have the strictest gun laws in the
nation and one of the highest murder rates. It's quicker to
pull your Smith & Wesson than to dial 911 if you're being
robbed.
Lt. Lowell Duckett:
The Washington Post, March 22, 1996.
138 If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of
legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long
lists of examples of crime rates reduced by such
legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a
half of trying-that they must sweep under the rug the
southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period,
the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the
attempts at both Federal and State levels in
1965-1976-establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable
failure of gun laws to control serious crime.
Orrin G. Hatch (b. 1934)
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Committee Pr. I-IX, 1982
139 Not to our surprise, we discover that gun crime in Britain
is up 10.9 percent since the disarmament of the private
citizen.
Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Volume Eight
140 Have you ever heard of a mass shooting in a police station,
at a pistol range, or at a gun show? Suicidal mass murderers
may be insane, but they are not necessarily stupid. They
always select a soft target for their final acts of
violence. This principle also applies to many other types of
crime.
Michael S. Brown
The Tragedy of Gun Free Zones
141 ...All three attacks took place in areas where gun
possession by those who did the attack as well as civilians
generally was already banned - so-called "gun-free safe
zones." Suppose you or your family are being stalked by a
criminal who intends on harming you. Would you feel safer
putting a sign in front of your home saying "This Home is a
Gun-Free Zone"?
It is pretty obvious why we don't put these signs up. As
with many other gun laws, law-abiding citizens, not would-be
criminals, would obey the sign. Instead of creating a safe
zone for victims, it leaves victims defenseless and creates
a safe zone for those intent on causing harm.
John R. Lott Jr.
Disarming Facts, March 23, 2005, NRO
142 We all remember the happy day when the town of Kennesaw,
Georgia, passed an ordinance requiring householders to
maintain an appropriate firearm in every house. The
hoplophobes, of course, were horrified. Being hoplophobes,
they did not need to make sense. It is nonetheless
gratifying to note that crime, which was very unusual in
Kennesaw, Georgia, has decreased steadily since the passing
of the ordinance. If you mention this to those other people,
they have nothing to say, and simply change the subject.
Actually that is the only valid position that these
disarmers can take - change the subject!
Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Volume Six
143 All anti-gun nuts can see is the gun. They cannot see
themselves coming to the aid of another...
'Dear Sir, Madam, Significant Other: You know I love
you, but you also know I hate guns. I don't hate criminals,
I hate guns, so you need to know this about me: if our home
is ever burgled, invaded, or if we encounter anything like
that away from home, you need to know that you can't count
on me to protect you and the kids. I thought you'd like to
know this.'
.
Anti-gun activists don't realize what they are doing to
themselves along with other Americans. The anti-gun nuts
cannot even see that the shooters are persons for whom guns
are already banned. Doesn't work, does it? It is the
prohibited persons who are troubled persons to begin with.
It is the felons who are prohibited from even possessing a
gun who are doing the shootings. So much for profiling
shooters. So much for gun control. What an idiotic concept
to disarm the citizens and oneself, and be unable to disarm
the prohibited persons. Being unarmed is the perfect excuse
not to defend your wife and kids
John Longenecker
144 In a comprehensive study of all public multiple shooting
incidents in America between 1977 and 1999, economists John
Lott and Bill Landes found that the only public policy that
reduced both the incidence and casualties of such shootings
were concealed-carry laws. Not only are there 60 percent
fewer gun massacres after states adopt concealed-carry laws,
but the death and injury rate of such rampages are reduced
by 80 percent.
Ann Coulter (b. 1961)
AnnCoulter.com, 1/28/09
145 Let me make a point here, in case this isn't becoming
extremely clear. My state has gun control laws. It did not
keep Hennard from coming in and killing everybody! What it
did do, was keep me from protecting my family! That's the
only thing that cotton pickin' law did! OK! Understand that!
That's ...that's so important!
Suzanna Gratia Hupp (b. 1959)
Killeen, Texas Luby's massacre survivor
146 To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world
incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death.
How feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How
unnatural. How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic.
Ted Nugent (b. 1948)
147 For among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders
you contemptible; which is one of those disgraceful things
which a prince must guard against.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
148 Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India,
history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation
of arms, as the blackest.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
An Autobiography, pg. 446
149 The federal government may not disarm individual citizens
without some unusually strong justification.
Laurence H. Tribe
2000 edition of American Constitutional Law
150 Gun control is a band-aid, feeling good approach to the
nation's crime problem. It is easier for politicians to ban
something than it is to condemn a murderer to death or a
robber to life in prison. In essence, 'gun control' is the
coward's way out.
Gabriel Suarez
151 [T]he Clinton administration launched an attack on people in
Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns.
Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns.
Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock?
Peace Corps volunteers? Or maybe the people in Texas were
attacked because of child abuse. But, if child abuse was the
issue, why didn't Janet Reno tear-gas Woody Allen?
P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947)
speech at the Cato Institute, May 6, 1993
152 The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights Reserved.
Bumper Stickers
153 Those who beat their swords into plowshares
will plow for those who don't.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
154 Gun Control helps massacres to succeed.
Analyzing history's mass murders for common criteria has
proven very illuminating. There is a formula, and it is
nearly 100% accurate. It is this:
Person with evil intent to kill many people
+ Any deadly weapon
+ Guarantee that the intended victims can't fight back
+ Expectation that police won't prevent killing
= Mass murder
...The "gun free school zones" are places where mass
murderers know they won't be resisted. Conversely they
don't go to gun shows, police stations....Disarming ordinary
Americans isn't the answer - it is the problem! (Declaw
your housecat and see how long she lasts in the wild.)
Boston T. Party
Boston's Gun Bible, p. 32/40
155 Gun control does not decrease gun ownership by criminals but
instead reduces their incentives to refrain from violence
because it decreases the supply of armed law-abiding
citizens who might resist them."
John O. McGinnis
156 The Florida tourist-shooting epidemic is also relevant in
another way. Once the airport rental lots started removing
their big florescent rent-a-car stickers Florida's "tourist
murder crime wave" disappeared virtually overnight.
(Because criminals rightly figured that
out-of-town tourists weren't armed like Floridians were.)
Similarly, one of the last places a criminal knows he can
find unarmed victims in an increasingly well-armed and
peaceful America today ... is in the "gun free school zones"
in which the snivelliberals have locked up our children.
Vin Suprynowicz
"Send in the Waco Killers," quoted in Boston's Gun Bible
157 No, we're not looking at how to control criminals... we're
talking about banning the AK-47 and semi-automatic guns.
Howard Metzenbaum (1917-2008)
158 Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic -
purely symbolic - move in that direction. Its only real
justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the
public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their
ultimate confiscation.
Charles Krauthammer (b. 1950)
Column - Washington Post, April 5, 1996
159 ...I am opposed to all attempts to license or restrict the
arming of individuals... I consider such laws a violation of
civil liberty, subversive of democratic political
institutions, and self-defeating in their purpose.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)
in a 1949 letter concerning "Red Planet"
160 Why are guns the only unregulated consumer products in
America? We regulate toy guns and teddy bears, but we do not
regulate a product that kills 4,600 children a year.
Marian Wright Edelman
Houston Chronicle, April 30, 1999
161 And when something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs
- politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the
NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws
that continue to erode away our personal and private
liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and
Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No
amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months
planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within
our own hearts. Political posturing and restrictive
legislation are not the answers.
Darrell Scott
Subcommittee on Crime House Judiciary, may 27, 1999
162 The NRA is right...handgun controls do little to stop
criminals from obtaining handguns.
Josh Sugarman
163 As much as I oppose the average person's having a gun, I
recognize that some people [elite citizens?] have a
legitimate need to own one. A wealthy corporate executive
who fears his family might get kidnapped is one such person.
A Hollywood celebrity who has to protect himself from kooks
is another. If Sharon Tate had had access to a gun during
the Manson killings, some innocent lives might have been
saved.
Joseph McNamara
"Safe and Sane",1984, p. 71-72
164 Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption
of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the
Constitution was made to guard the people against the
dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who
mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise
to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.
Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
165 I wanted to know why the state treats teachers like
second-class citizens, when plumbers and doctors are allowed
to protect themselves on the job," she said. "I would be
happier sending my child to a school where a teacher whom I
trust is armed and well prepared.
We have created a shopping list for madmen," she said. "If
guns are the problem, why don't we see things occurring at
skeet and trap shoots, at gun shows, at NRA conventions? We
only see it where guns aren't allowed. The sign of a gun
with a slash through it is like a neon sign for gunmen,
'We're unarmed. Come kill us.'
Suzanna Gratia Hupp
Quoted in "Boston's Gun Bible," p. 30/11
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GUN CONTROL 6. Advice
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166 The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons.
They are left in full possession of them.
Zachariah Johnson (1742-1856)
3 Elliot, Debates at 646 (June 25, 1788).
167 Today, as always, the people, no less than the courts, must
remain vigilant to preserve the principals of our Bill of
Rights, lest in our desire to be secure we lose our ability
to be free.
Earl Warren (1891 -1974)
James Madison Lecture, NY University, 1962
168 Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.
Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.
Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force.
Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.
Patrick Henry (1736-1799)
169 Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution.
That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard
of our liberties.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
170 If the constitutional right to keep and bear arms is to mean
anything, it must, as a general matter, permit a person to
possess, carry and sometimes conceal arms to maintain the
security of his private residence or privately operated
business.
David Prosser (b. 1942)
171 Liberalizing concealed carry laws won't lead to a return to
the Wild West. ... in 19th Century cattle towns, homicide
was confined to transient males who shot each other in
saloon disturbances. The per capital robbery rate was 7% of
modern New York City's. The burglary rate was 1%. Rape was
unknown.
David Kopel
"Have Gun, Will Eat Out", quoted Wall Street Journal 1994
172 We're going to have to take this one step at a time, and the
first step is necessarily - given the political realities -
going to be very modest. Right now, though, we'd be
satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our
ultimate goal - total control of all guns - is going to take
time.....The final problem is to make the possession of all
handguns and all handgun ammunition - except for the
military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed
sporting clubs and licensed gun collectors - totally
illegal.
Pete Shields III
New Yorker Magazine, p.57-58, 26 Jul 76
173 As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.
In both instances, there is a twilight when everything
remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight
that we all must be most aware of change in the air -
however slight - lest we become the unwitting victims of the
darkness.
William O. Douglas (1898-1980)
174 A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device
to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie.
Lenin (1870-1924)
"The Beginning of the Revolution in Russia"
175 ...Registering guns is like sending a list of your household
valuables to a burglars' guild. Why invite - guarantee - a
visit.?
Boston T. Party
Boston's Gun Bible, p. 33/10
176 To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave
them.
George Mason (1725-1792)
3 Elliot, Debates at 380
177 Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy
the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery
under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of
war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any
further obedience.
John Locke (1632-1704)
178 What good does it do to ban some guns.
All guns should be banned.
Howard Metzenbaum (1917-2008)
179 It's time to repeal gun bans everywhere in the United
States.
John Longenecker
LA Gun Rights Examiner, 2009
180 Ideas are more dangerous than guns. We wouldn't let our
enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?
Josef Stalin (1878-1953)
181 Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment
out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual
right or that it's too much of a public safety hazard, don't
see the danger in the big picture. They're courting
disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to
eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like.
Alan Dershowitz (b. 1938)
182 Nobody should be owning a gun which does not have a sporting
purpose.
Janet Reno (b. 1938)
183 COGNITIVE DISSONANCE - A tool for reaching closed minds.
The use of questions to point out fundamental illogic, which
can then topple the notions a person builds on that flawed
base. An application of the Socratic method. The mental
awareness that forms when a simple question challenges
fundamentally held beliefs. Here are many. [Only a few
given as an example] One at a time is usually enough for
most minds.
* If a registration list makes sense for the Second
Amendment, would it make sense for the First Amendment?
* Are criminals and an armed citizenry the same thing?
* Should it be against the law to defend yourself?
* Do you believe that only the rulers should have the
guns?
* Now let me see if I understand this; when you say "gun
control," do you mean "stop crime" or "disarm the public"?
* Now let me see if I understand this; when you say
you're anti gun, do you mean you want to disarm the police
and the armed forces?
Alan Korwin
http://gunlaws.com/politicallycorrect.htm
184 The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on
certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
letter to Abigail Adams, February 22, 1787.
185 Listen hard when you hear the term "gun control" in the
news. You'll notice they're usually not talking about
controlling crime. They're talking about controlling you.
Always start by asking what a person means when they say
this phrase, then shut up and see. Often, people who think
of themselves as being anti gun unwittingly adopt the
position that only the rulers should be armed (cop and army
guns OK, but not you). Such a person isn't anti gun at all,
they're simply anti rights - your rights.
Alan Korwin
http://gunlaws.com/politicallycorrect.htm
186 When they come for your guns,
give them the ammo first.
Boston T. Party
187 We have to start with a ban on the manufacturing and import
of handguns. From there we register the guns which are
currently owned, and follow that with additional bans and
acquisitions of handguns and rifles with no sporting
purpose.
Major Owens (b.1936)
188 Don't think of it as 'gun control',
think of it as 'victim disarmament'.
If we make enough laws,
we can all be criminals.
Jeff Snyder
189 If it were up to me we'd ban them all.
Mel Reynolds (b. 1952)
CNN's Crossfire, December 9, 1993
190 I am convinced that we can do to guns what we've done to
drugs: create a multi-billion dollar underground market
over which we have absolutely no control.
George L. Roman
1992
191 If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men
with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the
penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation
of a constitutional privilege.
Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Re: Arkansas Constitution on Right to Keep and Bear Arms
192 We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights
of ordinary Americans to legitimately own handguns and
rifles...that we are unable to think about reality.
William Jefferson Clinton (b. 1946)
193 I cannot agree with those who think of the Bill of Rights as
an 18th century straitjacket, unsuited for this age...The
evils it guards against are not only old, they are with us
now, they exist today.
Hugo Black ( 1886-1971)
The Great Rights, Cahn '63, p 44-45
194 You need the will to disarm the civilian population.
If we can do it in Somalia, we can do it here.
Mary McGrory (1918-2004)
Arizona Daily Star, March 11, 1993 p. A16
195 Forget what our forefathers said.
Dominick Potifrone
On the Inside: The BATF", Discovery Channel, 2000
196 A man with a gun is a citizen, a man without a gun is a
subject. Our forefathers knew this to be true..... Why do so
many of us question their wisdom?
D. Michael Wiechman
May 14, 1996
197 "...Misguided utopian disarmament advocates love the phrases
"pro gun" and "anti gun," because they automatically win
when they're used. They believe the righteous path is to be
anti gun, because only devils would be pro gun. You flat
lose if you allow a debate to be framed that way.
The debate is really between people who are "pro rights" and
"anti rights" (and then you automatically win), because the
righteous choice between pro rights and anti rights is
obvious....A more accurate, and far more compelling term
than the common "anti gun." The reverse term, which
describes you, is "pro rights." Fight the desire to cast
repressionists as "anti gun," (and by so doing casting
yourself narrowly as "pro gun"). Instead, always refer more
broadly to the "anti-rights" posture they take. Make them
argue rights, not guns.
Alan Korwin
POLITICALLY CORRECTED, Glossary of Terms
198 I believe the most popular and significant signature of the
gun rights subculture is an ancient challenge issued by King
Leonidas of Sparta. In 480 B.C., he and 300 of his Spartan
warriors occupied the narrow pass at Thermopylae to delay
the onslaught of the gigantic Persian army. Historians put
the size of the Persian forces between 150,000 and 2 million
men.
When ordered by the Persian commander to give up their
weapons, Leonidas shouted back, "Molon labe!" or "Come take
them!" The valiant Greeks fought to the last man and bought
precious time for their countrymen to prepare.
If the leaders of the anti-gun lobby had been aware that
Molon labe! is a highly popular rallying cry among their
enemies, they might have realized that their plan to force
their views on American society was doomed to failure.
Unfortunately for them, they were not comfortable monitoring
the communications of their foes. They probably feared
exposure to contagious ideas.
Dr. Michael S. Brown
Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws
199 They want you to say | It's better to say
(and you lose if you say): | (and they lose if you say)
=======================================================
pro gun | pro rights
gun control | crime control
anti-gun movement | anti-self-defense movement
semiautomatic handgun | sidearm
concealed carry | carry or right to carry
assault or lethal weapon | household firearms
junk guns | the affordability issue
high capacity magazines | full capacity magazines
Second Amendment | Bill of Rights
the powerful gun lobby | civil rights organizations
common sense legislation | dangerous utopian ideas
reasonable gun controls | victim disarmament
gun control laws | infringement laws
anti gun | anti-gun bigot
anti gun | anti-gun prejudice
anti gun | anti rights
When they say: | You say:
================================
Guns kill | Guns save lives
Guns cause crime | Guns stop crime
Guns are bad | Guns are why America is still
free
Assault weapons are bad | Assault is a type of behavior
Guns are so dangerous | Guns are supposed to be dangerous
Guns are too dangerous to own | You should take a safety class
People shouldn't have guns | Maybe you shouldn't have one
Guns should be totally outlawed | Let's try that with drugs first
The purpose of a gun is to kill | The purpose of a gun is to protect
People don't need guns | Only good people need guns
Guns should go away | Then you should personally sign up
to never have a gun in your life,
as you would ask of me
They should take away | Bad guys first
all the guns
They should take away all the guns| Who exactly is "they" you would
because they're so dangerous you wold give all these dangerous
guns to?
Gun owners should be registered | Bad guys first
Gun owners should be registered | So, how would writing my name on a
to help stop crime government list help stop crime?
We need more gun laws | Criminal activity is already banned
Why would anyone want to own a gun? | You're kidding, right? You mean you
really don't know? Well, why do you
think we give guns to the police?
I'm not against people having guns | What sort of guns do you think
people should have, and why?
Do you really have a gun? | Of course, don't you?
Alan Korwin
www.gunlaws.com - Click New Stuff button
200 More broadly appealing and less polarizing than "Second
Amendment."...But saying "Bill of Rights" protects you from
malicious stigma and stereotyping as a "gun nut." Much more
difficult to oppose, slows the bigots down. All the rights
count, don't they, and they're all under attack. Bill of
Rights Day. Pro Bill of Rights. I support the Bill of
Rights, don't you? Actually, even virulent gun haters and
gun bigots champion the First Amendment and other parts of
the BOR, which, if you'll recall, was a single amendment
(with separate articles) to the Constitution.
Alan Korwin
Politically Corrected Glossary of Terms
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GUN CONTROL 7. Poetry & Prose
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
201 When the Cambrian measures were forming,
They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave Them our weapons,
that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us,
and delivered us, bound, to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:
"Stick to the Devil you know."
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
The Gods of the Copy Book Headings, 5th Stanza, 1919
202 They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so
formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will
it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we
are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be
stationed in every house?
Patrick Henry (1736-1799)
"Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death" speech - 3/23/1775
203 For it's "guns this" and "guns that,"
and "chuck 'em out, the brutes,"
But they're the "Savior of our loved ones"
when the thugs begin to loot.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
"Tommy Atkins"
204 At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By
what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some
trans-Atlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us
with a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and
Africa combined with a Bonaparte at their head and disposing
of all the treasure of the earth, our own excepted, could
not by force make a track on the Blue Ridge or take a drink
from the Ohio in a trial of a thousand years. At what point
then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if
it ever reach us it must spring up from amongst us. It
cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we
ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of
free men, we must live through all times, or die by
suicide.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
1838
205 There is a move throughout the land,
To take our guns away.
For some see guns as dangerous,
And evil in our day.
The wise man knows it is the gun,
Which made our country free,
To even our the power of,
Both greed and gluttony.
Respect the gun and in your life,
Your gun will be the tool,
To guarantee you freedom from,
The mean dictator's rule.
No gun has ever killed a man,
Or caused him any pain,
When it was used respectfully,
By someone with a brain.
But yet we have in Government,
Someone who can not see,
They can't solve crime by taking guns,
From folk like you and me.
For guns don't cause the problem,
Which makes the crime rate soar,
It's the criminal mind behind it,
So rotten to the core.
Victor C. Jensen
Gun Control
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GUN CONTROL 8. Jokes & Humor
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
207 I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun
around, I want to be in control of it.
Clint Eastwood (b. 1930)
208 Gun control is hitting what you aim at.
209 The New York Times editorial page is like a Ouija board that
has only three answers, no matter what the question. The
answers are: higher taxes, more restrictions on political
speech and stricter gun control.
Ann Coulter (b. 1961)
210 A woman who demands further gun control legislation is like
a chicken who roots for Colonel Sanders.
Larry Elder
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