********************************************** * PATRIOTS * ********************************************** ³ºÞº³º³Û³ºÝ³³ "Mommy why's J. Reno want this tatoo on us? 7.62 Nato FMJ - The Humane Bullet 7.62 X 39 FMJ...from Russia with love! All in favor of losing their rights, please do nothing. Am I a law-abiding gun owner? Hm, What's the law today? An Armed Citizenry *IS* the Militia... Annoy a gun-grabber: just recite the facts!!! Armed citizens who defend themselves still have shoes on! ASSAULT is a *behavior*, not a *device*. Assault weapons: Someday soon, use them or lose them. B.A.T.F.= Ban All The Firearms. BATF = Bad Attitude Towards Freedom BATF = Bulldoze All The Facts BATF: Brutalizing America Through Force. Black Talons: When you care enough to send the very best! Blessed be the pessimist for he carries extra ammo. Bring back Black Talon - boycott Winchester/Olin! Buy 1 Gun a Month - Its the Law in Virginia Buy each gun like it's going to be your last. Carry concealed - Criminals must fear potential victims CD: Civil Defense thru Civil Disobedience. NEVER DISARM! Convert an anti- to a pro-gunner: Take one to a range. DANGER DANGER Gun show ahead...hide wallet. Dillon aims to please 100% , and he hasn't missed yet. Ever notice there's no crime at a shooting range? Every 12 seconds, someone proves Sarah WRONG! Firearms Training: The Ultimate Grassroots Activity! Firepower is a frame of mind, and a full magazine. Firm gun control helps you hit your target GOD, has given me permission to own an assault rifle. Gun control = job safety for criminals Gun control is unilateral victim disarmament. Gun Control means .174" @ 100yds. Gun control means hitting your target! Gun Control: A criminals best friend. Gun Control: Are "speech control" laws next? Gun Control Works - Ask Schindler's Jews Guns cause crime and cars cause vehicular homicide. Guns cause crime just like matches cause arson. Guns cause crime like flies cause garbage Guns cause crime like penises cause rape. Guns don't kill people. Janet Reno and the BATF kill people. Guns take 5 days,the knives you can take now, Mrs. Bobbit Happiness is...Barney and a belt-fed weapon Have you ever heard of an armed robbery at a gun show? HCI: Helping Criminals, Inc. How come pizza gets to your door faster than the police? I live in a quiet neighborhood, they use silencers.. I'm the NRA, the militia, a voter, AND pissed off! If Vince Foster owned a gun, he'd be alive today! If YOU are not defending the Constitution, who is? In England, the cops say, 'Halt or I'll say halt again!' Janet Reno is a SCUD, all the PATRIOTS are out to get her Jim Brady depended on the Government to protect him. Just say NO to gun control! Lexington and Concord: America's response to gun control. NEWS FLASH! Sarah Brady decapitated in dungbeetle attack! No thanks Janet, I'll maintain my own armory.... NO* gun control. *NO* compromises. *NO* discussion. Nov 8: Open Season on antigunners -- no bag limits!!! NRA life member JFK was shot by ACLU member Lee Harvey Oswald On resisting rape or robbery: "give them what they want or run." - HCI Only the misinformed support gun control! Peace through superior firepower! Promote responsible firearms ownership. Punish those who COMMIT crimes, not those who MIGHT RKBA Prescription: Take two assault rifles and call me in the morning. Sir, what is that red dot of light between your eyes ? Smith & Wesson: The original point-and-click interface. Superior firepower - invaluable when negotiations stall. Support Recycling -- Reload! The family that shoots together-SHOULDN'T BE MESSED WITH! The man behind the BATF badge, is as scared as you are. The reason for the Second Amendment is becoming obvious The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is the right to be free THIS HOUSE PROTECTED BY DEAD BOLTS AND GUN NUTS. This is the BATF - Drop carrier...we have you surrounded! To blame guns for crime is as ridiculous as blaming spray cans for graffiti. Turn in your guns and receive a free pair of leg irons! USC Title 10, Sec. 311 -I AM the Militia! We are NOT surrounded. We are in a target rich area! When guns are outlawed only Clinton will have guns. When they come for your guns, give 'em the bullets! When we lose the 2nd Amendment is when we start the 2nd Revolution Which part of,"shall not be infringed,"don't you understand? Without a gun, the flag you wave might as well be white. ------- "The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state controlled police and the military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. Not for nothing was the revolver called an 'equalizer.' _Egalite_ implies _liberte._ And always will. Let us hope our weapons are never needed --but do not forget what the common people knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government --and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws." [Edward Abbey (1927-1989), _Abbey's Road,_ p.39_(Plume, 1979)] ------- "And that said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress...to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms..." [Samuel Adams, in the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, Aug. 20, 1789] ------- "It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control... The Militia is composed of free Citizens. There is therefore no Danger of their making use of their power to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to invade them." [Samuel Adams (quoted in Wayne LaPierre 1994 _Guns, Crime, & Freedom_ pp 5-6)] ------- "There's no question that weapons in the hands of the public have prevented acts of terror or stopped them while they were in progress." [Police Inspector-General Shlomo Aharonisky (Israel)] ------- "In 1789, when used without any qualifying adjective, 'the militia' referred to all Citizens capable of bearing arms... The 'militia' is identical to 'the people'." [Akhil Amar, professor Yale Law School, "The Bill of Rights as a Constitution" in Yale Law Journal 1991-03] ------- "The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people." [Fisher Ames, of Massachusetts, Letter to F.R. Minoe, June 12, 1789] ------- "Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms." [Aristotle] ------- "...the rights of the individual citizen to keep & bear arms in his own defense or in defense of the state, shall not be impaired." [Arizona constitution (quoted by Richard I. Mack in Richard I. Mack & Timothy Robert Walters 1994-10-?? _From My Cold Dead Fingers: Why America Needs Guns_ pg 16)] ------- "I resent 'experts' who have never faced deadly threat, yet who tell me - and you - that we should not consider a reponse of equal power against those who would threaten our lives." [Massad Ayoob, "The Truth About Self Protection"] ------- "It is because the people are citizens that they are with safety armed. The danger (where there is any) from armed citizens, is only to the government, not to the society." [Joel Barlow: Equality in America, 1792] ------- "The right to bear arms is essential to freedom. For it is the policy of governments to disarm the people, that they may have the opportunity to oppress them." [Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor, 1845] ------- "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 their struggle for independence." [C. A. Beard] ------- "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 those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes." [Cesare Beccaria, 1764, "On Crimes and Punishment"] ------- "Free people possess arms. Slaves and prisoners do not." [William Blackstone] ------- "...there is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen. It is monstrous if the state fails to protect its residents against such predators but it does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or, we suppose, any other provision of the Constitution. The Constitution is a charter of negative liberties: it tells the state to let people alone; it does not require the federal government or the state to provide services, even so elementary a service as maintaining law and order." [Bowers v. DeVito, U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 686 F.2d 616, at 618 (1982)) in "Gun Control--Gateway to Tyranny," by Jay Simkin and Aaron Zelman page 110] ------- "Because a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep & bear arms shall not be infringed." [A.C. Brocki giving grammatical re-phrasing of the 2nd amendment (quoted in J. Neil Schulman 1991-07-17 _Stopping Power_ pg 152)] ------- "The magistrates in every government must be supported in the execution of the laws, either by an armed force, maintained at the public expence for that purpose; or by the people turning out to aid the magistrate upon his command, in case of resistance." [Brutus, 1787-10-18] ------- "No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion." [James Burgh, Political Disquisitions: Or, an Inquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses, 1774-1775] ------- "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 Burroughs (1914-1998), U.S. author. "The War Universe"] ------- "What do you mean 'wait fifteen days'? This is America!" [California citizen attempting to purchace a firearm for self-defense during rioting in Los Angelas, week of 30 April 1992] ------- "Our eyes and hands and feet will give us the same assistance in doing mischief as in doing good; but it would not therefore be better for the world, that all mankind were blind and lame. Arms are not to be laid aside by honest men, because carried by assassins and ruffians; they are to be used the rather for this very reason." [George Campbell (1719-1796)] ------- "And so it is with guns. I choose to own firearms. so long as I act responsibly, what right does anyone have to make my choices for me?" [Tom Clancy] ------- "Switzerland is a land where crime is virtually unknown, yet most Swiss males are required by law to keep in their homes what amounts to a portable, personal machine gun. The same situation exists in Israel, whose armed forces are similar to the Swiss model: Many citizens keep their military weapons-- the well known Uzi submachine gun, for example--in their coat closets." [Tom Clancy, "Guns, Crime, & Freedom," p. ii] ------- "I just realized why the hoplophobes hate us so much, reading _Atlas Shrugged_. They hate us for having the courage they lack. They hate us because they are what Rand calls "looters and moochers". It does not matter to them that more people will die if guns are banned, or if the bans don't work, because they hate and want to destroy us so much that they don't care if they destroy themselves along with us." [Julia R. Cochrane] ------- "Be not afraid of any man, No matter what his size-- When danger threatens, call on me-- I will Equalize." [Legendary inscription on an 1847 .44-calibre Colt revolver, known as "The Redeemer". From Will Henry, "Summer of the Gun" (1978)] ------- "All persons... shall have in continuall readiness, a good muskitt or other gunn, fitt for service." [Connecticut Code 1650] ------- "The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles." [Col. Jeff Cooper] ------- "An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing,from it." [Jeff Cooper] ------- "Much of the contemporary crime that concerns Americans in in poor black neighborhoods, and a case can be made that greater firearms restrictions might alleviate this tragedy. But another, perhaps stronger case can be made that a society with a dismal record of protecting a people has a dubious claim on the right to disarm them. Perhaps a re-examination of this history can lead us to a modern realization of what the framers of the Second Amendment understood: that it is unwise to place the means of protection totally in the hands of the state, and that self-defense is also a civil right." [Robert J. Cottrol and Raymond T. Diamond article in Georgetown Law Journal v.80 pp.309-361, _The Second Amendment: Towards an Afro-Americanist Reconsideration,_ 1991] ------- "Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves?... 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 remain, in the hands of the people." [Tench Coxe; "An American Citizen" Pennsylvania Gazette, 20 February 1788] ------- "As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article [the Second Amendment] in their right to keep and bear their private arms." [Trence Coxe in "Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution", under the pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 18 June 1789] ------- "The powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from 16 to 60. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled & accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous & irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves...? Congress have no power to disarm the militia." [Tench Coxe, 1788-02-20, _PA Gazette_ (quoted in Richard I. Mack & Timothy Robert Walters 1994-10-?? _From My Cold Dead Fingers: Why America Needs Guns_ pg 128)] ------- "The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many troops quite unnecessary. They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them." [Trence Coxe, under the pseudonym "An American Citizen," Oct. 21, 1787] ------- "Ah, yes, the usual anti-gun double-think. When arguing for controls, they call our firearms Evil Death-Dealing Assault Weapons That Are Too Dangerous To Own, but when we mention that they could be used to perforate a tyrant, suddenly they're just 'peashooters'." [Dan Day] ------- "A fifth of the victims defending themselves with a firearm suffered an injury, compared to almost half of those who defended themselves with weapons other than a firearm or who had no weapon." [US Department of Justice] ------- "Boys who own legal firearms have much lower rates of delinquency and drug use and are even slightly less delinquent than nonowners of guns." [U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, NCJ-143454, "Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse," August 1995] ------- "Guns are used far more often to defend against crime than to perpetrate crime." ["Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms." Conducted by the Police Foundation under commission by the Department of Justice, 1994] ------- "Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming that it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a safety hazard don't see the danger of 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, famous liberal attorney] ------- "It is asserted by most respectable writers upon our government, that a well-regulated militia, composed of the yeomanry of the country, have ever been considered as the bulwark of a free people. Tyrants have never placed any confidence on a militia composed of freemen" [John Dewitt] ------- "They [BATF] are a shame and a disgrace to our country." [Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)] ------- "The consequences of the behavior of the BATF in these kinds of cases is that they are not trusted. They are detested, and I have described them properly as jackbooted American fascists. They have shown no concern over the rights of ordinary citizens and their property. They intrude without the slightest regard or concern." [Rep. John Dingell, (D-MI), during congressional debate over excepting BATF from the exclusionary rule bill HR666 February 8th, 1995, Cong. Record p. H1382] ------- "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] ------- "...the second amendment is not for killing little ducks and leaving Huey and Dewey and Louie without an aunt and uncle. It is for hunting politicians, like [in] Grozny, [and in] 1776, when they take your independence away." [Bob "B1" Dornan] ------- "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." [Lowell Duckett, Washington,D.C. , assistant police chief] ------- "In the spirit of national socialism, Adolf disarmed the Jews, and then he slaughtered them. Now, American socialists are trying to disarm private citizens, leaving guns only in the hands of the police, federal law enforcement, the select militia, the military, and private security firms that cater to the rich. Could this be history repeating itself?" [Dan Ellenburg, MajGen, SCMC, Ret.] ------- "..... To help keep slaves "in their place" the colonial assembly (comprised largely of slave owners) passed Maryland's very first gun control law. Chapter XLIV, Section XXXII of the Acts of 1715 provided: "That no negro or other slave within this province shall be permitted to carry any gun, or any other offensive weapon, from off their master's land, without license from said master; and if any negro or other slave shall presume so to do, he shall be liable to be carried before a justice of the peace, and be whipped, and his gun or other offensive weapon shall be forfeited to him that shall seize the same and carry such negro so offending before a justice of the peace." ["Early American 'Gun Control'" by Howard J. Fezell, Attorney-at-Law, published in the April 1997 issue of _American Survival Guide_] ------- "In 1806, Maryland passed a law making it unlawful for "any negro or mulatto within this state to keep any dog, bitch or gun, except he be a free negro or mulatto, and in that case he may be permitted to keep one dog, provided such free negro or mulatto shall obtain a license from the justice of the peace for that purpose,..." Acts of 1806, Chap. LXXXI. Although a "free negro or mulatto" (as distinct from those held as slaves) could apparently possess firearms, it became unlawful for them to "go at large with any gun, or other offensive weapon" (Id, Section II)." ["Early American 'Gun Control'" by Howard J. Fezell, Attorney-at-Law, published in the April 1997 issue of _American Survival Guide_] ------- "Let us now consider whether we may not be able to defend ourselves with well-regulated militias against any foreign force,... That the whole free people of any nation ought to be exercised to arms, not only the example of our ancestors, as appears by the acts of parliament made in both kingdoms to that purpose, and that of the wisest governments among the ancients; but the advantages of choosing out of great numbers, seems clearly to demonstrate... 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, 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, "A Discourse of government with relation to militias" 1698] ------- "The price of liberty is, always has been, and always will be blood: The person who is not willing to die for his liberty has already lost it to the first scoundrel who is willing to risk dying to violate that person's liberty! Are you free?" [Andrew Ford] ------- "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] ------- "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." [Benjamin Franklin, Nov 11 1755, from the Pennsylvania Assembly's reply to the Governor of Pennsylvania.] ------- "A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." [Sigmund Freud, 10th Lecture of Freud's "General Introduction to Psychoanalysis" (1952) and Freud and Oppenheim's "Dreams in Folklore" (1958)] ------- "I haven't seen an instance of persons with [gun] permits causing violent crimes, and I'm constantly on the lookout." [John Fuller, general counsel for the Florida Sheriffs Association] ------- "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 K. Gandhi, "Gandhi, An Autobiography," page 446] ------- "The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been recognized by the General Government; but the best security of that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free citizens of these states... Such men form the best barrier to the liberties of America." [Gazette of the United States, 14 October 1789] ------- "Five years after permitting law-abiding citizens to carry guns, 10 states found that their murder rates dropped by an average of 15 percent, rape by 9 percent, and robberies by 11 percent. The likelihood of a mass shooting in those states dropped from 75% to zero. ... It's hard to be enthusiastic about a weapon of death, but facts are facts: Guns save lives." [Gazette; Schenectady, NY 7/13/98] ------- "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." [Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress at 750, 17 August 1789] ------- The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." [van Gogt] ------- "If we apply to other crimes the same logic that gun control advocates use to support their position, we would ban automobiles to stop drunk driving, we'd ban matches to end arson, and we'd ban small planes and watercraft to thwart drug smuggling. I ask you, does this make sense?" [Douglas Good] ------- "Last Monday a string of amendments were presented to the lower house; these altogether respect personal liberty..." [Sen. William Grayson of Virginia in a letter to Patrick Henry] ------- "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. If anyone entertained this notion in the period during which the Constitution and Bill of Rights were debated and ratified, it remains one of the most closely guarded secrets of the 18th century, for no known writing surviving from the period between 1787 and 1791 states such a thesis.... 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." [Constitutional scholar Stephen P. Halbrook] ------- "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." [Alexander Hamilton, the Federalist Papers at 184-188] ------- "..but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights and those of their fellow citizens." [Alexander Hamilton on standing armies in Federalist Paper No. 29] ------- "Little more can be aimed at with respect to the people at large than to have them properly armed and equipped. There is something so far-fetched, and so extravagant in the idea of danger of liberty from the militia that one is at a loss whether to treat it with gravity or raillery (mockery)." [Alexander Hamilton, responding to the claim that the militia itself could threaten liberty] ------- "Self defense civil rights and unrestricted access to arms are not subject to arguments of social utility, nor are they subject to the democratic process. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution proscribes ANY law that removes or reduces that access." [Pat Hardy] ------- "Utilizing the research capabilities of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, the resources of the Library of Congress, and the assistance of constitutional scholars such as Mary Kaaren Jolly, Steven Halbrook, and David T. Hardy, the subcommittee has managed to uncover information on the right to keep and bear arms which documents quite clearly its status as a major individual right of American citizens ... we located the notes of the Declaration's sponsors, now dead for two centuries ... and long-lost--proof that the second amendment to our Constitution was intended as an individual right of the American citizen to keep and carry arms in a peaceful manner, for protection of himself, his family, and his freedoms." [Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Chairman, Dennis DeConcini et. al of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, January 20, 1982, in the Congressional Report "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms", 1982 (quoted in J. Neil Schulman 1994 _Stopping Power_ pg 128)] ------- "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, Chairman Subcommittee on the Constitution January 20, 1982] ------- "...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 Heinlein, in a 1949 letter concerning "Red Planet"] ------- "Whether the authorities be invaders or merely local tyrants, the effect of such [gun] laws is to place the individual at the mercy of the state, unable to resist." [Robert Heinlein, in a 1949 letter concerning _Red Planet_] ------- "An armed society is a polite society." [Robert Heinlein] ------- "It is time that those of us who can still honestly call ourselves free men face up to one very basic fact: Those who advocate, enact and enforce the form of predation known as "gun control" are nothing more than murderers, and must eventually be dealt with as such." [R. Hemmerding] ------- "The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun." [Patrick Henry, 3 Elliot, Debates at 386] ------- "...the people have a right to keep and bear arms." [Patrick Henry and George Mason, Elliot, Debates at 185] ------- "Have we the means of resisting disciplined armies, when our only defence, the militia, is put in the hands of Congress?" [Patrick Henry, 3 Elliot Debates at 48] ------- "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches the jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitable ruined." [Patrick Henry] ------- "Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" [Patrick Henry, from J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836] ------- "They tell us that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Three million people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, are invincible by any force which an enemy can send against us." [Patrick Henry, 1775] ------- "The Militia is our ultimate safety. We can have no security without it." [Patrick Henry] ------- "O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone...Did you ever read of any revolution in a nation...inflicted by those who had no power at all?" [Patrick Henry, Virginia ratifying convention June 2 through June 26, 1788] ------- "The m.o. is the death of a thousand cuts. Ugly guns, large magazines, detachable magazines, flash suppressors, economical guns, effective guns, effective bullets, victimization periods, registration, safety-free zones, one gun a month/year/life, Lautenberg, gun show restrictions, personal transfer prohibitions, etc., etc., etc. Each stab makes it a little more difficult or risky to exercise our rights, until finally the last step -- total confiscation -- isn't so big after all." [Russ Howard] ------- "Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of the citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." [Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978, D-MN) ------- "To make inexpensive guns impossible to get is to say you're putting a money test on getting a gun. It's racism in its worst form." [Roy Innis, Washington Post, 9-5-88] ------- "It gives me great peace to walk around Washington at night - with a pistol in my pocket". [Thomas Jefferson] ------- "A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks." [Thomas Jefferson, "Encyclopedia of Thomas Jefferson", 318, letter to his nephew] ------- "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." [Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, 1776-06-01 1 Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (Julian P. Boyd, Ed., 1950)] ------- "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." [Thomas Jefferson, 1764 letter and speech, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in "On Crimes and Punishment"] ------- "And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms... The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." [Thomas Jefferson, letter to William S. Smith, 1787, in S. Padover (Ed.), Jefferson, On Democracy (1939), p. 20] ------- "Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state." [Thomas Jefferson] ------- "A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our Government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration." [Thomas Jefferson] ------- "We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular part of collegiate education. We can never be safe till this is done." [Thomas Jefferson] ------- "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] ------- Countries having successful gun countrol laws in the 20th Century -- and the results of the laws: 1915-1917 Ottoman Turkey, 1.5 million Armenians murdered 1929-1953 Soviet Union, 20 million people that opposed Stalin were murdered. 1933-1945 Nazi occupied Europe, 13 million Jews, Gypsies and others that opposed Hitler, murdered 1948-1952 China, 20 million anti-communists or communist reformers, murdered 1960-1981 Guatemala, 100,000 Maya Indians, murdered 1971-1979 Uganda, 300,000 Christians and political rivals of Idi Amin, murdered 1975-1979 Cambodia, 1 million educated persons, murdered 1968- ? United States of America: TBA? [Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership] ------- "If householders were required by law to own and know how to use revolvers, burglary would cease. It is an act of good citizenship to make crime dangerous -- an encouragement of crime to remain defenseless." [Iver Johnson revolver ad, circa 1904] ------- "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but didn't we have this discussion with you folks about 223 years ago? I'd have thought that having the road between Lexington and Concord fertilised with dead Redcoats answered that question back then... If my ancestors would have been armed, they wouldn't have been slaves..." [JJ Johnson, Black American gun-owner, response to a BBC poll on the banning of guns in America] ------- "The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them." [Zachariah Johnson, 3 Elliot, Debates at 646] ------- "The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will loose." [James Earl Jones] ------- "If liberals interpreted the Second Amendment the way they interpret the rest of the Bill of Rights, there would be law professors arguing that gun ownership is mandatory" [Mickey Kaus, Editor: "New Republic"] ------- "Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." [John F. Kennedy] ------- "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. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fears of governmental tyranny which gave rise to the Second Amendment will ever be a major danger to our nation, the 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." [Senator John F. Kennedy, (D) 1960] ------- "If we accept the view that the American people cannot be trusted with the material objects necessary to defend their liberty, we will surely accept as well the view that the American people cannot be trusted with liberty itself. Why should a man who can't be trusted to refrain from murder be trusted with the much more difficult and morally subtle task of choosing his leaders responsibly?" [Dr. Alan Keyes] ------- "Guns were 3 times as likely to be used defensively as aggressively and they thwarted crime far more often than they abetted it." [Gary Kleck] ------- "I am a stereotypical liberal. Before I undertook this study, I was a pro-control academic who believed instinctively that people should not have guns. Gradually, I came to see that the best available evidence did not support the case that is usually made for gun control: that guns automatically lead to violence. In fact, victims are less likely to get injured or lose property if they have a gun." [Gary Kleck] ------- "Only 25% of criminal gun owners acquire their guns through retail purchase." [Gary Kleck] ------- "Liberalizing concealed carry laws won't lead to a return to the Wild West- though it wouldn't be bad if it did. ...in 19th Century cattle towns, homicide was confined to transient males who shot each other in saloon disturbances. The per capita robbery rate was 7% of modern New York City's. The burglary rate was 1%. Rape was unknown." [David Kopel - quoted in the WSJ 28 Feb 1994 in "Have Gun, Will Eat Out"] ------- "...In Great Britain... adolescent suicide has risen by more than 25% in just five years. Similarly, Japan outlaws handguns and rifles, and makes shotguns extremely difficult to obtain. Yet teenage suicide is 30% more frequent in Japan than in America..." [David B. Kopel, Children and Guns: Sensible Solutions] ------- "Guns might have been alright when people lived on the frontier," anti-gunners will tell you, "but today, nobody needs a gun. All you need for protection is a telephone, so you can dial 9-1-1 for the police." The assertion that the government, through the 9-1-1 emergency phone system, can and will protect everyone from criminals is not just incorrect; it's unlawful and immoral. [Dave Kopel, _THE 9-1-1 GAMBLE_, published in _The Blue Press_, October 1988] ------- "When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties." [Marquis de Lafayette, 1790] ------- "Any Jew who sees "Schindler's List" and doesn't come away wanting every Jew in the U.S. to own an assault rifle has something very wrong with him." [Guy Norman LaFrance] ------- "Only in Washington, does "instant" mean up to 6 days." [Wayne LaPierre] ------- "To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." [Richard Henry Lee writing in letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic (1787-1788), Walter Bennett, ed., at 21,22,124 (Univ of Alabama Press,1975)] ------- "A militia, when properly formed are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms. ...To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms... The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle." [Richard Henry (Light Horse Harry) Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer (1788) at 169] ------- "If the laws of the union were oppressive, they could not carry them into effect, if the people were possessed of the proper means of defense." [William Lenoir, North Carolina Ratifying Convention, 1788] ------- "If the people of the world were much better armed, many fewer people would be the victims of genocide. Unless one can propose a different method of ending endemic genocide, than the authors' prescriptions stand as the best, and only, potentially effective medicine. The burden has shifted to the opponents of firearms rights to either come up with a more effective anti-genocide medicine or to admit that saving lives was never the primary objective of the gun prohibition movement in the first place." ["Lethal Laws"] ------ "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 aggravated assults would have been avoided yearly." [Lott, John R. Jr. and Mustard, David B., Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns, University of Chicago, July 26, 1996, http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/guns.html] ------- "Many factors influence crime, with arrest and conviction rates being the most important. However, non-discretionary concealed-handgun laws are also important, and they are the most cost-effective means of reducing crime. The cost of hiring more police in order to change arrest and conviction rates is much higher, and the net benefits per dollar spent are only at most a quarter as large as the benefits from concealed-handgun laws." [John R. Lott Jr., "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws," University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998. p. 159] ------- "The evidence also indicates that the states with the most guns have the lowest crime rates. Urban areas may experience the most violent crime, but they also have the smallest number of guns. Blacks may be the racial group most vulnerable to violent crime, but they are also much less likely than whites to own guns." [John R. Lott Jr., "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws," University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998. p. 161] ------- "No statistically significant evidence has appeared that the Brady law has reduced crime, and there is some statistically significant evidence that rates for rape and aggravated assault have actually risen by about 4 percent relative to what they would have been without the law." [John R. Lott Jr., "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws," University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998. p. 162] ------- "Unfortunately, the debate over crime involves many commonly accepted "facts" that simply are not true . . .over 89 percent of adult murderers had criminal records as adults . . .[m]ore children die in bicycle accidents each year than die from all types of firearm accidents." [John R. Lott Jr., "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws," University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998. p. 7ff] ------- "While the support for the strictest gun-control laws is usually strongest in large cities, the largest drops in violent crime from legalized concealed handguns occurred in the most urban counties with the greatest populations and the highest crime rates." [John R. Lott Jr., "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws," University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998. p. 19] ------- "Preventing law-abiding citizens from carrying handguns does not end violence; it merely makes victims more vulnerable to attack. While people have strong views on either side of this debate . . . the size and strength of my deterrence results and the lack of evidence that holders of permits for concealed handguns commit crimes should at least give pause to those who oppose concealed handguns. In the final analysis, one concern unites us all: Will allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns save lives? The answer is yes, it will." [John R. Lott Jr., "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws," University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998. p. 165] ------- "We examined a whole range of different gun laws as well as other methods of deterrence, such as the death penalty. However, only one policy succeeded in reducing deaths and injuries from [multiple-victim shootings] - allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns." [John R. Lott, Jr., Wall Street Journal, 27 March 1998] ------- "The right of the whole people, old & young, men, women & boys, & not militia only, to keep & bear arms of every description & not such merely used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken upon, in the smallest degree." [Joseph Henry Lumpkin, 1846, Nunn v State of Georgia] ------- "Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised." [Niccolo Machiavelli, _The Prince_] ------- "The problem is not with the 90% of 16K+ kids who carry guns for self-protection; the problem is with the 10% of armed students who are committing crimes at school. (Only 1700 gun-related crimes were committed in American schools in 1986)." [Richard I. Mack & Timothy Robert Walters, _From My Cold Dead Fingers: Why America Needs Guns_, pg 165 (citing 1988 Spring _School Safety_ pg 4)] ------- "In 1986, 41.5K aggravated assaults occurred in American schools, as did ~44K robberies. Remember, only 1.7K of these crimes involved the use of guns. Is anyone so foolish as to believe the 83.8K assaults & robberies committed without guns somehow would not have happened if guns were removed from the equation?" [Richard I. Mack & Timothy Robert Walters, _From My Cold Dead Fingers: Why America Needs Guns_ pg 166] ------- "If this spirit shall ever be so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature, as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate anything but liberty." [James Madison, Federalist #57] ------- "The only possible way to provide for standing armies is to make them unnecessary. The way to do this is to organize & discipline our militia, so as to render them capable of defending the country against external invasions, & internal insurrections." [James Madison, July 6, 1788] ------- "Always remember that an armed & trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics -- that without standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe." [James Madison, March 4, 1809] ------- "Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of all other nations... Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several Kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the gov'ts are afraid to trust the people with arms." [James Madison, Federalist #46, also printed in The Influence of the State and Federal Governments Compared From the New York Packet. Tuesday, January 29, 1788] ------- "A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty." [James Madison some time between 1787-06-28 & 1787-07-02 ------- "The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people. It is perhaps questionable, whether the best concerted system of absolute power in Europe could maintain itself, in a situation, where no alarms of external danger could tame the people to the domestic yoke." [James Madison some time between 1787-06-28 & 1787-07-02] ------- "The right of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the people, trained to arms is the best and most natural defense of a free country..." [James Madison, 1 Annals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789)] ------- "People who remember the lessons of history know that a democratic society should not be an unarmed society, which the enemies of liberty may calmly lead to the slaughterhouse in the name of liberty." [Jacques Maritain] ------- "That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural, & safe defense of a free State; that standing armies in time of peace should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; & that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, & governed by, the civil power." [George Mason, VA Bill of Rights, June 12, 1776] ------- "To disarm the people (is) the best and most effectual way to enslave them." [George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380, 1788] ------- "...a little Reflection may incline us to doubt whether these advantages are not greater in Theory than in Practice -- or lead us to enquire whether there is not some prevailing Principle in Republican Government... This invinciple Principle is to be found in the Love, the Affection, the Attachment of the Citizens to their Laws, to their Freedom, & to their Country. Every Husbandman will be quickly converted into a Soldier, when he knows & feels that he is to fight not in defence of the Rights of a particular Family, or a Prince; but for his own." [George Mason, June 4, 1787] ------- "A well-regulated Militia, composed of the Gentlemen, FreeHolders, & other FreeMen was necessary to protect our ancient laws & liberty from the standing army... And we do each of us, for ourselves respectively, promise & engage to keep a good Fire-lock in proper Order & to furnish Ourselves as soon as possible with, & always keep by us, 1 Pound of GunPowder, 4 Pounds of Lead, 1 Dozen Gun Flints, & a pair of Bullet Moulds, with a Cartouche Box, or powder horn, & Bag for Balls." [George Mason 17??, Fairfax County Militia Plan (quoted in Stephen P. Halbrook 1984 _That Every Man Be Armed_ pg 61 quoted in Wayne LaPierre 1994 _Guns, Crime, & Freedom_ pg 5)] ------- "[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.' ..I ask, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." [George Mason, 1788, in Virginia's US Constitional ratification convention, quoted in Jonathan Elliot 1836-1845 _The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution_ pp 425-426 quoted in Wayne LaPierre 1994 _Guns, Crime, & Freedom_ pg 8)] ------- "An instance within the memory of some of this house will show us how our militia may be destroyed. Forty years ago, when the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man [Sir William Keith], 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. [Here Mr. Mason quoted sundry passages to this effect.] This was a most iniquitous project. Why should we not provide against the danger of having our militia, or real and natural strength, destroyed." [George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 425-426, June 16, 1788] ------- "[Each man must] have... a sufficient musket or other serviceable peece for war... for himself & each man servant he keeps able to bear arms." [Massachusetts Code 1632] ------- "While showing the impact of firearms legislation on violent crime may be difficult, the recent experience of Great Britain demonstrates how such legislation affects law-abiding firearms owners. Since the enactment of extremely restrictive gun controls in 1988, the number of legal gun owners has dropped by almost 19 percent. During the same period, the rate of robbery with a firearm has more than doubled, and the overall violent crime rate has increased by 29 percent." [Gary Mauser, "Gun Control Is Not Crime Control," Fraser Forum Supplement, 1995, The Fraser Institute, 626 Bute Street, Vancouver, BC, V6E3M1] ------- "Banning gun shows to reduce violent crime will work about as well as banning auto shows to reduce drunken driving." [Bill McIntire, Spokesman for the National Rifle Association, on Norfolk, Va. council's vote to cancel four gun shows, 1992] ------- "It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume...that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions. The moment they become aware of a definite citizen, John Doe, seeking what is his right under the law, they begin searching feverishly for an excuse for withholding it from him." [H.L. Mencken] ------- "We should ban guns because of violence as soon as we ban food because of obesity. Let's stop blaming objects for our actions and start holding people responsible for their actions." [Kevin Michael, response to a BBC poll on the banning of guns in America] ------- "If we can not trust a freeman with his right to keep and bear arms, then how can we trust him with the right to vote. Surely the right of a freeman to vote has a much greater effect on our collective lives than does any individual's firearm. If one argues that the effect of any one freeman's vote is minimal, then why allow it in the first place? To be armed is to secure one's right to representation." [Thomas Mincher] ------- "Gun bans don't disarm criminals, gun bans attract them." [Walter Mondale, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, 4/20/94] ------- "Anyone who wants to get rid of all guns, thinks that the earth should be ruled by large,strong men with swords and clubs. I think we already tried that. It was called the Dark Ages." [Christopher Morton, Tue, 27 Mar 2001] ------- "The right 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." [Nunn v. State, 1 Ga. (1 Kel.) 243, at 251 (1846)] ------- "The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian, while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. Horrid mischief would ensue were half the world deprived the use of them..." [Thomas Paine, "Thoughts On Defensive War", 1775] ------- "Mrs. Brady sees the Brady bill as the cornerstone of a serious gun control policy in America that will eventually include more restrictions. That, of course, is why the gun lobby opposes the bill despite its moderate scope..." [Page one article in the 9/15/1993 issue of the New York Times entitled, "What Can The Brady Bill Really Do?"] ------- "It is a natural right which the people have reserved for themselves, confirmed by their Bill of Rights, to keep arms for their own defense." [NY Journal Supplement (quoted in Richard I. Mack & Timothy Robert Walters 1994-10-?? _From My Cold Dead Fingers: Why America Needs Guns_ pg 30)] ------- "During the War of Independence 2000 citizen-soldiers at Bunker Hill had shown to the world that they could stand up to a trained force of 2500 red-coats which included 5 of the crack foot regiments of the British Army, among them the famed Welsh Fusiliers, the King's own regiment. A few days earlier the members of that stalwart American force had been farmers, merchants, shipwrights, lawyers, students & teachers, shop-keepers & black-smiths. The example shown by these citizen-soldiers hardened the resolution throughout the colonies & converted what might have been an abortive rebellion into a full-scale war for independence." [NRA book, quoted in Osha Gray Davidson _Under Fire_ pp 152-153] ------- "In 1959, Linda Riss of New York City was stalked and threatened by a former boyfriend. Despite repeated pleas to the New York City Police Department for protection, which were denied, the boyfriend eventually blinded her in one eye and left her face permanently scarred. The Court of Appeals of New York ruled that Linda Riss had no right to protection since such a right would impose a crushing economic burden on the government. Only the legislature could create a right to protection: `The amount of protection that may be provided is limited by the resources of the community and by a considered legislative-executive decision as to how these resources may be deployed. For the courts to proclaim a new and general duty of protection ...even to those who may be the particular seekers of protection based on specific hazards, could and would inevitably determine how the limited police resources of the community should be allocated and without predictable limits.` Judge Keating dissented, bitterly noting: `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 (1968)] ------- "The Second Amendment states that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed", period. There is no mention of magazine sizes, the rate of fire or to what extent these arms may resemble assault rifles. All rifles were assault rifles in those days." [P.J. O'Rourke] ------- "That rifle on the wall of the laborer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there!" [George Orwell, on the sudden redistribution of arms to the British populace to form the "Home Guard" to deal with the threat of Nazi invasion in 1940, in the "Tribune", a democratic socialist weekly, quoted in "Orwell: The Authorized Biography", by Michael Shelden.] ------- "The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside... Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them..." [Thomas Paine, I Writings of Thomas Paine at 56 (1894)] ------- "Yes, we need gun control. We need to disarm our bureaucrats, then abolish the agencies." [U.S. Rep. Ron Paul] ------- "7. That the people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves & their own state, or the United States, or for the purpose of killing game; & no law shall be passed for disarming the people or any of them, unless for crimes committed, or real danger of public injury from individuals; & as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; & the military shall be kept under strict subordination to & be governed by the civil powers." [The Address & Reasons of Dissent of the Minority of the Convention of Pennsylvania to their Constituents, Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser, Dec. 18, 1787. This article was objecting to the proposed constitution that lacked a bill of rights] ------- "Their protestations of willingness to act for purposes of defense were seldom sufficient to convince any but themselves. When in 1747 & 1748, the Assembly failed to take adequate measures to meet the danger from the French, Benjamin Franklin organised a military association consisting of militia units which elected their own officers up to the rank of colonel; this plan extended to the convening of a general military council, to be elected annually at a meeting of deputies representing the units in each county. The association was a great success. Franklin, & others aspiring to popular leadership, were elected to military commands. Not surprisingly, political leaders who were not involved saw this strange enterprise in amateur soldiering as the basis of a potentially dangerous political movement." [J.R. Pole _Political Representation in England & the Origins of the American Republic_, 1966] ------- "Let therefore every man, that, appealing to his own heart, feels the least spark of virtue or freedom there, think that it is an honor which he owes himself, and a duty which he owes his country, to bear arms." [Thomas Pownall] ------- "The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by a rule of construction be conceived to give to Congress a power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretense by a state legislature. But if in blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both." [William Rawle, 1825, _View of the Constitution_ (quoted in Orrin G. Hatch, Dennis DeConcini et al. of the Committee on the Judiciary 1982-01-20 _The Right to Keep & Bear Arms_, quoted in J. Neil Schulman 1994 _Stopping Power_ pg 127)] ------- "Enforcement tactics made possible by current firearms laws are constitutionally, legally, & practically reprehensible... Approximately 75% of BATF gun prosecutions were aimed at ordinary citizens who had neither criminal intent nor knowledge, but were enticed by agents into unknowing technical violations." [Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution] ------- "The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms therefore, is a right of the individual citizen to privately posses and carry in a peaceful manner firearms and similar arms. Such an "individual rights" interpretation is in full accord with the history of the right to keep and bear arms, as previously discussed. It is moreover in accord with contemporaneous statements and formulations of the right by such founders of this nation as Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams, and accurately reflects the majority of the proposals which led up to the Bill of Rights itself. The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, & wording of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator & court in the first half-century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own & carry firearms in a peaceful manner." [Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 97th Congress, Second Session (1982 February)] ------- "You Brits don't remember 1939 very well do you? No guns to defend yourselves, because you banned them! Then you come cap in hand to us to lend you arms. I remember the advertisements "Help your British friends, send a gun for the fight!" Now you've got the most restrictive gun control laws of any country. Notice the rise in daytime home burglaries and robberies. Criminals KNOW there are NO GUNS in YOUR homes! They steal and rob at will and terrorise YOU in your own beds. And where are the Bobbies when this is happening? At the pub I gather!...." [Dr Mark Schnieder, response to a BBC poll on the banning of guns in America] ------- "3800 times a day, an American firearm owner uses her or his firearm to prevent a [crime]. In 99% of those 3800 daily firearm defenses, no one is shot at all -- & because non-violence is non-news, you never hear about it." [J. Neil Schulman 1993-07-15 on KNX (reprinted in _Stopping Power_ pg 237, 1994)] ------- "As far as your oath to support the Constitution as amended, that is an oath to the Constitution, not to precedents. If those precedents defy the 2nd Amendment, it is your duty to the Constitution, & to the people of the US, to rule that way. If you are over-ruled, you will have done your duty, & it will be the judge who has over-ruled you who will have to deal with the people's just wrath for that act of sedition." [J. Neil Schulman 1992-03-18T23:10 _Stopping Power_ pg 178] ------- "In my previous message I stood on my right as a sovereign citizen to either consent, or not consent, to being governed, according to whether the gov't protected my rights or violated them. I don't care what the legislators decide on the subject; I don't give a damn what the courts have decided. These are my rights we are discussing. Respect them or else. I stand in the tradition of Jefferson, Adams, & Henry: & our public servants had better get the hell out of the armory -- the master just got home to take charge." [J. Neil Schulman, 1992-03-18T23:10 _Stopping Power_ pp 177-178] ------- ".... if raised, whether they could subdue a Nation of freemen, who know how to prize liberty, and who have arms in their hands? [Delegate Sedgwick, during the Massachusetts Convention rhetorically asking if an oppressive standing army could prevail, Johnathan Elliot, ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol.2 at 97 (2d ed., 1888)] ------- "That the National Guard is not the "Militia" referred to in the second amendment is even clearer today. Congress has organized the National Guard under its power to "raise and support armies" and not its power to "Provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the Militia". This Congress chose to do in the interests of organizing reserve military units which were not limited in deployment by the strictures of our power over the constitutional militia which can be called forth only "to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions."" [Senate Judiciary Subcommittee On The Constitution, 1982] ------- "Quemadmoeum gladuis neminem occidit, occidentis telum est." (A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killers hands.) [Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the younger" circa 4 BC - 65 AD] ------- "People who object to weapons aren't abolishing violence, they're begging for rule by brute force, where 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, _The Probability Broach_] ------- "If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you." [L. Neil Smith] ------- "No 220-pound thug can threaten the well-being or dignity of a 110-pound woman who has two pounds of iron to even things out. Is that evil? Is that wrong? People who object to weapons aren't abolishing violence, they're begging for the rule of brute force, when the biggest, strongest animals among men were always automatically "right". Guns end that, and social democracy is a hollow farce without an armed populace to make it work." [L. Neil Smith] ------- "Every man, woman, and responsible child has a natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and Constitutional right (within the limits of the Non-Aggression Principle) to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- handgun, shotgun, rifle, machinegun, anything -- any time, anywhere, without asking anyone's permission." [L. Neil Smith, The Atlanta Declaration, from Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus Statement of Principles] ------- "In truth, one who believes it wrong to arm himself against criminal violence shows contempt of God's gift of life (or, in modern parlance, does not properly value himself), does not live up to his responsibilities to his family and community, and proclaims himself mentally and morally deficient, because he does not trust himself to behave responsibly. In truth, a state that deprives its law-abiding citizens of the means to effectively defend themselves is not civilized but barbarous, becoming an accomplice of murderers, rapists, and thugs and revealing its totalitarian nature by its tacit admission that the disorganized, random havoc created by criminals is far less a threat than are men and women who believe themselves free and independent, and act accordingly. [Jeffrey Snyder, "Nation of Cowards"] ------- "As Professor Lott discovered, gun ownership deters crime. But what will deter liberals? Certainly not the facts. They have too much invested in their vision of themselves as the saviors of us all." [Thomas Sowell, June 29, 1998] ------- "The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." [U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, in "3 Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States", 1890, p. 746-747] ------- "One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purpose without resistance is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms . . . ." [Joseph Story, "A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States" 264 (1893)] ------- "The 2nd & 10th counts are equally defective. The right there specified is that of bearing arms for a lawful purpose. This is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence." [Supreme Court, 1876, US v Cruikshank (quoted in J. Neil Schulman, 1994 _Stopping Power_ pg 134)] ------- "It is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the US as well as of the States, &, in view of this prerogative of the general gov't, as well as of its general powers, the states cannot, even laying the Constitutional provision in question out of view, prohibit the people from keeping & bearing arms..." [Supreme Court, 1886, Presser v US (quoted in J. Neil Schulman 1994 _Stopping Power_ pg 136)] ------- "[The] militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense... bearing arms supplied by themselves & of the kind in common use at the time." [Supreme Court, 1939, US v Miller (quoted in J. Neil Schulman 1994 _Stopping Power_ pp 164-165)] ------- "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 by the United States Constitution, Amendment II.... A law cannot be passed to infringe upon it or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the law-making power." [Texas Supreme Court Decision, Cockrum vs State of Texas,1859] ------- "The Militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age..." [Title 10 U.S.C., Section 311(a)(b)] ------- "It's the misfortune of all Countries, that they sometimes lie under a unhappy necessity to defend themselves by Arms against the ambition of their Governors, and to fight for what's their own. If those in government are headless of reason, the people must patiently submit to Bondage, or stand upon their own Defence; which if they are enabled to do, they shall never be put upon it, but their Swords may grow rusty in their hands; for that Nation is surest to live in Peace, that is most capable of making War; and a Man that hath a Sword by his side, shall have least occasion to make use of it." [John Trenchard and Walter Moyle] ------- "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 limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, 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." [Henry St. George Tucker, in Blackstone's 1768 "Commentaries on the Laws of England"] ------- "Gun Control: the political AIDS of a free society" [Ian Underwood, Sep. 13, 1998] ------- "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, Second Amendment, 1789] ------- "We find that the history of the Second Amendment reinforces the plain meaning of its text, namely that it protects individual Americans in their right to keep and bear arms whether or not they are a member of a select militia or performing active military service or training." [US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, USA v. Emerson 99-10331 10/16/2001] ------- "Handgun Control Inc., the lobbying group that helped push through the federal ban on semiautomatic weapons and the Brady law on gun purchases, is said to be worried that it is losing the public relations war to the National Rifle Association. . . . It is also considering a name change because, among other reasons, polls and focus groups show that many Americans are uncomfortable with the word *control*." [US News and World Report, August 19, 1996] ------- "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." [former U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-WY)] ------- ".... a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen..." [Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. App.181)] ------- "The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good." [George Washington] ------- "A free people ought... to be armed..." [George Washington, speech of 7 January 1790] ------- "Another source of power in government is a military force. But this, to be efficient, must be superior to any force that exists among the people, or which they can command; for otherwise this force would be annihilated, on the first exercise of acts of oppression. 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 people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any body of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive." [Noah Webster, 1787, "An Examination into the Leading Principals of the Federal Constitution...", in Paul Ford, ed., Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, at 56 (New York, 1888)] ------- "The militia of a country are the able bodied men organized into companies, regiments and brigades, with officers of all grades, and required by law to attend military exercises on certain days only, but at other times left to pursue their usual occupations." [Noah Webster,II, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)] ------- "Our founders knew that government was the primary source of evil and oppression. Today's liberals wish to disarm us so they can run their evil and oppressive agenda on us. The fight against crime is just a convenient excuse to further their agenda." [Walter Williams] ------- "I am as strong a gun control advocate as can be found among the criminologists in this country... What troubles me is the article by Gary Kleck and Mark Gertz. The reason I am troubled is that they have provided an almost clear-cut case of methodologically sound research in support of something I have theoretically opposed for years, namely, the use of a gun in defense against a criminal perpetrator... I have to admit my admiration for the care and caution expressed in this article and this research..." [Marvin E. Wolfgang] ------- "Most people have realized, no doubt correctly, that the police cannot protect them from crime. So people face the need to protect themselves, and many choose to own a gun along with taking many other measures for precisely this purpose. My question is whether a society that is manifestly incapable of protecting its citizens from crime really has any right or moral authority to tell people what they may or may not do to protect themselves." [Tulane University criminologist James Wright before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, March 31, 1995] ------- "There are about 50,000,000 U.S. families who own firearms, and hardly any of these families have ever harmed anyone with their guns, and virtually none ever intend to. Nearly everything these families will ever do with their guns is both legal, and largely innocuous. So when we advocate restrictions on their rights to own guns, as a means to fighting crime, we are casting aspersions on their decency, as though we somehow hold them responsible for the crime and violence that plague the nation. Is it any wonder they object often loudly and vociferously to such slander?" [James Wright, Tulane University criminologist, March 31, 1995] ------- "When the world is at peace, a gentleman keeps his sword close by his side." [Ho Yen-hsi] ********************************************** * TRAITORS * ********************************************** Handgun Control Inc. - The organization that would rather see a woman lifeless in an alley with her pantyhose knotted around her neck than to see her with a gun in her hand. ------- HCI - The organization that wants to ensure that every woman has the opportunity to nurture and make peace with muggers, rapists, and thrill killers. ------- HCI - The OSHA for violent criminals. ------- Are gun buy-back programs like offering cut rate prostitutes in the hope of reducing rape? ------- Gun Control: The assumption that everyone is a potential criminal. ------- The core of the gun control movement is made up of people who believe self-defense is fundamentally wrong and want to legislate their minority moral belief onto everyone else. ------- If my "assault rifle" makes me a criminal And my encryption program makes me a terrorist Does Diane Feinstein's vagina make her a prostitute? ------- "The ACLU agrees with the Supreme Court's long-standing interpretation of the Second Amendment [as set forth in the 1939 case, U.S. v. Miller] that the individual's right to bear arms applies only to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia. Except for lawful police and military purposes, the possession of weapons by individuals is not constitutionally protected. Therefore, there is no constitutional impediment to the regulation of firearms." [ACLU Policy #47] ------- "The American Civil Liberties Union said today that the freedom to bear arms must be sacrificed to the more important freedom of 'free and fearless debate on which our free society rests.'" [Associated Press, June 14, 1968] ------- "Our goal is to not allow anybody to buy a handgun. In the meantime, we think there ought to be strict licensing and regulation. Ultimately, that may mean it would require court approval to buy a handgun." [Michael K. Beard, President of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Washington Times, 12/6/93, page A1] ------- "Banning guns is an idea whose time has come." [U.S. Senator Joseph Biden, 11/18/93, Associated Press interview] ------- "When the subject of constitutional rights was brought up by a member of the pro-gun contingent, L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley replied "Yes, I'm denying you your rights." [Mayor Tom Bradley at a "Save the Brady Bill" rally. Steve Comus Western Outdoor News 09-04-92] ------- "The House passage of our bill is a victory for this country! Common sense wins out. I'm just so thrilled and excited. The sale of guns must stop. Halfway measures are not enough." [Sarah Brady, 1 July 1988] ------- "The only reason for guns in civilian hands is for sporting purposes," [HCI Chairperson Sarah Brady] ------- "We would like to see, in the future, what we will probably call needs-based licensing of all weapons. ...Where it would make it much more difficult for anybody to be able to purchase handguns...." [Sarah Brady, Sept. 21, 1993, speech to the women's National Democratic Club] ------- "We must be able to arrest people before they commit crimes. By registering guns and knowing who has them we can do that. ...If they have guns they are pretty likely to commit a crime." [Vermont State Senator Mary Ann Carlson] ------- "We must get rid of all the guns." [Sarah Brady, speaking on behalf of Handgun Control Inc, Phil Donahue Show, September 1994, with Sheriff Jay Printz & others] ------- "...I don't believe gun owners have rights." [Sarah Brady, Chairman, Handgun Control, Inc, from the Hearst Newspapers Special Report, "Handguns in America" October 1997] ------- "Our main agenda is to have all guns banned. We must use whatever means possible. It doesn't matter if you have to distort the facts or even lie. Our task of creating a Socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed." [Sarah Brady (In a letter to Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, The National Educator, January 1994, page 3) ** This quote is unverified and in dispute **] ------- "No one needs an automatic weapon except cowards and criminals and weirdos who have to own one to feel like a man." [Rep. John Bryant, 1991, argument for banning semi-automatic rifles] ------- "The Brady Bill is the minimum step Congress should take... we need much stricter gun control, and eventually should bar the ownership of handguns, except in a few cases." [U.S. Rep. William Clay, quoted in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on May 6, 1991] ------- "...there are a million of these [assault] weapons in circulation, and 80-some percent of them belong to criminals." [Pres. Bill Clinton] ------- "And we should -- then every community in the country could then start doing major weapon sweeps and then destroying the weapons, not selling them." [Pres. Bill Clinton] ------- "And so a lot of people say there's too much personal freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it. That's what we did in the announcement I made last weekend on the public housing projects, about how we're going to have weapon sweeps and more things like that to try to make people safer in their communities." [President Bill Clinton, 3-22-94, MTV's "Enough is Enough"] ------- "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." [Pres. Bill Clinton, March 11, 1993] ------- "...With courage, and a tie-breaking vote by the Vice President, the Senate faced down the gun lobby, stood up to the American people, and passed this legislation. But the House failed to follow suit..." [Pres. Clinton Approx., 54 minutes into the State of the Union Address - 28 Jan 2000] ------- "I'm personally all for taxing guns to pay for health care coverage." [Hillary Clinton quoted by the Nov. 4, 1993 New York Times] ------- "The second Amendment does not extend an individual right to keep and bear arms." [Official position of the Clinton-Gore Department of Justice in a letter dated August 22, 2000. ------- "Mr. Speaker, I still believe that the best way to control handguns is to ban them outright." [Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-IL)] ------- "Handguns should be outlawed. Our organization will probably take this stand in time but we are not anxious to rouse the opposition before we get the other legislation passed." [Elliot Corbett, Secretary, National Council For A Responsible Firearms Policy (interview appeared in the Washington Evening Star on September 19, 1969)] ------- "NYC will never use the lists of registered gun owners to confiscate the weapons registered in good faith." [NYC Mayor John V. Lindsay, 1960s] "We have their names and we know where they live! We will confiscate these guns and prosecute those found to be in violation!" [NYC Mayor David Dinkins, public forum to "discuss" banning assault weapons, when challenged by NY State Rifle & Pistol Club chairman Leo Preiser, on gun-owner non-compliance] ------- "I do not believe in people owning guns, only police and military. I am going to do everything I can to disarm this state." [Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, 1986] ------- "Handguns are a public health issue." [U.S. Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders in USA Today, Nov. 9, 1993] ------- "It's only the first step, it's not going to be enough...we've got to go beyond that, and I hope we'll do it this session of Congress." [U.S. Rep. Edward Feighan during interview on ABC News Nightline] ------- "Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of Americans to feel safe." [U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein, quoted by AP, 11/18/93] ------- "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. I could not do that. The votes weren't here." [U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), CBS-TV's "60 Minutes," 2/5/95] ------- "Three pulls of the trigger from one of these assault weapons could kill everybody in this room [Senate chambers]." [Sen. Dianne Feinstein, ignoring the fact that the "assault weapons" covered by the crime bill are all semi-automatics] ------- "There is no reason for anyone in this country, for anyone except a police officer or a military person, to buy, to own, to have, to use, a handgun. The only way to control handgun use in this country is to prohibit the guns. And the only way to do that is to change the Constitution." [NBC News president, Michael Gartner, USA Today, 1/16/1992] ------- "I don't want to go for confiscation, but that is where we are going." [Daryl Gates, Police Chief of Los Angeles, California] ------- "Sir, we're not hiding behind anything. We ...we endorse a handgun ban. I will tell you that right now. We absolutely endorse that ban..." [Susan Glick, of the Violence Policy Center in Washington D.C.; in response to a caller's comments during the radio talk show "Front Page", hosted by Sue Wiley, on WVLK Radio 590 am, in Lexington, Kentucky on December 3, 1997: Caller Mark: "Now you're saying that's what your ultimate goal is..." Glick: "That's right, and we are absolutely vocal about it...] ------- "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 pull the trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger. We'll see who wins." [Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, ex-hitman and Mafia boss, interview in Sept. 1999 Vanity Fair Magazine, p.165] ------- "A victory for Initiative 676 will take us a giant leap down the road toward eventual passage of a national gun licensing law -- just as California's passage of an assault weapons ban in 1989 led to the national assault weapons ban we have today." [Handgun Control Inc. letter, Oct 7, 1997] ------- "We have been in government for only five years, and the following things that we have done, and many of you may not know: The first thing we have done is reunifying the fragmented country Afghanistan was formerly fragmented into five parts. We unified it when nobody else could do it. Second thing we have done, which everybody failed to do, was disarming the population. After the war every Afghan got a Kalashnikov, and even sophisticated weapons such as stinger missiles, and they even got fighter planes and fighter helicopters. Disarming these people seemed to be impossible. The United Nations in 1992 made an appeal asking for 3 billion dollars to re-purchase those arms. And because of its impracticality, that plan never materialized, and everybody forgot about Afghanistan. So the second thing we have done is to disarm 95% of that country. " [speech, 'The Invisible Afghanistan', by Sayyid Rahmatullah Hashemi, former Taliban "Ambassador" from Afghanistan, at UCLA, March 10, 2001, on how the Taliban was able to force its will on Afghanistan] ------- "The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden to have in their possession any swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other types of arms. The possession of these elements make difficult the collection of taxes and dues, and tends to permit uprising. Therefore, the heads of provinces, official agents, and deputies are ordered to collect all the weapons mentioned above and turn them over to the government." [Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Shogun of Japan, 29 August 1558] ------- "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] ------- "....History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected peoples to carry arms have prepared their own fall." [Adolf Hitler, Edict of 18 March 1939] ------- "The second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is repealed." [H.J.Res. 438 Introduced by Rep. Major Owens, 1992] ------- "Ban the damn things (guns). Ban them all. You want protection? Get a dog." [Molly Ivins, columnist, 7/19/94] ------- "Ban the things. Ban them all." [Molly Ivins, Washington Post, Mar. 16, 1993] ------- "Feminist icon Betty Friedan denounces "the trend of women buying guns" as "a horrifying, obscene perversion of feminism." Friedan believes "that lethal violence even in self-defense only engenders more lethal violence, and that gun control should override any personal need for safety." ["Are You Safer With a Gun?" by Ann Japenga, Health, March/April 1994] ------- "Data on [assault weapon] risks are not needed because they have no redeeming social value." [Jerome Kassirer, M.D., 1992 in "New England Journal of Medicine"] ------- "I think you ought to tax all ammunition more, personally, I think you ought to tax guns." [John F. Kerry, "Late Edition", Nov. 7, 1993] ------- "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, columnist, 4/5/96 Washington Post] ------- "The problem is guns. America is the most violent country in the history of human civilization because of guns. We've got to dismantle the NRA... Shoot him [Charleton Heston, head of NRA] with a .44-caliber Bulldog." [Spike Lee, director, at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, reported in New York Post 05/28/99] ------- "One man with a gun can control 100 without one" [Lenin] ------- "A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie." [Vladimir Ilyich Lenin] ------- "The Times supports a near-total ban on the manufacture and private ownership of handguns and assault weapons, leaving those guns almost exclusively in the hands of law enforcement officials. Under our plan, individuals could own sporting weapons only if they had submitted to a background check and passed a firearms safety course. Other special, closely monitored exceptions could be made, such as for serious collectors." [Los Angeles Times, "Taming the Monster: The Guns Among Us," editorial, Dec. 10, 1993] ------- "My experience as a street cop suggests that most merchants should not have guns. But I feel even stronger about the average person having them...most homeowners...simply have no need to own guns." [Joseph McNamara, HCI spokesman, and former Chief of Police of San Jose, California] ------- "I don't care about crime, I just want to get the guns." [Sen. Howard Metzenbaum] ------- "No, we are not looking at how to control criminals, we are talking about banning the AK47 and semi-automatic guns!" [Senator Metzenbaum (D-OH), during the Constitution Subcommittee of 2/10/89] ------- "Until we can ban all of them we might as well ban none." [U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum Senate Hearings 1993] ------- "This started out as a documentary on gun violence in America, but the largest mass murder in our history was just committed -- without the use of a single gun! Not a single bullet fired! ... I can't stop thinking about this. A thousand gun control laws would not have prevented this massacre. What am I doing?" [Michael Moore, immediately after 9/11 terrorist attack] ------- "I am one who believes that as a first step the U.S. should move expeditiously to disarm the civilian population, other than the police and security officers, of all handguns, pistols and revolvers... no one should have a right to anonymous ownership or use of a gun." [Prof. Dean Morris, director, LEAA] ------- "I hope you get killed by one of those!" [Million-Mom-Marcher to Barbara Howe, LP candidate for NC Governor, at 2nd Amendment Sisters counter-protest 5/14/2000] ------- "With a 10,000% tax we could tax them [firearms] out of existence." [U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Washington Post, 11/4/93] ------- "We are at the point in time and terror where nothing short of a strong uniform policy of domestic disarmament will alleviate the danger which is crystal clear and perilously present. Let us take the guns away from the people. Exemptions should be limited to the military, the police, and those licensed for good and sufficient reasons. And I would look forward to the day when it would not be necessary for the policeman to carry a sidearm." [Patrick V. Murphy, former New York City Police Commissioner, now a member of Handgun Control's National Committee, during testimony to the National Association of Citizens Crime Commissions] ------- "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, on the Rosie O'Donnell Show, 4/21/1999] after the massacre in Littleton, Colorado] ------- "The only life that is important to [the NRA] is white, Republican life." [Rosie O'Donnell, National Review interview, June 17, 2000] ------- "The fact is, most of the guns that are purchased are purchased at gun shows, where there is a gun show loophole. Where they don't have the checks that we have in stores" [Rosie O'Donnell, on ABC's "This Week", 5/14/2000, despite Justice Dept. stats showing that only 2% of guns used by criminals are purchased at gun shows] ------- "It is our aim to ban the manufacture and sale of handguns to private individuals. . .the coalition's emphasis is to keep handguns out of private possession -- where they do the most harm." [Recruiting flyer currently distributed by The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, formerly called The National Coalition to Ban Handguns] ------- "My bill ... establishes a 6-month grace period for the turning in of all handguns." [U.S. Representative Major Owens, Congressional Record, 11/10/93] ------- "I don't believe in any firearms being owned by civilians under any circumstances, concealed or not concealable." [Los Angeles City Councilman Nick Pacheco, City of Los Angeles Public Safety Committee Hearing, March 19th, 2001] ------- "Yes, I do." [Anne Pearston, of the Snowdrop campaign to ban guns in Britain, on the Jim Hawkins show, 5/17/96, when asked if she wanted to live in a slave state by Sean Gabb, editor of FREE LIFE, the journal of the Libertarian Alliance] ------- "Pick a night and cordon off a section of South Dallas. Send hundreds of police officers--however many it would take-into the area to 'vacuum it up.' Shake down everybody on the street. Search every house and apartment. Confiscate all drugs and weapons." [Ross Perot, quoted in The Washington Post, June 6, 1992] ------- "Disperse you rebels! Damn you, throw down your arms and disperse." [British Major John Pitcairn, Lexington, Massachusetts, April 19, 1775] ------- "We believe that the machine gun, submachine gun, sawed-off shotgun, and dangerous and deadly weapons could all be included in any kind of bill, and no matter how drastic, we will support it. The organization I represent is absolutely favorable to reasonable legislation." [NRA Executive Vice-President Milton Reckord testifying at House Hearings on National Firearms Act, April/May 1934] ------- "Gun registration is not enough. I've always proposed state licensing...with some federal standards." [Attorney General Janet Reno] ------- "If it were up to me we'd ban them all" [U.S. Representative Mel Reynolds on CNN's Crossfire, 12/9/93] ------- "To Hell with the Constitution..." [California Assemblyman Mike Roos, 1989, on the constitutionality of the Roberti-Roos assault weapons ban] ------- "All military type firearms are to be handed in immediately... The SS, SA and Stahlhelm give every respectable German man the opportunity of campaigning with them. Therefore anyone who does not belong to one of the above named organisations and who unjustifiably nevertheless keeps his weapon... must be regarded as an enemy of the national government." [SA Oberfuhrer] ------- "We're here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true!. We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We're going to beat guns into submission!" [U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer NBC Nightly News 11/30/93] ------- "I would say to the NRA: People have bad motives: when they have guns they kill." [Charles Schumer] ------- "There may be other things that will happen later... It may not be the end... the bottom line is what we are seeking now is the Brady Bill." [U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer, interviewed on CNN Crossfire] ------- "We're going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily -- given the political realities -- going to be very modest... So we'll have to start working again to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen the next law, and maybe again and again. Right now though, we'd be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal -- total control of handguns in the United States -- is going to take time. My estimate is from seven to ten years. The first problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced and sold in this country. The second problem is to get them all registered. And the final problem is to make possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition -- except for military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors -- totally illegal." [Nelson T. "Pete" Shields, Chairman, Handgun Control, Inc. "A Reporter At Large: Handguns", interview appearing in The New Yorker, July 26, 1976, p.57-58] ------- "Yes, I'm for an outright ban (on handguns)." [Pete Shields, Chairman emeritus, Handgun Control, Inc., during a 60 Minutes interview] ------- Rolling Stone Magazine: "Would you be in favor of a total ban on handguns?" Clinton: "The American people are not ready for that -- YET." [Reported by Jack Smith of the L.A. Times on CNN's Late Edition, 11/21/93] ------- "If the opposition (citizen) disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves." [Joseph Stalin] ------- "Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you're gonna have. It's pathetic. It really is pathetic. It's sad. We're living in the Dark Ages over there." [Sylvester Stallone, who made his acting fortune glorifying the use of guns, advocating repeal of the 2nd Amendment, from a London interview, "Access Hollywood" June 8, 1998] ------- "It has to be stopped, and someone really has to go on the line, a certain dauntless political figure, and say, 'It's ending, it's over, all bets are off. It's not 200 years ago, we don't need this anymore, and the rest of the world doesn't have it. Why should we?" [Sylvester Stallone, who made his acting fortune glorifying the use of guns, advocating repeal of the 2nd Amendment, from a London interview, "Access Hollywood" June 8, 1998] ------- "[Assault weapons'] menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully-automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons --anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun-- can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons." [Josh Sugarmann, executive director of New Right Watchband spokesman for the National Coalition to Ban Handguns,"Assault Weapons and Accessories in America," policy report of New Right Watch and the Education Fund to End Handgun Violence, September 1988] ------- "Gun-control advocates cannot afford to spend another seven years battling over piecemeal measures that have little more to offer than good intentions. We are far past the point where registration, licensing, safety training, background checks, or waiting periods will have much effect on firearms violence. Tired of being shot and threatened, Americans are showing a deeper understanding of gun violence as a public-health issue, and are becoming aware of the need to restrict specific categories of weapons." [Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center "Reverse Fire" article, Mother Jones magazine Jan/Feb 98 issue] ------- "...I want my children to go to school to learn how to read, write and arithmetic (sic). And I think its absolutely absurd now we're going to, like, put gun safety so that they can look and fondle and feel guns. It just seems to me like a very brilliant recruiting campaign by the National Rifle Association. And I just want to say that, you know, I saw a really fabulous sign this morning. It said: 'NRA stands for Not Relevant Anymore.' And I want to tell you now that we moms are here, this is going to be a whole different debate." [Million Mom March organizer Donna Dees-Thomases, on NBC's "Meet the Press" 5/14/2000, on the "Eddie Eagle" program, which actually teaches kids to never touch a gun] ------- "Guns have one purpose-- for killing others. So yes, I think it clearly calls for a distinction ad I think it's almost ridiculous and absurd that these other statistics are thrown in. It's just smokescreens to cloud the issue." [Donna Dees-Thomases, press conference after Million Mom March, on facts which refute her "twelve kids die every day from gunshot wounds" claim made at the march] ------- "Kids in school should be taught to read & write, but they are now teaching them gun safety courses to look, feel, and fondle guns." [Million Mom March organizer Donna Dees-Thomases, on the NRA's "Eddie Eagle" course which teaches children to never touch a gun, and tell an adult if they find one] ------- "We believe that if any gun dealer, manufacturer, or gun owners wants to test the law in court, they should be given every opportunity. Arrest them. Put the burden on them to prove the law is too vague." [Louis Tolley, 1991, on HCI's position concerning the Roberti-Roos assault weapons ban] ------- "This is not all we will have in future Congresses, but this is a crack in the door. There are too many handguns in the hands of citizens. The right to keep and bear arms has nothing to do with the Brady Bill." [U.S. Rep. Craig Washington, at the mark-up hearing on the Brady Bill, April 10, 1991] ------- "The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population and in practice has never been so applied.... [The] Act was passed for the purpose of disarming the negro laborers and to thereby reduce the [number of] unlawful homicides... and to give the white citizens in sparsely settled areas a better feeling of security.... There has never been, within my knowledge, any effort to enforce the provisions of this statute as to white people, because it has been generally conceded to be in contravention of the Constitution and non- enforceable if contested." [Watson v. Stone, 4 So.2d 700, 703 (1941) (Buford, J., concurring) 1941 Florida court where a white person was charged with carrying a gun without a permit, as spoke by the Judge dismissing the case] ------- "Whatever right the Second Amendment protects is not as important as it was 200 years ago....[The government should] deconstitutionalize the subject by repealing the embarrassing Amendment." [George Will, 1991] ------- "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." [Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto] -------