Gun rights - for or against?
- Thread starter LeonT
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The same could be said of dangerous drivers. Plenty of them on the roads that cause accidents and deaths. A car can easily be used as a weapon to kill someone unfortunately. But not all are reckless drivers.
No doubt there are many with martial arts training, and we'll never know who they are. Their training doesn't need knives and gun to kill someone. But with that type of training comes a responsibility and awareness. They would never get rattled by someone provoking them when they know their training could easily kill someone. They would only use it if their life depended on it. I know of someone who never drinks for this reason, because he doesn't want to lose control.
I used to really fear guns too, especially if I saw someone open carrying. But one day that changed and I realized I needed to know how to defend myself. Also, my husband would leave his gun laying around the house, so he wanted me to know how to handle it safely.
Once you go through basic training you become more familiar with all aspects of it, including safety. So when you come across people carrying them you're more aware of all the constant checks they do when handling their gun, since they've been through that same basic training and have that knowledge. So you do (somewhat) have peace of mind.
The criminals will always have guns.
No doubt there are many with martial arts training, and we'll never know who they are. Their training doesn't need knives and gun to kill someone. But with that type of training comes a responsibility and awareness. They would never get rattled by someone provoking them when they know their training could easily kill someone. They would only use it if their life depended on it. I know of someone who never drinks for this reason, because he doesn't want to lose control.
I used to really fear guns too, especially if I saw someone open carrying. But one day that changed and I realized I needed to know how to defend myself. Also, my husband would leave his gun laying around the house, so he wanted me to know how to handle it safely.
Once you go through basic training you become more familiar with all aspects of it, including safety. So when you come across people carrying them you're more aware of all the constant checks they do when handling their gun, since they've been through that same basic training and have that knowledge. So you do (somewhat) have peace of mind.
The criminals will always have guns.
If living without a gun is so noble, why don't the people who don't have guns put a sign in the front of their house saying there are no guns on that property?
Why? Because one of the things that keeps burglars away from homes is the possibility that the resident might have a gun.
Until people are willing to proclaim they live in a gun free house, their arguments are invalid and hypocritical.
Why? Because one of the things that keeps burglars away from homes is the possibility that the resident might have a gun.
Until people are willing to proclaim they live in a gun free house, their arguments are invalid and hypocritical.
http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=23042
There’s a lot of misinformation out there these days about people who have chosen to exercise their right to carry a concealed weapon according to the provisions made by state governments.
Here are a few things that CWP holders want people to know about them. Now of course there are exceptions to these general rules but I think you’ll find these things to be true about the vast majority of your legally carrying neighbors.
1. We don’t carry firearms so that we can ignore other basics of personal safety. Every permit holder that I know realizes that almost all dangerous situations can be avoided by vigilance, alertness and by simply making wise choices about where one goes and what one does. We don’t walk down dark alleys. We lock our cars. We don’t get intoxicated in public or hang out around people who do. We park our cars in well lighted spots and don’t hang out in bad parts of town where we have no business. A gun is our last resort, not our first.
2. We don’t think we are cops, spies, or superheros. We aren’t hoping that somebody tries to rob the convenience store while we are there so we can shoot a criminal. We don’t take it upon ourselves to get involved in situations that are better handled by a 911 call or by simply standing by and being a good witness. We don’t believe our guns give us any authority over our fellow citizens. We also aren't here to be your unpaid volunteer bodyguard. We'll be glad to tell you where we trained and point you to some good gun shops if you feel you want to take this kind of responsibility for your personal safety. Except for extrordinary circumstances your business is your business, don't expect us to help you out of situations you could have avoided.
3. We are LESS likely, not more likely, to be involved in fights or “rage” incidents than the general public. We recognize, better than many unarmed citizens, that we are responsible for our actions. We take the responsibility of carrying a firearm very seriously. We know that loss of temper, getting into fights or angrily confronting someone after a traffic incident could easily escalate into a dangerous situation. We are more likely to go out of our way to avoid these situations. We don’t pull our guns to settle arguments or to attempt to threaten people into doing what we want.
4. We are responsible gun owners. We secure our firearms so that children and other unauthorized people cannot access them. Most of us have invested in safes, cases and lock boxes as well as other secuity measures to keep our firearms secure. Many of us belong to various organizations that promote firearms safety and ownership.
5. Guns are not unsafe or unpredictable. Modern firearms are well made precision instruments. Pieces do not simply break off causing them to fire. A hot day will not set them off. Most modern firearms will not discharge even if dropped. There is no reason to be afraid of a gun simply laying on a table or in a holster. It is not going to discharge on its own.
6. We do not believe in the concept of “accidental discharges”. There are no accidental discharges only negligent discharges or intentional discharges. We take responsibility for our actions and have learned how to safely handle firearms. Any case you have ever heard of about a gun “going off” was the result of negligence on somebody’s part. Our recognition of our responsibility and familiarity with firearms makes us among the safest firearms owners in America.
7. Permit holders do their best to keep our concealed weapons exactly that: concealed. However, there are times with an observant fellow citizen may spot our firearm or the print of our firearm under our clothes. We are very cognizant that concerns about terrorism and crime are in the forefront of the minds of most citizens. We also realize that our society does much to condition our fellow citizens to have sometimes irrational fears about firearms. We would encourage citizens who do happen to spot someone carrying a firearm to use good judgment and clear thinking if they feel to need to take action. Please recognize that it’s very uncommon for a criminal to use a holster. However, if you feel the need to report having spotted a firearm we would ask that you please be specific and detailed in your call to the police or in your report to a store manager or private security. Please don’t generalize or sensationalize what you observed. Comments like “there’s a guy running around in the store with a gun” or even simply “I saw a man with a gun in the store” could possibly cause a misunderstanding as to the true nature of the incident.
8. The fact that we carry a firearm to any given place does not mean that we believe that place to be inherently unsafe. If we believe a place to be unsafe, most of us would avoid that place all together if possible. However, we recognize that trouble could occur at any place and at any time. Criminals do not observe “gun free zones”. If trouble does come, we do not want the only armed persons to be perpetrators. Therefore, we don't usually make a determination about whether or not to carry at any given time based on "how safe" we think a location is.
9. Concealed weapon permit holders are an asset to the public in times of trouble. The fact that most permit holders have the good judgment to stay out of situations better handled by a 911 call or by simply being a careful and vigilant witness does not mean that we would fail to act in situations where the use of deadly force is appropriate to save lives. Review of high profile public shooting incidents shows that when killers are confronted by armed resistance they tend to either break off the attack and flee or choose to end their own life. Lives are saved when resistance engages a violent criminal. Lives are lost when the criminal can do as he pleases.
10. The fact that criminals know that some of the population may be armed at any given time helps to deter violence against all citizens. Permit holders don’t believe that every person should necessarily be armed. We recognize that some people may not be temperamentally suited to carry a firearm or simply may wish not to for personal reasons. However we do encourage you to respect our right to arm ourselves. Even if you choose not to carry a firearm yourself please oppose measures to limit the ability of law abiding citizens to be armed. As mentioned before: criminals do not observe “gun free zones”. Help by not supporting laws that require citizens to be unarmed victims.
11. Those with concealed carry permits are quite likely the most conspicuously law-abiding people you will encounter. In the majority of states with a permitting system, the permitholder has voluntarily submitted himself or herself to a background check involving local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. Very often, fingerprints have also been taken and submitted for examination. You can be assured that we are not criminals carrying under the shield of the law. Multiple levels of government have concurred that we have followed the law. In addition, we have spent a great deal of funds on training, equipment, and the permitting process. We are not eager to jeopardize any of that through misconduct- we are well aware that if we misbehave, we can lose every last penny of that investment, as well as our very freedom.
12. We would NEVER use our weapons unless it was absolutely necessary in order to save an innocent life.
Credit for this goes to "Serenity" over at the 1911 Forum-
1911Forum
There’s a lot of misinformation out there these days about people who have chosen to exercise their right to carry a concealed weapon according to the provisions made by state governments.
Here are a few things that CWP holders want people to know about them. Now of course there are exceptions to these general rules but I think you’ll find these things to be true about the vast majority of your legally carrying neighbors.
1. We don’t carry firearms so that we can ignore other basics of personal safety. Every permit holder that I know realizes that almost all dangerous situations can be avoided by vigilance, alertness and by simply making wise choices about where one goes and what one does. We don’t walk down dark alleys. We lock our cars. We don’t get intoxicated in public or hang out around people who do. We park our cars in well lighted spots and don’t hang out in bad parts of town where we have no business. A gun is our last resort, not our first.
2. We don’t think we are cops, spies, or superheros. We aren’t hoping that somebody tries to rob the convenience store while we are there so we can shoot a criminal. We don’t take it upon ourselves to get involved in situations that are better handled by a 911 call or by simply standing by and being a good witness. We don’t believe our guns give us any authority over our fellow citizens. We also aren't here to be your unpaid volunteer bodyguard. We'll be glad to tell you where we trained and point you to some good gun shops if you feel you want to take this kind of responsibility for your personal safety. Except for extrordinary circumstances your business is your business, don't expect us to help you out of situations you could have avoided.
3. We are LESS likely, not more likely, to be involved in fights or “rage” incidents than the general public. We recognize, better than many unarmed citizens, that we are responsible for our actions. We take the responsibility of carrying a firearm very seriously. We know that loss of temper, getting into fights or angrily confronting someone after a traffic incident could easily escalate into a dangerous situation. We are more likely to go out of our way to avoid these situations. We don’t pull our guns to settle arguments or to attempt to threaten people into doing what we want.
4. We are responsible gun owners. We secure our firearms so that children and other unauthorized people cannot access them. Most of us have invested in safes, cases and lock boxes as well as other secuity measures to keep our firearms secure. Many of us belong to various organizations that promote firearms safety and ownership.
5. Guns are not unsafe or unpredictable. Modern firearms are well made precision instruments. Pieces do not simply break off causing them to fire. A hot day will not set them off. Most modern firearms will not discharge even if dropped. There is no reason to be afraid of a gun simply laying on a table or in a holster. It is not going to discharge on its own.
6. We do not believe in the concept of “accidental discharges”. There are no accidental discharges only negligent discharges or intentional discharges. We take responsibility for our actions and have learned how to safely handle firearms. Any case you have ever heard of about a gun “going off” was the result of negligence on somebody’s part. Our recognition of our responsibility and familiarity with firearms makes us among the safest firearms owners in America.
7. Permit holders do their best to keep our concealed weapons exactly that: concealed. However, there are times with an observant fellow citizen may spot our firearm or the print of our firearm under our clothes. We are very cognizant that concerns about terrorism and crime are in the forefront of the minds of most citizens. We also realize that our society does much to condition our fellow citizens to have sometimes irrational fears about firearms. We would encourage citizens who do happen to spot someone carrying a firearm to use good judgment and clear thinking if they feel to need to take action. Please recognize that it’s very uncommon for a criminal to use a holster. However, if you feel the need to report having spotted a firearm we would ask that you please be specific and detailed in your call to the police or in your report to a store manager or private security. Please don’t generalize or sensationalize what you observed. Comments like “there’s a guy running around in the store with a gun” or even simply “I saw a man with a gun in the store” could possibly cause a misunderstanding as to the true nature of the incident.
8. The fact that we carry a firearm to any given place does not mean that we believe that place to be inherently unsafe. If we believe a place to be unsafe, most of us would avoid that place all together if possible. However, we recognize that trouble could occur at any place and at any time. Criminals do not observe “gun free zones”. If trouble does come, we do not want the only armed persons to be perpetrators. Therefore, we don't usually make a determination about whether or not to carry at any given time based on "how safe" we think a location is.
9. Concealed weapon permit holders are an asset to the public in times of trouble. The fact that most permit holders have the good judgment to stay out of situations better handled by a 911 call or by simply being a careful and vigilant witness does not mean that we would fail to act in situations where the use of deadly force is appropriate to save lives. Review of high profile public shooting incidents shows that when killers are confronted by armed resistance they tend to either break off the attack and flee or choose to end their own life. Lives are saved when resistance engages a violent criminal. Lives are lost when the criminal can do as he pleases.
10. The fact that criminals know that some of the population may be armed at any given time helps to deter violence against all citizens. Permit holders don’t believe that every person should necessarily be armed. We recognize that some people may not be temperamentally suited to carry a firearm or simply may wish not to for personal reasons. However we do encourage you to respect our right to arm ourselves. Even if you choose not to carry a firearm yourself please oppose measures to limit the ability of law abiding citizens to be armed. As mentioned before: criminals do not observe “gun free zones”. Help by not supporting laws that require citizens to be unarmed victims.
11. Those with concealed carry permits are quite likely the most conspicuously law-abiding people you will encounter. In the majority of states with a permitting system, the permitholder has voluntarily submitted himself or herself to a background check involving local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. Very often, fingerprints have also been taken and submitted for examination. You can be assured that we are not criminals carrying under the shield of the law. Multiple levels of government have concurred that we have followed the law. In addition, we have spent a great deal of funds on training, equipment, and the permitting process. We are not eager to jeopardize any of that through misconduct- we are well aware that if we misbehave, we can lose every last penny of that investment, as well as our very freedom.
12. We would NEVER use our weapons unless it was absolutely necessary in order to save an innocent life.
Credit for this goes to "Serenity" over at the 1911 Forum-
1911Forum
"THIS YEAR WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY. FOR THE FIRST TIME, A CIVILIZED NATION HAS FULL GUN REGISTRATION.OUR STREETS WILL BE SAFER, OUR POLICE MORE EFFICIENT, AND THE WORLD WILL FOLLOW OUR LEAD INTO THE FUTURE !" (ADOLF HITLER, 1935)
TWO VIEWS ON LIBERTY:
"When the Government fears the people, there is liberty.
When the people fear the government, there is tyranny"
~~Thomas Jefferson~~
"If someone is so fearful that they're going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, makes me nervous that they have weapons at all"
~~Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-Ca)~~
"Few things are harder to put up with than a good example."
~~Mark Twain~~
The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that is good.(George Washington)
"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the people's liberty teeth keystone... the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable... more than 99% of them by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference. When firearms go, all goes, we need them every hour." (GEORGE WASHINGTON)
Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. (James Madison)
The right of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country. (James Madison, Annals of Congress [June 8, 1789])
Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation. . . Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. (James Madison)
"THE BILL OF RIGHTS "
The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals.... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of. (Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789)
To disarm the people - that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. (George Mason)
I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for few public officials. (George Mason)
"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not." (Thomas Jefferson)
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)
"No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority." (Thomas Jefferson)
The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.(Thomas Jefferson)
No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. (Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, Jefferson Papers)
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)
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. (Thomas Jefferson)
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. (Thomas Jefferson)
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.(Thomas Jefferson)
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. (Thomas Jefferson)
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. (Thomas Jefferson)
To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike especially when young, how to use them. (Richard Henry Lee, 1788)
A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves... and include all men capable of bearing arms.(Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer [1788])
The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them. (Zachariah Johnson)
Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our 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)
The great object is that every man be armed and everyone who is able may have a gun. (Patrick Henry)
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined. (Patrick Henry)
The supposed quietude of a good mans 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 one half the world deprived of the use of them. (Thomas Paine)
Those, who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people. (Aristotle)
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)
To trust arms in the hands of the people at large has, in Europe, been believed...to be an experiment fraught only with danger. Here by a long trial it has been proved to be perfectly harmless...If the government be equitable; if it be reasonable in its exactions; if proper attention be paid to the education of children in knowledge and religion, few men will be disposed to use arms, unless for their amusement, and for the defense of themselves and their country.(Timothy Dwight)
You are bound to meet misfortune if you are unarmed because, among other reasons, people despise you....There is simply no comparison between a man who is armed and one who is not. It is unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey one who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed. In the latter case, there will be suspicion on the one hand and contempt on the other, making cooperation impossible. (Niccolo Machiavelli)
As much as I oppose the average person's having a gun, I recognize that some people have a legitimate need to own one. A wealthy corporate executive who fears his family might get kidnapped is one such person. A Hollywood celebrity who has to protect himself from kooks is another. If Sharon Tate had had access to a gun during the Manson killings, some innocent lives might have been saved. (Joseph D. McNamara - San Jose, CA Police Chief Ret.)
To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm . . . is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege. (Wilson v. State, 33 Ark. 557)
The provision in the Constitution granting the right to all persons to bear arms is a limitation upon the power of the Legislature to enact any law to the contrary. The exercise of a right guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be made subject to the will of the sheriff.(People vs. Zerillo, 219)
The maintenance of the right to bear arms is a most essential one to every free people and should not be whittled down by technical constructions. (State vs. Kerner, 181)
The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the "high powers" delegated directly to the citizen, and is excepted out of the general powers of government.' A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power. (Cockrum v. State, 24)
Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. (Noah Webster)
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, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment. Annals of Congress [August 17, 1789])
As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people 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 article in their right to keep and bear their private arms. (Tench Coxe)
Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people. (Tench Coxe)
The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by any 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 any blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both. (William Rawle, 1829)
That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. (Samuel Adams)
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 (Alexander Hamilton)
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed. (Alexander Hamilton)
Before the civil war, if the slaves would have had firearms, would they have remained slaves?
TWO VIEWS ON LIBERTY:
"When the Government fears the people, there is liberty.
When the people fear the government, there is tyranny"
~~Thomas Jefferson~~
"If someone is so fearful that they're going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, makes me nervous that they have weapons at all"
~~Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-Ca)~~
"Few things are harder to put up with than a good example."
~~Mark Twain~~
The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that is good.(George Washington)
"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the people's liberty teeth keystone... the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable... more than 99% of them by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference. When firearms go, all goes, we need them every hour." (GEORGE WASHINGTON)
Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. (James Madison)
The right of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country. (James Madison, Annals of Congress [June 8, 1789])
Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation. . . Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. (James Madison)
"THE BILL OF RIGHTS "
The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals.... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of. (Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789)
To disarm the people - that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. (George Mason)
I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for few public officials. (George Mason)
"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not." (Thomas Jefferson)
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)
"No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority." (Thomas Jefferson)
The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.(Thomas Jefferson)
No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. (Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, Jefferson Papers)
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)
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. (Thomas Jefferson)
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. (Thomas Jefferson)
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.(Thomas Jefferson)
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. (Thomas Jefferson)
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. (Thomas Jefferson)
To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike especially when young, how to use them. (Richard Henry Lee, 1788)
A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves... and include all men capable of bearing arms.(Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer [1788])
The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them. (Zachariah Johnson)
Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our 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)
The great object is that every man be armed and everyone who is able may have a gun. (Patrick Henry)
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined. (Patrick Henry)
The supposed quietude of a good mans 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 one half the world deprived of the use of them. (Thomas Paine)
Those, who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people. (Aristotle)
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)
To trust arms in the hands of the people at large has, in Europe, been believed...to be an experiment fraught only with danger. Here by a long trial it has been proved to be perfectly harmless...If the government be equitable; if it be reasonable in its exactions; if proper attention be paid to the education of children in knowledge and religion, few men will be disposed to use arms, unless for their amusement, and for the defense of themselves and their country.(Timothy Dwight)
You are bound to meet misfortune if you are unarmed because, among other reasons, people despise you....There is simply no comparison between a man who is armed and one who is not. It is unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey one who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed. In the latter case, there will be suspicion on the one hand and contempt on the other, making cooperation impossible. (Niccolo Machiavelli)
As much as I oppose the average person's having a gun, I recognize that some people have a legitimate need to own one. A wealthy corporate executive who fears his family might get kidnapped is one such person. A Hollywood celebrity who has to protect himself from kooks is another. If Sharon Tate had had access to a gun during the Manson killings, some innocent lives might have been saved. (Joseph D. McNamara - San Jose, CA Police Chief Ret.)
To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm . . . is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege. (Wilson v. State, 33 Ark. 557)
The provision in the Constitution granting the right to all persons to bear arms is a limitation upon the power of the Legislature to enact any law to the contrary. The exercise of a right guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be made subject to the will of the sheriff.(People vs. Zerillo, 219)
The maintenance of the right to bear arms is a most essential one to every free people and should not be whittled down by technical constructions. (State vs. Kerner, 181)
The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the "high powers" delegated directly to the citizen, and is excepted out of the general powers of government.' A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power. (Cockrum v. State, 24)
Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. (Noah Webster)
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, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment. Annals of Congress [August 17, 1789])
As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people 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 article in their right to keep and bear their private arms. (Tench Coxe)
Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people. (Tench Coxe)
The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by any 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 any blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both. (William Rawle, 1829)
That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. (Samuel Adams)
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 (Alexander Hamilton)
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed. (Alexander Hamilton)
Before the civil war, if the slaves would have had firearms, would they have remained slaves?
Why Carry?
FACTS TO PONDER:
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.
Now think about this:
Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000.
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188
Statistics courtesy of the FBI
So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
Remember, 'Guns don't kill people, doctors do.'
FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.
Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!
Out of concern for the public at large, We have withheld the statistics on
Lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek
medical attention!
"The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." ~Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J.Boyd, Ed., 1950)
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Plato
"fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen." [Warren v. District of Columbia,(D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981)]
The courts say police protection is a service, not a right. The police don't have to come protect me from a violent attacker if they don't want to.
When the state has no responsibility to protect you and prohibits your right to defend yourself, does that make them accessories when you are attacked? (Is that any different than someone holding your arms behind your back when someone else is hitting you?)
Gun restrictions prohibit legitimate self-defense and force victims to simply hope the police will catch the murderer or rapist after the fact.
Violent attackers need to be stopped immediately, not protected from their victims.
You can never reason with a violent person trying to kill you right now. You can only defend yourself.
Our earnest desire for world peace has no effect over whether or not a meth addict or violent criminal will attack us or our loved ones.
"Visualizing world peace" protects no one from violent criminals. Handguns do.
For the same reason I carry a spare tire, jumper cables and fire extinguishers in my vehicles - I hope I never need them, but if I do, it can be a lifesaver.
No matter how much you try to avoid it, violent attacks can happen to anyone at any time.
Responsible gun carriers don't want to harm others. They want to prevent people from being harmed.
There is an infinite difference between being prepared to defend yourself when attacked and maliciously attacking another. Not understanding this difference is why gun-phobes seek to restrict people's right and ability to defend themselves.
Do responsible adults have the right to protect themselves and their family from violent attack and murder? Or, should we just wish the government will find and punish the attacker, after our family is attacked and possibly murdered?
How well does our government defend unarmed women when being attacked? Can the average woman defend herself when armed?
Violent crime never makes an appointment.
If removing guns from responsible adults reduces crime, let us put "No Firearm" signs on the front doors of everyone who favors gun control. If it is blatantly obvious that "No Firearm" signs will increase the likelihood of crime against unarmed people in their homes, isn't it equally obvious that "No Firearm" laws will increase the likelihood of crimes against unarmed people not in their homes?
I don't carry a gun to look for trouble. I carry a gun to avoid trouble when it is looking for me.
The difference between a victim and a survivor of violent crime is whether or not the victim can defend herself.
John Stossel: "You can call the police, and they will take a picture of your dead body."
How else can a smaller woman immediately stop a larger attacker?
Every responsible adult has the right to defend themselves from a violent attacker.
Defending oneself from violent attack is a human right, not a political privilege.
The right to defend oneself from violent attack belongs to everyone, not just law enforcement.
An even fight is for the ring, not self defense.
An unarmed person can only run from an attacker, if they are fast and lucky. Evil is not stopped by someone who is lucky enough to escape during the attack. An attacker must be decisively stopped at the beginning of the attack.
A responsible adult carrying a handgun is no danger to other people. She is only dangerous to those who would attack her.
The government does not and cannot protect us from violent attackers. We are responsible to defend ourselves.
911 does not and cannot protect us from violent attackers.
Violent attackers do not let potential victims dial 911 and wait 15 minutes for the police arrive. Potential victims are responsible to defend themselves at the time of the attack.
A gun in the hand is more protection than a cop on the phone.
A woman can't carry a cop in her purse.
A woman who can use the handgun in her purse is far safer than a woman who can use the cell phone in her purse
When seconds count, the police are minutes away.
Laws against violent crime do not stop violent crime. Responsible armed people do.
Oppressive gun laws don't restrict the violent predators of society. They defend the predators and punish law abiding citizens.
No matter how restrictive and oppressive gun control laws are to law abiding citizens, violent criminals, by definition, don't obey them.
Violent crimes flourish when the government protects violent criminals from responsible armed citizens.
Armed criminals are killing unarmed citizens because citizens are prohibited from defending themselves.
Violent crimes flourish when self-defense is outlawed.
Until violent criminals are no longer violent, responsible adults have the right and duty to protect themselves, their family, and their possessions from violence and abuse.
Violent criminals use guns. Responsible adults have the right and responsibility to defend themselves from violent criminals.
The predators of society are not stopped by my desires for world peace.
Violent attackers are not stopped by threats of calling 911.
Only a fool expects mercy from a merciless attacker.
Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.
If guns kill people then cars cause drunk drivers.
A responsible adult has not only a right, but a responsibility to protect themselves and others from those who are violent and are determined to impose their will and abuse on others.
If a violent attacker is shot during a violent attack, other potential attackers will be discouraged from attacking. But if a violent attacker is always successful because his victims are not allowed to defend themselves, other potential attackers will be encouraged to attack others.
Human beings only have two ways to deal with each another: reason and
force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of
either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding
under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those
two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact
through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social
interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is
the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use
reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your
threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon
that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger,
a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger,
and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys
with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical
strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a
defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad
force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more
civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm
makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course,
is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed
either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most
of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the
banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and
the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A
mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a
society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal
that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is
fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are
won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on
the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't
constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings
and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun
makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker
defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is
level. The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an
octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply
wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal
and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight,
but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means
that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm
afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the
actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the
actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the
equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
Marko Kloos
Short version
If removing guns from responsible adults reduces crime, let us put "No Firearm" signs on the front doors of everyone who favors gun control. If it is blatantly obvious that "No Firearm" signs will increase the likelihood of crime against unarmed people in their homes, isn't it equally obvious that "No Firearm" laws will increase the likelihood of crimes against unarmed people not in their homes?
Gun restrictions prohibit legitimate self-defense and force victims to simply hope the police will catch the murderer or rapist after the fact.
The question is, simply, do responsible adults have the right to protect themselves and their family from violent attack and murder at the time of the attack? Or, must we simply hope that the government, after we are attacked and possibly murdered, will quickly apprehend the attacker before he can harm anyone else, and that his treatment by the government will discourage other attackers from harming other unarmed citizens?
Violent attackers need to be stopped immediately, not protected from their victims.
You can't reason with evil people trying to kill you right now.
Our earnest desire for world peace has no effect over whether or not a meth addict or violent criminal will attack us or our loved ones.
"Visualizing world peace" protects no one from violent criminals. Handguns do.
Responsible gun carriers don't want to harm others. They simply want to prevent others from harming themselves and their loved ones.
There is an infinite difference between being prepared to defend yourself when attacked and maliciously attacking another. Not understanding this difference is why gun-phobes seek to restrict people's right and ability to defend themselves.
Violent crime never makes an appointment.
There are evil people in this world who work hard to make victims out of those who can't defend themselves.
The courts say police protection is a service, not a right. The police don't have to come protect anyone from a violent attacker if they are busy or don't want to.
If the state denies their responsibility to protect you and prohibits your right to defend yourself, does that not make them participants when you are attacked? How is that any different than someone holding your arms behind your back when someone else is going to beat you?
FACTS TO PONDER:
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.
Now think about this:
Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000.
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188
Statistics courtesy of the FBI
So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
Remember, 'Guns don't kill people, doctors do.'
FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.
Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!
Out of concern for the public at large, We have withheld the statistics on
Lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek
medical attention!
"The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." ~Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J.Boyd, Ed., 1950)
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Plato
"fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen." [Warren v. District of Columbia,(D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981)]
The courts say police protection is a service, not a right. The police don't have to come protect me from a violent attacker if they don't want to.
When the state has no responsibility to protect you and prohibits your right to defend yourself, does that make them accessories when you are attacked? (Is that any different than someone holding your arms behind your back when someone else is hitting you?)
Gun restrictions prohibit legitimate self-defense and force victims to simply hope the police will catch the murderer or rapist after the fact.
Violent attackers need to be stopped immediately, not protected from their victims.
You can never reason with a violent person trying to kill you right now. You can only defend yourself.
Our earnest desire for world peace has no effect over whether or not a meth addict or violent criminal will attack us or our loved ones.
"Visualizing world peace" protects no one from violent criminals. Handguns do.
For the same reason I carry a spare tire, jumper cables and fire extinguishers in my vehicles - I hope I never need them, but if I do, it can be a lifesaver.
No matter how much you try to avoid it, violent attacks can happen to anyone at any time.
Responsible gun carriers don't want to harm others. They want to prevent people from being harmed.
There is an infinite difference between being prepared to defend yourself when attacked and maliciously attacking another. Not understanding this difference is why gun-phobes seek to restrict people's right and ability to defend themselves.
Do responsible adults have the right to protect themselves and their family from violent attack and murder? Or, should we just wish the government will find and punish the attacker, after our family is attacked and possibly murdered?
How well does our government defend unarmed women when being attacked? Can the average woman defend herself when armed?
Violent crime never makes an appointment.
If removing guns from responsible adults reduces crime, let us put "No Firearm" signs on the front doors of everyone who favors gun control. If it is blatantly obvious that "No Firearm" signs will increase the likelihood of crime against unarmed people in their homes, isn't it equally obvious that "No Firearm" laws will increase the likelihood of crimes against unarmed people not in their homes?
I don't carry a gun to look for trouble. I carry a gun to avoid trouble when it is looking for me.
The difference between a victim and a survivor of violent crime is whether or not the victim can defend herself.
John Stossel: "You can call the police, and they will take a picture of your dead body."
How else can a smaller woman immediately stop a larger attacker?
Every responsible adult has the right to defend themselves from a violent attacker.
Defending oneself from violent attack is a human right, not a political privilege.
The right to defend oneself from violent attack belongs to everyone, not just law enforcement.
An even fight is for the ring, not self defense.
An unarmed person can only run from an attacker, if they are fast and lucky. Evil is not stopped by someone who is lucky enough to escape during the attack. An attacker must be decisively stopped at the beginning of the attack.
A responsible adult carrying a handgun is no danger to other people. She is only dangerous to those who would attack her.
The government does not and cannot protect us from violent attackers. We are responsible to defend ourselves.
911 does not and cannot protect us from violent attackers.
Violent attackers do not let potential victims dial 911 and wait 15 minutes for the police arrive. Potential victims are responsible to defend themselves at the time of the attack.
A gun in the hand is more protection than a cop on the phone.
A woman can't carry a cop in her purse.
A woman who can use the handgun in her purse is far safer than a woman who can use the cell phone in her purse
When seconds count, the police are minutes away.
Laws against violent crime do not stop violent crime. Responsible armed people do.
Oppressive gun laws don't restrict the violent predators of society. They defend the predators and punish law abiding citizens.
No matter how restrictive and oppressive gun control laws are to law abiding citizens, violent criminals, by definition, don't obey them.
Violent crimes flourish when the government protects violent criminals from responsible armed citizens.
Armed criminals are killing unarmed citizens because citizens are prohibited from defending themselves.
Violent crimes flourish when self-defense is outlawed.
Until violent criminals are no longer violent, responsible adults have the right and duty to protect themselves, their family, and their possessions from violence and abuse.
Violent criminals use guns. Responsible adults have the right and responsibility to defend themselves from violent criminals.
The predators of society are not stopped by my desires for world peace.
Violent attackers are not stopped by threats of calling 911.
Only a fool expects mercy from a merciless attacker.
Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.
If guns kill people then cars cause drunk drivers.
A responsible adult has not only a right, but a responsibility to protect themselves and others from those who are violent and are determined to impose their will and abuse on others.
If a violent attacker is shot during a violent attack, other potential attackers will be discouraged from attacking. But if a violent attacker is always successful because his victims are not allowed to defend themselves, other potential attackers will be encouraged to attack others.
Human beings only have two ways to deal with each another: reason and
force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of
either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding
under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those
two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact
through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social
interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is
the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use
reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your
threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon
that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger,
a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger,
and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys
with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical
strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a
defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad
force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more
civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm
makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course,
is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed
either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most
of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the
banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and
the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A
mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a
society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal
that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is
fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are
won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on
the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't
constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings
and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun
makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker
defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is
level. The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an
octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply
wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal
and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight,
but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means
that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm
afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the
actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the
actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the
equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
Marko Kloos
Short version
If removing guns from responsible adults reduces crime, let us put "No Firearm" signs on the front doors of everyone who favors gun control. If it is blatantly obvious that "No Firearm" signs will increase the likelihood of crime against unarmed people in their homes, isn't it equally obvious that "No Firearm" laws will increase the likelihood of crimes against unarmed people not in their homes?
Gun restrictions prohibit legitimate self-defense and force victims to simply hope the police will catch the murderer or rapist after the fact.
The question is, simply, do responsible adults have the right to protect themselves and their family from violent attack and murder at the time of the attack? Or, must we simply hope that the government, after we are attacked and possibly murdered, will quickly apprehend the attacker before he can harm anyone else, and that his treatment by the government will discourage other attackers from harming other unarmed citizens?
Violent attackers need to be stopped immediately, not protected from their victims.
You can't reason with evil people trying to kill you right now.
Our earnest desire for world peace has no effect over whether or not a meth addict or violent criminal will attack us or our loved ones.
"Visualizing world peace" protects no one from violent criminals. Handguns do.
Responsible gun carriers don't want to harm others. They simply want to prevent others from harming themselves and their loved ones.
There is an infinite difference between being prepared to defend yourself when attacked and maliciously attacking another. Not understanding this difference is why gun-phobes seek to restrict people's right and ability to defend themselves.
Violent crime never makes an appointment.
There are evil people in this world who work hard to make victims out of those who can't defend themselves.
The courts say police protection is a service, not a right. The police don't have to come protect anyone from a violent attacker if they are busy or don't want to.
If the state denies their responsibility to protect you and prohibits your right to defend yourself, does that not make them participants when you are attacked? How is that any different than someone holding your arms behind your back when someone else is going to beat you?
WHY I CARRY A GUN
My old grandpa said to me son,' there comes a time in every
mans life when he stops busting knuckles and starts busting caps
and usually it's when he becomes too old to take an ass whoopin'.
I don't carry a gun to kill people.
I carry a gun to keep from being killed.
I don't carry a gun to scare people.
I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.
I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid.
I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.
I don't carry a gun because I'm evil.
I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the
world.
I don't carry a gun because I hate the government.
I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.
I don't carry a gun because I'm angry.
I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating
myself for failing to be prepared.
I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone.
I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and
not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.
I don't carry a gun because I'm a cowboy.
I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a
cowboy.
I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man.
I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves
and the ones they love.
I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate.
I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am
inadequate.
I don't carry a gun because I love it.
I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful
to me.
Police Protection is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves.
Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the
crime after it happens, draw a chalk outline around your body, call
someone in to clean up the mess and may/may not solve your murder.
Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to
take an ass whoopin'.
...author unknown (but obviously brilliant)
"I have not been right wing brainwashed, I'm not ignorant, nor am I a racist. I am an educated professional, religious, gun toting, constitution believing, veteran that loves the country that our founding fathers fought for."
Anonymous
"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
Dr. Adrian Rogers , 1931 to 2005
"America is broken because the american family is broken. We can't run our own families and we expect to run an entire country? It's time to put the Lord back in the driver's seat. We cheat on our wives, fall into drugs, are abusive, unfaithful, unloving, etc. yet we (think we can) teach our kids to grow up and be faithful, sober, loving, slow to anger? This country is falling apart at the seams because the american family is falling apart at the seams...What this country needs more than anything right now is a revival of the Spirit and the family."
CZRev
"The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State--a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values--interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people...The Fascist State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it makes its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by means of its corporate, social, and educational institutions, and all the political, economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organised in their respective associations, circulate within the State."
Benito Mussolini, 1935, The Doctrine of Fascism
"Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438
"After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it."
William Burroughs
"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves."
Thomas Jefferson
"Professionals argue tactics. -- Amateurs argue caliber."
Anonymous
"The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty - and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies."
H.L. Mencken, February 12, 1923, Baltimore Evening Sun
"Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less."
"You must study to be frank with the world: frankness is the child of honesty and courage."
" I trust that a kind Providence will watch over us, and notwithstanding our weakness and sins will yet give us a name and place among the nations of the earth."
"If the Constitution and the Union established by our forefathers" were "restored" then there will be no truer supporters of that union and that Constitution than the Southern people. Every brave people who considered their rights attacked and their Constitutional liberties invaded, would have done as we did. Our conduct was not caused by any insurrectionary spirit nor can it be termed rebellion, for our construction of the Constitution under which we lived and acted was the same from its adoption and for eighty years we have been taught and educated by the founders of the Republic and their written declaration which controlled our consciences and actions."
"A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know where it is today."
"In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength."
Robert E. Lee
"You don't become a cop because you want to serve and protect. Anybody believes that is an idiot. You do it because you get respect. Because they let you carry a gun and a badge. Most people respect the badge... Everybody respects the gun."
Anonymous
"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."
Robert A. Heinlein
"Remember that Jefferson told us that the Second Amendment would not be needed until they tried to abolish it. There are people who have that in mind right now. The personal ownership and usage of firearms is not a common aspect of today's culture worldwide. It is up to Americans - those who know what it means to be an American - to uphold the light of liberty in the face of those both here and elsewhere who would extinguish it. We see the hysterics who feel that the abolition of firearms would bring about major changes in the human psyche, and that crime would disappear. We cannot reason with these people because they are impervious to reason, but we can expose them to ridicule and frustrate their political clout. That is a job not just for the National Rifle Association, but for everyone. If you want to make a resolution for the coming century, resolve to do something in defense of liberty every day, and by liberty, of course, we mean true liberty - the right to keep and bear arms. Without that liberty all other liberties are meaningless."
Col. Jeff Cooper
"Amateurs train until they get it right, professionals train until they cannot get it wrong. If you've seen police qualifications, you know this is false. Amateurs train until they get it right, professionals train no more than they are paid to."
E. Charles
"Gun Control - A theory espoused by some monumentally stupid people; who claim to believe, against all logic and common sense, that a violent predator who ignores the laws prohibiting them from robbing, raping, kidnapping, torturing and killing their fellow human beings will obey a law telling them that they cannot own a gun."
OldNoob
"As we learned many years ago, happiness may never be pursued as an end to itself, because happiness is the by-product of accomplishment. That may be the reason why we see no element of happiness on the faces of people in the casinos of Las Vegas and Reno. Nobody has accomplished anything, and nobody is likely to. Hitting a jackpot may be fun, but you did nothing to achieve it, and it cannot bring you happiness."
Jeff Cooper
"I was once asked by a lady visiting if I had a gun in the house. I said I did. She said 'Well I certainly hope it isn't loaded!' To which I said, of course it is loaded, can't work without bullets!' She then asked, 'Are you that afraid of someone evil coming into your house?' My reply was, 'No not at all. I am not afraid of the house catching fire either, but I have fire extinguishers around, and they are all loaded too.' To which I'll add, having a gun in the house that isn't loaded is like having a car in the garage without gas in the tank."
Anonymous
"That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct. We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals. It is so ordered."
Justice Antonin Gregory Scalia, June 26, 2008, DC v. Heller
"It's easy to be brave from a distance."
Aesop
"In the Army there were three levels of testing:
1. General proof was passed by most equipment
2. Officer/NCO proof needed to be quite a bit more rugged especially for the Engineering types.
3. Private proofing was the real test of equipment durability. To meet this level of testing the equipment needed to be virtually indestructible."
Doc Lee
"What we should have learned after 9/11 and Katrina was that those who expect government at any level to do anything more complex than garbage collection are inattentive."
Evan Marshall
"My choices early in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference." USA President Harry Truman
"You have no rights except those you take." Anonymous
"Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grand-children are once more slaves."
D. H. Lawrence
"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again."
Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws...you create a nation of law-breakers and then you cash in on guilt."
Ayn Rand
"The job of bureaucrats is to regulate, and left to their own devices, they will try to regulate everything they can."
Steven den Beste
"If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams
"God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always, well informed... what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their 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 & tyrants. It is it's natural manure."
Thomas Jefferson
"It is customary for republican governments to be bound by constitutions, and this is grand idea. The question does arise, however, about what recourse the citizen has when the government disregards its own constitution, as is the case with our own Tenth Amendment. What do you do if your government does not obey its own laws? Our Declaration declaims that when governments do not observe the God-given rights of man, it is not only the right but the duty of the people to alter or abolish them. The Declaration of Independence may not be the supreme law of the land - which is the Constitution - but it frames our philosophy of government and serves as a guide for those who respect our traditions. More people should."
Col. Jeff Cooper
Why do I need an "assault weapon?" Answer: You don't. You don't need an "assault weapon" any more than you need the right to speak freely, or the right to vote, or the right to drive whatever car you want, or the right to eat at whatever restaurant you want, or the right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure. If the government says you can only eat at one restaurant, can only drive mopeds, can not vote and can not speak without permission and can not ever speak against the government, and if the government can search your house anytime they want to... you won't die. None of those are NEEDS.
Then, ask how much they like their first amendment or fourth amendment rights? Tell them you like your second, and that the concept of freedom is not based on need- that would be communism. Freedom is based on being able to indulge in individual desires without repercussion. And also tell them that the constitution is a set of pillars upon which our republic is based... take down one pillar and you weaken the whole structure, so much so that other pillars may fall as well... or all of it could fall.
"Q"
"The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental."
As John Steinbeck once said:
"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence."
Charles Austin Beard, American Historian, 1874-1948
"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
Winston Churchill
"GOD GRANT ME THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT THE PEOPLE I CANNOT SHOOT, COURAGE TO SHOOT THE PEOPLE I CAN, AND THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE."
Anonymous
"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."
Mark Twain
"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.... But then I repeat myself."
Mark Twain
"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."
Winston Churchill
"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."
George Bernard Shaw
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
Ronald Reagan (1986)
"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session."
Mark Twain (1866)
"The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other."
Ronald Reagan
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."
Thomas Jefferson
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
Thomas Jefferson Papers
"The Constitutions of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
Thomas Jefferson.
"(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
James Madison.
"Arms in the hands of citizens (may) be used at individual discretion...in private self defense..."
John Adams, A defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the USA, 471 (1788).
"To disarm the people (is) the best and most effectual way to enslave them..."
George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380.
"A pistol defends your property and your person from unanticipated and barely anticipated threats from thieves and robbers. With it, you can control your immediate environment. A rifle defends your freedom from oppressors and tyrants. With it, you can enforce your will. Buy as you see fit."
Gabe Suarez
"I will not cede more power to the state. I will not willingly cede more power to anyone, not to the state, not to General Motors, not to the CIO. I will hoard my power like a miser, resisting every effort to drain it away from me. I will then use my power, as I see fit. I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth."
William F. Buckley Jr.
My old grandpa said to me son,' there comes a time in every
mans life when he stops busting knuckles and starts busting caps
and usually it's when he becomes too old to take an ass whoopin'.
I don't carry a gun to kill people.
I carry a gun to keep from being killed.
I don't carry a gun to scare people.
I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.
I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid.
I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.
I don't carry a gun because I'm evil.
I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the
world.
I don't carry a gun because I hate the government.
I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.
I don't carry a gun because I'm angry.
I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating
myself for failing to be prepared.
I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone.
I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and
not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.
I don't carry a gun because I'm a cowboy.
I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a
cowboy.
I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man.
I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves
and the ones they love.
I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate.
I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am
inadequate.
I don't carry a gun because I love it.
I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful
to me.
Police Protection is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves.
Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the
crime after it happens, draw a chalk outline around your body, call
someone in to clean up the mess and may/may not solve your murder.
Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to
take an ass whoopin'.
...author unknown (but obviously brilliant)
"I have not been right wing brainwashed, I'm not ignorant, nor am I a racist. I am an educated professional, religious, gun toting, constitution believing, veteran that loves the country that our founding fathers fought for."
Anonymous
"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
Dr. Adrian Rogers , 1931 to 2005
"America is broken because the american family is broken. We can't run our own families and we expect to run an entire country? It's time to put the Lord back in the driver's seat. We cheat on our wives, fall into drugs, are abusive, unfaithful, unloving, etc. yet we (think we can) teach our kids to grow up and be faithful, sober, loving, slow to anger? This country is falling apart at the seams because the american family is falling apart at the seams...What this country needs more than anything right now is a revival of the Spirit and the family."
CZRev
"The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State--a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values--interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people...The Fascist State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it makes its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by means of its corporate, social, and educational institutions, and all the political, economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organised in their respective associations, circulate within the State."
Benito Mussolini, 1935, The Doctrine of Fascism
"Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438
"After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it."
William Burroughs
"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves."
Thomas Jefferson
"Professionals argue tactics. -- Amateurs argue caliber."
Anonymous
"The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty - and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies."
H.L. Mencken, February 12, 1923, Baltimore Evening Sun
"Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less."
"You must study to be frank with the world: frankness is the child of honesty and courage."
" I trust that a kind Providence will watch over us, and notwithstanding our weakness and sins will yet give us a name and place among the nations of the earth."
"If the Constitution and the Union established by our forefathers" were "restored" then there will be no truer supporters of that union and that Constitution than the Southern people. Every brave people who considered their rights attacked and their Constitutional liberties invaded, would have done as we did. Our conduct was not caused by any insurrectionary spirit nor can it be termed rebellion, for our construction of the Constitution under which we lived and acted was the same from its adoption and for eighty years we have been taught and educated by the founders of the Republic and their written declaration which controlled our consciences and actions."
"A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know where it is today."
"In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength."
Robert E. Lee
"You don't become a cop because you want to serve and protect. Anybody believes that is an idiot. You do it because you get respect. Because they let you carry a gun and a badge. Most people respect the badge... Everybody respects the gun."
Anonymous
"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."
Robert A. Heinlein
"Remember that Jefferson told us that the Second Amendment would not be needed until they tried to abolish it. There are people who have that in mind right now. The personal ownership and usage of firearms is not a common aspect of today's culture worldwide. It is up to Americans - those who know what it means to be an American - to uphold the light of liberty in the face of those both here and elsewhere who would extinguish it. We see the hysterics who feel that the abolition of firearms would bring about major changes in the human psyche, and that crime would disappear. We cannot reason with these people because they are impervious to reason, but we can expose them to ridicule and frustrate their political clout. That is a job not just for the National Rifle Association, but for everyone. If you want to make a resolution for the coming century, resolve to do something in defense of liberty every day, and by liberty, of course, we mean true liberty - the right to keep and bear arms. Without that liberty all other liberties are meaningless."
Col. Jeff Cooper
"Amateurs train until they get it right, professionals train until they cannot get it wrong. If you've seen police qualifications, you know this is false. Amateurs train until they get it right, professionals train no more than they are paid to."
E. Charles
"Gun Control - A theory espoused by some monumentally stupid people; who claim to believe, against all logic and common sense, that a violent predator who ignores the laws prohibiting them from robbing, raping, kidnapping, torturing and killing their fellow human beings will obey a law telling them that they cannot own a gun."
OldNoob
"As we learned many years ago, happiness may never be pursued as an end to itself, because happiness is the by-product of accomplishment. That may be the reason why we see no element of happiness on the faces of people in the casinos of Las Vegas and Reno. Nobody has accomplished anything, and nobody is likely to. Hitting a jackpot may be fun, but you did nothing to achieve it, and it cannot bring you happiness."
Jeff Cooper
"I was once asked by a lady visiting if I had a gun in the house. I said I did. She said 'Well I certainly hope it isn't loaded!' To which I said, of course it is loaded, can't work without bullets!' She then asked, 'Are you that afraid of someone evil coming into your house?' My reply was, 'No not at all. I am not afraid of the house catching fire either, but I have fire extinguishers around, and they are all loaded too.' To which I'll add, having a gun in the house that isn't loaded is like having a car in the garage without gas in the tank."
Anonymous
"That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct. We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals. It is so ordered."
Justice Antonin Gregory Scalia, June 26, 2008, DC v. Heller
"It's easy to be brave from a distance."
Aesop
"In the Army there were three levels of testing:
1. General proof was passed by most equipment
2. Officer/NCO proof needed to be quite a bit more rugged especially for the Engineering types.
3. Private proofing was the real test of equipment durability. To meet this level of testing the equipment needed to be virtually indestructible."
Doc Lee
"What we should have learned after 9/11 and Katrina was that those who expect government at any level to do anything more complex than garbage collection are inattentive."
Evan Marshall
"My choices early in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference." USA President Harry Truman
"You have no rights except those you take." Anonymous
"Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grand-children are once more slaves."
D. H. Lawrence
"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again."
Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws...you create a nation of law-breakers and then you cash in on guilt."
Ayn Rand
"The job of bureaucrats is to regulate, and left to their own devices, they will try to regulate everything they can."
Steven den Beste
"If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams
"God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always, well informed... what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their 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 & tyrants. It is it's natural manure."
Thomas Jefferson
"It is customary for republican governments to be bound by constitutions, and this is grand idea. The question does arise, however, about what recourse the citizen has when the government disregards its own constitution, as is the case with our own Tenth Amendment. What do you do if your government does not obey its own laws? Our Declaration declaims that when governments do not observe the God-given rights of man, it is not only the right but the duty of the people to alter or abolish them. The Declaration of Independence may not be the supreme law of the land - which is the Constitution - but it frames our philosophy of government and serves as a guide for those who respect our traditions. More people should."
Col. Jeff Cooper
Why do I need an "assault weapon?" Answer: You don't. You don't need an "assault weapon" any more than you need the right to speak freely, or the right to vote, or the right to drive whatever car you want, or the right to eat at whatever restaurant you want, or the right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure. If the government says you can only eat at one restaurant, can only drive mopeds, can not vote and can not speak without permission and can not ever speak against the government, and if the government can search your house anytime they want to... you won't die. None of those are NEEDS.
Then, ask how much they like their first amendment or fourth amendment rights? Tell them you like your second, and that the concept of freedom is not based on need- that would be communism. Freedom is based on being able to indulge in individual desires without repercussion. And also tell them that the constitution is a set of pillars upon which our republic is based... take down one pillar and you weaken the whole structure, so much so that other pillars may fall as well... or all of it could fall.
"Q"
"The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental."
As John Steinbeck once said:
- 1. Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.
- 2. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics stink.
- 3. I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.
- 4. When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.
- 5. A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers. The reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him 'Why do you carry a 45?' The Ranger responded, 'Because they don't make a 46.'
- 6. An armed man will kill an unarmed man with monotonous regularity.
- 7. The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented on his wearing his sidearm. 'Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are you expecting trouble?' 'No Ma'am. If I were expecting trouble, I would have brought my rifle.'
- 8. Beware the man who only has one gun. HE PROBABLY KNOWS HOW TO USE IT!!!
"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence."
Charles Austin Beard, American Historian, 1874-1948
"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
Winston Churchill
"GOD GRANT ME THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT THE PEOPLE I CANNOT SHOOT, COURAGE TO SHOOT THE PEOPLE I CAN, AND THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE."
Anonymous
"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."
Mark Twain
"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.... But then I repeat myself."
Mark Twain
"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."
Winston Churchill
"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."
George Bernard Shaw
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
Ronald Reagan (1986)
"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session."
Mark Twain (1866)
"The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other."
Ronald Reagan
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."
Thomas Jefferson
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
Thomas Jefferson Papers
"The Constitutions of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
Thomas Jefferson.
"(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
James Madison.
"Arms in the hands of citizens (may) be used at individual discretion...in private self defense..."
John Adams, A defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the USA, 471 (1788).
"To disarm the people (is) the best and most effectual way to enslave them..."
George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380.
"A pistol defends your property and your person from unanticipated and barely anticipated threats from thieves and robbers. With it, you can control your immediate environment. A rifle defends your freedom from oppressors and tyrants. With it, you can enforce your will. Buy as you see fit."
Gabe Suarez
"I will not cede more power to the state. I will not willingly cede more power to anyone, not to the state, not to General Motors, not to the CIO. I will hoard my power like a miser, resisting every effort to drain it away from me. I will then use my power, as I see fit. I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth."
William F. Buckley Jr.
Your first statement could mean that it is a warning, don't come on this property with a gun.
Your second statement rediculous. You are saying that people are sadists if they won't protect themselves with a gun.
I have no guns on my property.
Never have.
Do you really think for a minute I'd be afraid of you or anyone else?
Never have.
Your second statement rediculous. You are saying that people are sadists if they won't protect themselves with a gun.
I have no guns on my property.
Never have.
Do you really think for a minute I'd be afraid of you or anyone else?
Never have.
G,
Do you know about the sale of illegal arms?
Those who want to do harm know where to get things: drugs, guns, etc.
it's us po' lawful type folk who don't.
Before selling ANY gun to a person, a background check is supposed to be done by the dealer.
But there are privacy laws in effect. For instance, if someone is seeing a psychiatrist for bi-polar disorder, for instance, it is not to be shared with the FBI or any other Law inforecement agency until the person commits a crime. TOO LATE!
I also don't understand why a normal Citizen should have an assault weapon.
This is a different story altogether.
I do believe that anyone that wants a gun, should be able to have one.
Guns don't kill people, people kill people.
Do you know about the sale of illegal arms?
Those who want to do harm know where to get things: drugs, guns, etc.
it's us po' lawful type folk who don't.
Before selling ANY gun to a person, a background check is supposed to be done by the dealer.
But there are privacy laws in effect. For instance, if someone is seeing a psychiatrist for bi-polar disorder, for instance, it is not to be shared with the FBI or any other Law inforecement agency until the person commits a crime. TOO LATE!
I also don't understand why a normal Citizen should have an assault weapon.
This is a different story altogether.
I do believe that anyone that wants a gun, should be able to have one.
Guns don't kill people, people kill people.
I'm protected by Jesus.
If I'm ever in trouble, I would call on Jesus.
My wife would do the same.
We both believe that no one could hurt us or kill us unless Jesus says it's okay.
And if he says it's okay, then who am I to argue with him.
This is called having faith in God, and believing he will meet all your needs.
I believe most Christians have to grow into this type of faith.
You have to detach yourself from the world first.
If I'm ever in trouble, I would call on Jesus.
My wife would do the same.
We both believe that no one could hurt us or kill us unless Jesus says it's okay.
And if he says it's okay, then who am I to argue with him.
This is called having faith in God, and believing he will meet all your needs.
I believe most Christians have to grow into this type of faith.
You have to detach yourself from the world first.
This does show an incredible amount of trust in God.
But God does not want many things that happen.
A woman in my old neighborhood was shot and killed in her own home.
Why? Because thieves broke into her home and she was home sick instead of being at work.
Do you suppose God wanted this to happen?
Maybe having a gun would have made no difference.
I do think this: If EVERY HOME had a gun in it, thieves would think twice.
Instead, like this, we're like sitting ducks.
I'm afraid I don't have as much faith. Not because I don't have faith in God, but because I know the other one si at work too.
But God does not want many things that happen.
A woman in my old neighborhood was shot and killed in her own home.
Why? Because thieves broke into her home and she was home sick instead of being at work.
Do you suppose God wanted this to happen?
Maybe having a gun would have made no difference.
I do think this: If EVERY HOME had a gun in it, thieves would think twice.
Instead, like this, we're like sitting ducks.
I'm afraid I don't have as much faith. Not because I don't have faith in God, but because I know the other one si at work too.