http://www.languageofliberty.com/q_rightsofman_to_bear_arms.htm
A Selection:
The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state controlled police and the military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. Not for nothing was the revolver called an 'equalizer.'
ABBEY, EDWARD, The Right to Arms
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.
ADAMS, SAMUEL, in Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, August 20, 1789
We have four boxes used to guarantee our liberty: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box.
ANONYMOUS
Gun control isn't about guns —— it's about control.
ANONYMOUS
When only the police have guns, it's called a Police State.
ANONYMOUS
A gun in the hands of a free man frightens and angers the autocrat, not because he fears the power of the gun, but, rather, the spirit of the man who holds it.
ANONYMOUS
Gun Control: The assumption that everyone is a potential criminal.
ANONYMOUS
Gun control is the weapon of a paranoid government
ANONYMOUS
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
ARISTOTLE, Politics
It is because the people are citizens that they are with safety armed. The danger (where there is any) from armed citizens, is only to the government, not to the society.
BARLOW, JOEL, Equality in America (1792)
The danger (where there is any) from armed citizens, is only to the government, not to the society; as long as they have nothing to revenge in the government (which they cannot have while it is in their own hands) there are many advantages in their being accustomed to the use of arms and no possible disadvantage.
BARLOW, JOEL, Equality in America, 1792
False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty ——so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened legislator—— and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.
BECCARIA, CESARE, On Crimes and Punishment, 1764
A Selection:
The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state controlled police and the military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. Not for nothing was the revolver called an 'equalizer.'
ABBEY, EDWARD, The Right to Arms
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.
ADAMS, SAMUEL, in Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, August 20, 1789
We have four boxes used to guarantee our liberty: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box.
ANONYMOUS
Gun control isn't about guns —— it's about control.
ANONYMOUS
When only the police have guns, it's called a Police State.
ANONYMOUS
A gun in the hands of a free man frightens and angers the autocrat, not because he fears the power of the gun, but, rather, the spirit of the man who holds it.
ANONYMOUS
Gun Control: The assumption that everyone is a potential criminal.
ANONYMOUS
Gun control is the weapon of a paranoid government
ANONYMOUS
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
ARISTOTLE, Politics
It is because the people are citizens that they are with safety armed. The danger (where there is any) from armed citizens, is only to the government, not to the society.
BARLOW, JOEL, Equality in America (1792)
The danger (where there is any) from armed citizens, is only to the government, not to the society; as long as they have nothing to revenge in the government (which they cannot have while it is in their own hands) there are many advantages in their being accustomed to the use of arms and no possible disadvantage.
BARLOW, JOEL, Equality in America, 1792
False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty ——so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened legislator—— and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.
BECCARIA, CESARE, On Crimes and Punishment, 1764
