Howdy, new guy here. It amazes me how we have come to "dismiss" our Constitution and Bill of Rights as something irrelevant now that we are a "modern, civilized" nation. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand? It's not the law-abiding citizen that is the problem, and what a criminal does has no bearing on my right to keep and bear arms.
1) "The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference; they deserve a place of honor with all that's good." George Washington.
2) "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." Alexander Hamilton.
3) "Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property." Thomas Paine.
4) "Americans need not fear the federal government because they enjoy the advantage of being armed, which you possess over the people of almost every other nation." James Madison.
5) "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 you r walks." Thomas Jefferson.
6) "The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun." Patrick Henry.
7) "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes" Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria.
8) "To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." George Mason
9) "The said Constitution be never construed... to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." Samuel Adams.
10) "But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." Hubert Humphrey.
11) "I carried it (a revolver) religiously and during the summer I asked a friend, a man who had been one of Franklin's bodyguards in New York State, to give me some practice in target shooting so that if the need arose I would know how to use the gun." Eleanor Roosevelt
12) "By calling attention to 'a well regulated militia', the 'security' of the nation, and the right of each citizen 'to keep and bear arms', our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fears of governmental tyranny which gave rise to the Second Amendment will ever be a major danger to our nation, the Amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic civilian-military relationships, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason, I believe the Second Amendment will always be important." John F. Kennedy
13) "Mightn't it be better in those areas of high crime to arm the homeowner and the shopkeeper, teach him how to use his weapons and put the word out to the underworld that it is no longer totally safe to rob and murder? One wonders indeed if the rising crime rate isn't due as much as anything to the criminal's instinctive knowledge that the average victim no longer has any means of protection. No one knows how many crimes are committed because the criminal knows he has a soft touch. No one knows how many stores have been left alone because the criminals knew them to be guarded by a man with a gun." Ronald Reagan.
I Own A Gun Because:
14) 1911: Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
15) 1929: Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 40-60 million citizens, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated or starved to death.
16) 1935: China established gun c ontrol. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
17) 1938: Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews, Catholics and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
18) 1956: Cambodia established gun control. From 1975 to 1977, one million 'educated' people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated."
19) 1964: Guatemala established gun control. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
20) 1966-1976: China still has gun control. Another 50-100 million civilians, unable to defend themselves, were killed in Mao Tse Tung's "Cultural Revolution".
21) 1970: Uganda established gun control. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
22) 1990s: Rwanda established gun control. In a span of 100 days in April 1994, 800,000 people who were unable to defend themselves were massacred to death - most by machetes. How many dead, hacked-up bodies do you think were found holding a loaded gun? (answer is less than one)
23) 1992: Los Angeles California, USA. For three days police stood by and watched, unable to stop the rioting, arson and destruction of whole neighborhoods. Yet many Korean stores were virtually untouched - protected by their well-armed storeowners who exercised their right to self-defense through their right to keep and bear arms and who did for themselves what the police were unwilling or unable to do.
24) Late 1990s: Great Britain established total gun control. Robberies, burglaries and assaults have skyrocketed making London's violent crime rate now higher than anywhere in America.
25) 2005: New Orleans hit by hurricane. Widespread catastrophe, no law enforcement across most of the city for weeks. Some citizens protected themselves with firearms - until NOLA police began forcefully confiscating them "for their own protection", leaving even the elderly unable to defend themselves against roving gangs of looters.
26) "Ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State." Heinrich Himmler
I Own Firearms Because It Is My God-Given Right To Self-Defense:
27) "If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed." Exodus 22:2
28) "...he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." Luke 22:36
29) "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace." Luke 11:21
30) "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Declaration of Independence.
I Own Firearms Because I Have Common Sense:
31) The second amendment is not dependent on the most recent crime statistics - nor is my right to own a gun contingent on what criminals do.
32) 2 million times a year, private citizens successfully use firearms to defend themselves.
33) Criminals fear victims holding guns, not victims holding phones.
I Own Firearms Because There Are Those with Power Who, If Given The Chance, Would Force Me to Relinquish them:
34) "Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of Americans to feel safe." Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-CA.
35) "We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We're going to beat guns into submission!" Rep. (now Senator) Charles Schumer D-NY.
36) "Senator Ashcroft is so far out of the mainstream that he has said that citizens need to be armed in order to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. Our government? Tyrannical?" Sen. Ted Kennedy D-MA, at John Ashcroft's Senate confirmation hearing, 2001.
37) "The sale of guns must stop. Halfway measures are not enough." Sarah Brady.
38) "Banning guns is an idea whose time has come." Sen. Joseph Biden, D-DE.
39) "I don't believe that everybody in America needs to be able to buy a semi-automatic or fully-automatic weapon, built only for the purpose of killing people, in order to protect the right of Americans to hunt and practice marksmanship and to be secure." Bill Clinton.
40) "I don't care about crime. I just want to get the guns." Former Senator Howard Metzenbaum, D-OH during Brady Bill debates.
41) "If someone is so fearful that, they're going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that these people have these weapons at all!" Rep. Henry Waxman, D-NY
