Your Vote for the Best Pro-Gun Quote Ever

[DT Guy]

I'll start:

The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed - where the government refuses to stand for re-election and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.

Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

Larry

 

[Red Wind]

A fine thread idea. I will bat second:

“That rifle on the wall of the labourer’s cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.”
- George Orwell

 

[Mouse hunter]

Only one rule for gunfights...

...If you believe in the Constitution but do not own a gun, you have been reaping the protective benefits of an armed and free society without personally supporting its existence. It is the duty of all good men and women to own a gun and know how to use it. Gangsters, terrorists, and Marxists (I repeat myself) shouldn't be the only ones doing the shooting. The time for laziness is over. The best time to get a gun was 1933, but the second best time is today. There is a gunfight brewing on the horizon, and there is only one rule in gunfights. "Have a gun."

TS Weidler

 

[Cee Zee]

“Gun control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.” - L. Neil Smith

Or:

“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. 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

 

[BigBore44]

"Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men."
- St. Augustine

 

[LKLive13]

"If you give up your right to bear arms, all other rights cannot be maintained"
-Unkown

 

[USAF_Vet]

"si vis pacem para bellum"

"I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands"
- Charlton Heston

 

[Midwest]

"The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting, and I know I'm not going to make very many friends saying this, but it's about our right, all of our right to be able to protect ourselves from all of you guys [politicians] up there. "

Suzanna Gratia Hupp Testimony before Congress about the Assault Weapons Ban



Also Luby's Cafeteria Massacre survivor Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp testifying to Congress on why good Americans obeying bad gun laws leads to death and suffering. The former Texas House Representative shared her story about her parents being killed before her eyes by a shooter in a Luby's Restaurant. Due to gun restrictions, she had left her gun in her car that fateful day. Ever since, she has been spreading the word about a right-to-carry law would have probably saved her parents' lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEJFAvA-ZUE

.

 

[ngnrd]

While not limited to just the Second Amendment, the following is certainly apropos:

The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials, and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.

US Supreme Court Justice Robert H Jackson: West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 1943

Here's a link explaining why this is so important.

 

[DT Guy]

NGNRD, I've been trying to formulate a way to express that sentiment for years-decades, really. That's profound!


Larry

 

[19-3Ben]

While not 100% directly gun related, I think the correlation is obvious.

"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the
Government from falling into error."
-- Robert H. Jackson

 

[Monkeybear]

“The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles.”

My favorite. Its from The Art of The Rifle by Jeff Cooper.

 

[bikerdoc]

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

 

[ngnrd]

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

I cringe every time I hear that. First, because it's simply not true - there have been many cases of bad guys with guns stopped by unarmed citizens, or even their own stupidity. And second (and more importantly) it invariably leads to the (false) conclusion that "if we can just find a way to take all the guns away from the bad guys, the good guys wouldn't need them, either".

 

[hso]

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, November 11, 1755

 

[BSA1]

I also have always liked this one;

Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve either one. - Benjamin Franklin

but since the abuses by the NSA, IRS and BATF under the Obama administration;

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -- Thomas Jefferson

 

[rcoolbaugh]

"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look
upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest." - Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi

 

[Mousegun]

"Stick em' up"

Roy Rogers 1953

 

[HexHead]

He sets the bar too high with this....

where the government refuses to stand for re-election and silences those who protest

How about "Shall not be infringed"?

 

[BUGUDY]

Molon Labe

King Leonidas

 

[19-3Ben]

Molon Labe

King Leonidas

I don't know if we can call that a gun quote, since guns didn't even exist at the time. In modern times, we have made it our slogan.
I could see it though, if you want to refer to the paraphrasing of Molon Labe by the defenders of the Alamo.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, up to and including their own government - George Washington

 

[vamo]

I saw a movie once where only the police and military had guns. It was called Schindler's List.

not sure who originally said it

 

[zenshootist]

"You do not define the First Amendment. It defines you. And it is bigger than you. That's how freedom works. It also demands you do your homework. Again and again, I hear gun owners say, how can we believe anything the anti-gun media says when they can't even get the facts right? For too long, you have swallowed manufactured statistics and fabricated technical support from anti-gun organizations that wouldn't know a semi-auto from a sharp stick. And it shows. You fall for it every time."

Charlton Heston
Speech to the National Press Club (14 September 1997)

 

[MedWheeler]

"A gentleman will seldom, if ever, need a handgun. But, if he does need it, he needs it badly!"

Allegedly uttered by Sir Winston Churchill.