Found 1683 quotes. The word 'politics' comes from the Greek root 'poly', meaning many, and 'tics', meaning blood-sucking parasites. E-mail ---- You have a right to your own opinions, but you don't have a right to your own facts. Churchill? Bloomberg? Moynihan? ---- [R]egardless of whether the Second Amendment protects the right to possess guns for private purposes, for the reasons described below, and based on their collective interest in preventing handgun injuries to children and youth nationwide, AAP, SAM, CDF, WAGV, and YA! respectfully urge the ¢ourt to reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Brief of the American Academy of Pediatrics The Society for Adolescent Medicine The Children's Defense Fund Women Against Gun Violence Youth Alive January 2008 http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290tsaAmerican%20Academy.pdf ---- The program shall include procurement, transportation, storage, and distribution of safety notification and emergency change of address cards... Executive Order 11490, Part 6, Post Office Department, SECTION 601, Functions October 28, 1969 Plans for the event of a nuclear attack on the United States. ---- Your city will be obliterated unless your government surrenders. Leaflets dropped on Hiroshima August 5, 1945 ---- News Anchor Dan Rather, NPR Reporter Cokie Roberts and a U.S. Marine were hiking through the desert one day when they were captured by Iraqis. They were tied up, led to the village and brought before the leader. The leader said, "I am familiar with your western custom of granting the condemned a last wish. Before we kill and dismember you, do you have any last requests?" Dan Rather said, "Well, I'm a Texan; so I'd like one last bowl full of hot, spicy chili." The leader nodded to an underling who left and returned with the chili. Rather ate it all and said, "Now I can die content." Cokie Roberts said, "I'm a reporter to the end. I want to take out my tape recorder and describe the scene here and what's about to happen. Maybe someday someone will hear it and know that I was on the job till the end." The leader directed an aide to hand over the tape recorder and Roberts dictated some comments. She then said, "Now I can die happy." The leader turned and said, "And now, Mr. U.S. Marine, what is your final wish?" "Kick me in the ass," said the Marine." "What?" asked the leader. "Will you mock us in your last hour?" "No, I'm not kidding. I want you to kick me in the ass," insisted the Marine. So the leader shoved him into the open, and kicked him in the ass. The Marine went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled a 9mm pistol from inside his cammies, and shot the leader dead. In the resulting confusion, he leapt to his knapsack, pulled out his M4 carbine, and sprayed the Iraqis with gunfire. In a flash, the Iraqis were dead or fleeing for their lives. As the Marine was untying Rather and Roberts, they asked him, "Why didn't you just shoot them? Why did you ask them to kick you in the ass?" "What!?" said the Marine, "And have you assholes call ME the aggressor?" ---- State of Readiness In 1960, Robert Menard was a Commander aboard the USS Constellation when he was part of a meeting between United States Navy personnel and their counterparts in the Japanese Defense Forces. Fifteen years had passed since VJ day, most of those at the meeting were WWII veterans, and men who had fought each other to the death at sea were now comrades in battle who could confide in one another. Someone at the table asked a Japanese admiral why, with the Pacific Fleet devastated at Pearl Harbor and the mainland US forces in what Japan had to know was a pathetic state of unreadiness, Japan had not simply invaded the West Coast. Commander Menard would never forget the crafty look on the Japanese commander's face as he frankly answered the question. "You are right," he told the Americans. "We did indeed know much about your preparedness. We knew that probably every second home in your country contained firearms. We knew that your country actually had state championships for private citizens shooting military rifles. We were not fools to set foot in such quicksand." ---- A pessimist will study and learn the Chinese language. An optimist will study and learn the English language. A realist will study and learn the Kalashnikov rifle. ---- Eagerness for combat is an asset for a soldier, dangerous for a commander, and criminal for a politician. From http://www.snipersparadise.com/quotes1.htm ---- Remember when only the bad guys wore masks? They still do. ---- Government is non-consensual S&M with the second amendment as the only safeword. from http://www.thibault.org/io/buttons/Buttons.html ---- Gun Control: The belief that the government, with its great wisdom and moral superiority, can be trusted with a monopoly on deadly force. ---- Prohibition work? Alcohol didn't, drugs doesn't, guns won't. ---- I'm waiting to see BATF & FBI set fire to Woody Allen. ---- In memory of 85 un-charged, un-convicted victims of the U.S. government in Waco, Texas - including over 20 children. --Remember Waco-- ---- In England, the cops say, 'Halt or I'll say halt again!' ---- Why is Boris Yeltsin pro-gun and we are not? ---- Gun Control left the Bosnians unarmed! ---- The Revolutionary War started over the right to keep and bear arms. ---- All in favor of gun control raise your hand. (underneath this have a picture of Hitler doing the 'Hiel Hitler) [Reason: Hitler's first move in office was to disarm the populous for easier crowd control... and didn't it work well?] ---- Handguns are ILLEGAL in the murder capital of the US (Washington, DC). ---- There is no such thing as a semi-automatic ASSAULT WEAPON (by definition assault weapons are full auto). ---- BILL CLINTON STATUE COMMITTEE 66 W. CAPITAL LITTLE ROCK, AR 72201 Dear Friend: We have the distinguished honor of being on the committee to raise five million dollars for placing a statue of Bill Clinton in the Hall of Fame in Washington, D. C. This committee was in a quandary as to where to place the statue. It was not wise to place it beside the statue of George Washington, who never told a lie, nor Jessie Jackson, who never told the truth, since Bill Clinton could never tell the difference. We finally decided to place it beside Christopher Columbus, the greatest Democrat of all. He left not knowing where he was going, and then did not know where he was. He returned not knowing where he had been, and did it all on borrowed money. Over 5000 years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel, "Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the Promised Land." Nearly 5000 years later Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a Camel. This is the Promised Land." Now Bill Clinton is going to steal your shovels, kick your asses, raise the price of the Camels, and mortgage the Promised Land. If you are one of the fortunate people who has anything left after paying taxes, we expect a generous contribution to the worthwhile project. Sincerely, The Bill Clinton Statue Committee ---- Gun control is being able to hit your target. ---- People should go into public office for a term or two and then get back into their businesses and live under the laws they passed. 1986 More Heart Warmers Calendar ---- There is no furniture more expensive than a government bureau. ---- Bedfellows make strange politicians. ---- The only government we have to fear is our own. E-mail ---- No Osama No Obama No Chelsea's Mamma Bumper Sticker ---- America will never be invaded. Our juvenile delinquents are too well armed. E-mail ---- Don't assume that government policies make sense. They are responses to diverse and changing political pressures mixed in with a lot of ignorance and misinformation. E-mail, March 21, 1995 6:10AM ---- You know that there is something alive in there that you are killing. --Abortionist interviewed by Denes Literature Abortion: the Silent Holocaust ---- When Bill Clinton said he'd create millions of new jobs, no one realized that he meant for special prosecutors. Periodical The National Review 4/17/95 ---- President Clinton had heard about all the starving people in Somalia, and wanted to get a look for himself. He ordered his aides to prepare Air Force One. From the plane, the president looked down with his binoculars. Then said, "My God! Look at them! Skinny, starving -- where are our troops?" An aide chimed in, "Er, Mr. President. That's not Somalia, it's Arkansas." ---- What did Abraham Lincoln say the morning after his wildest party? "I freed the what?" ---- What is the difference between Dan Quayle, Bill Clinton and Jane Fonda? 1) Jane Fonda went to Vietnam. 2) One has two boobs, the others are two boobs. ---- What's fuzzy, smokes, and comes in cubes? Fidel Castro. ---- I read banned books. ---- The doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind. -New Hampshire Constitution, Article 10- ---- A republican and a democrat are in a park, 10 minutes away from the capitol building and both must be there in 5 minutes for an important vote. The only way to make it on time is cut across the park, however, there is a "Do not walk on the Grass" sign posted. The democrat will walk across the grass and if he is caught he will try and explain how he knew what he was doing was wrong but it was very important it was for him to be were he had to be, how if we all only knew how important he was, and what he had to do was, we would certainly excuse him for breaking the very rules that he helped to make. The republican on the other hand would take off running across the grass and if caught would point out that the sign said "no walking", not no running, and therefore he was obeying the letter of the law and doing nothing wrong. Regardless, the grass (us) still gets trampled, neither cares, and on top of that the cop who caught them will probably loose his job. ---- A republican is a democrat who has been mugged. A democrat is a republican who has been arrested. ---- A boy is standing on the side of the road hitch-hiking. A car pulls up with a man in it. He opens the window and asks,"Are you a Republican or a Democrat?" The boy answers Republican and the man speeds away. Another man pulls up and asks the same question. The boy gives the same answer, and the man pulls away. Finally, a pretty girl pulls up in a convertible and asks the same question. The boy, infinitely wiser at this point, responds that he is a Democrat. Upon hearing this, the pretty girl tells the boy to get in. So they're driving for a while, and the wind starts blowing the skirt up the girl's leg. Needless to say, the boy is getting aroused. Finally he blurts out,"Stop the car, I can't take it anymore. I've only been a Democrat for ten minutes, and already I feel like screwing somebody!!!!" ---- There are few problems in life that cannot be solved with the selective application of controlled violence. -vanguard66@usa.net- February 19, 1998 Regarding castration of sex offenders. ---- Whenever people . . . entrust the defense of their country to a regular, standing army, composed of mercenaries, the power of that country will remain under the direction of the most wealthy citizens... "A Framer" in the Independent Gazetteer, 1791 ---- 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 a constitutional privilege. Arkansas Supreme Court 1878 ---- Hillary Clinton goes to a psychic who tells her : "Prepare yourself for widowhood...your husband is about to die a violent death." Mrs. Clinton takes a deep breath and replies : "Will I be acquitted?" ---- The owners of a local bar were so sure that its bartender was the strongest man around that they offered a standing $1000 bet. The bartender would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass, and hand the lemon to a patron. Anyone who could squeeze one more drop of juice out would win the money. Many people had tried over time (weightlifters, longshoremen, etc.) but nobody could do it. One day this scrawny little man came in, wearing thick glasses and a polyester suit, and said in a tiny, squeaky voice, "I'd like to try the bet." After the laughter had died down, the bartender said OK, grabbed a lemon, and squeezed away. Then he handed the wrinkled remains of the rind to the little man. But the crowd's laughter turned to total silence as the man clenched his fist around the lemon and six drops fell into the glass. As the crowd cheered, the bartender paid the $1000, and asked the little man, "What do you do for a living? Are you a lumberjack, a weightlifter, or what?" The man replied, "I work for the IRS." ---- Wiker's Law: Government expands to absorb revenue and then some. ---- Main's Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite government program. ---- In an organization, each person rises to the level of his own incompetency -- the Peter Principle ---- Parkinson's Fifth Law: If there is a way to delay in important decision, the good bureaucracy, public or private, will find it. ---- Gerrold's Pronouncement: The difference between a politician and a snail is that a snail leaves its slime behind. ---- Katz' Law: Man and nations will act rationally when all other possibilities have been exhausted. ---- The Kennedy Constant: Don't get mad -- get even. ---- Jacquin's Postulate on Democratic Government: No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. ---- Where there's a will, there's an Inheritance Tax. ---- Mollison's Bureaucracy Hypothesis: If an idea can survive a bureaucratic review and be implemented it wasn't worth doing. ---- Horngren's Observation: Among economists, the real world is often a special case. ---- Chism's Law of Completion: The amount of time required to complete a government project is precisely equal to the length of time already spent on it. ---- Murphy's Discovery: Do you know Presidents talk to the country the way men talk to women? They say, "Trust me, go all the way with me, and everything will be all right." And what happens? Nine months later, you're in trouble! ---- Thoreau's Law: If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, you should run for your life. ---- Cole's Axiom: The sum of the intelligence on the planet is a constant; the population is growing. ---- Q: What's the world's worst golf foursome? A: Monica Lewinsky, O.J. Simpson, Ted Kennedy, and Bill Clinton -- Because Monica is a hooker, O.J. is a slicer, Kennedy can't drive over water, and Clinton can't remember which hole he visited last. ---- Clinton was walking around the white house with a pair of ladies panties on his arm. Everyone was looking at him and wondering what he was doing. After about an hour one guy got brave enough to ask him what he was doing with the pair of ladies panties on his arm. Clinton replied, "It's the patch, I'm trying to quit." ---- Q: Why does the Iraqi Navy have glass bottom boats? A: So they can see their Air Force. ---- Q: How is Saddam like Fred Flintstone? A: Both may look out their windows and see Rubble. ---- Q: What's the difference between Aeroflot and the Scud Missile? A: Aeroflot has killed more people. ---- Q. Did you hear that Saddam Hussein won the toss? A. He elected to receive ---- Q: What is Iraq's national bird? A: Duck ---- Q. How do you play Iraqi bingo? A. B-52...F-16...B-2 ---- Q: Did you hear that it is twice as easy to train Iraqi fighter pilots? A. You only have to teach them to take off. ---- Q: What is the best Iraqi job? A: Foreign Ambassador ---- Q. What do Saddam Hussein and General Custer have in common? A. They both want to know where the hell those Tomahawks are coming from! ---- Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton meet up in Baghdad for the first round of talks in a new peace process. When Bill sits down, he notices three buttons on the side of Saddam's chair. They begin talking. After about five minutes Saddam presses the first button. A boxing glove springs out of a box on the desk and punches Clinton in the face. Confused, Clinton carries on talking as Saddam laughs. A few minutes later the second button is pressed. This time a big boot comes out and kicks Clinton in the shin. Again Saddam laughs, and again Clinton carries on talking, not wanting to put off the bigger issue of peace between the two countries. But when the third button is pressed and another boot comes out and kicks Clinton in the privates, he's finally had enough, knowing that he can't do much without them functioning well. "I'm going back home!" he tells the Iraqi. "We'll finish these talks in two weeks!" A fortnight passes and Saddam flies to the United States for talks. As the two men sit down, Hussein notices three buttons on Clinton's chair and prepares himself for the Yank's revenge. They begin talking and Bill presses the first button. Saddam ducks, but nothing happens. Clinton snickers. A few seconds later he presses the second button. Saddam jumps up, but again nothing happens. Clinton roars with laughter. When the third button is pressed, Saddam jumps up again, and again nothing happens. Clinton falls on the floor in a fit of hysterics. "Forget this," says Saddam. "I'm going back to Baghdad!" Clinton says through tears of laughter, "What Baghdad?" ---- POSSIBLE TITLES FOR LEWINSKI'S NEW BOOK I Suck At My Job What Really Goes Down In The White House How I Blew It In Washington You Have to Work Hard to Find the Softer Side of the President Testing the Limits of the Gag Rule Going Back for Gore Podium Girl Secret Services to the President Harass is Not Two Words: The Story of Bill Clinton Deep Inside The Oval Office The Congressional Study on White House Intern Positions She's Chief of MY Staff! Al Gore Is In Command For The Next 30 Minutes How To Beat Off the Government Going Down and Moving Up Members of the Presidential Cabinet Me and My Big Mouth How To Get Ahead in Business ---- Politics - From The Words "Poly," Meaning "Many," And "Ticks," As In "Small, Bloodsucking Parasites" ---- For A Small Town, This Place Has A Lot Of Assholes! ---- It was the first day of Grade Three in a new town for Johnny. As a test, his teacher went around the room and asked each of the students to count to 50. Some did very well, counting as high as 30 or 40 with just a few mistakes. Others couldn't get past 20. Johnny, however, did extremely well; he counted past 50, right up to 100 without any mistakes. He was so excited that he ran home and told his Dad how well he had done. His Dad nodded and told him, "That's because you are from Alabama, son." The next day, in language class, the teacher asked the students to recite the alphabet. It's Grade Three, so most could make it half way through without much trouble. Some made it to S or T, but Johnny rattled off the alphabet perfectly right to the end. That evening, Johnny once again bragged to his Dad about his prowess in his new school. His Dad, knowingly, explained to him, "That's because you are from Alabama, son." The next day, after Physical Education, the boys were taking showers. Johnny noted that, compared to the other boys in his grade, he seemed overly "well endowed". This confused him. That night he told his dad, "Dad, they all have little tiny ones, but mine is ten times bigger than theirs. Is that because I'm from Alabama?" he asked. "No, son," explained his Dad,"That's because you're 18." ---- Researchers have figured out why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly. Janet Reno is her father. ---- Al Gore and the Clintons are flying on Air Force One. Bill looks at Al, chuckles and says, "You know, I could throw a $100.00 bill out the window right now and make one person very happy." Al shrugs his stiff shoulders and says, "Well, I could throw ten $10.00 bills out the window and make 10 people very happy". Hillary tosses her perfectly hair-sprayed hair and says, "Of course, then, I could throw one-hundred $1.00 bills out the window and make a hundred people very happy." Chelsea rolls her eyes, looks at all of them and says, "I could throw all of you out the window and make the whole country happy". ---- No one escapes when freedom fails. The best men rot in filthy jails, And those who cried, "Appease, appease!" Are hanged by those they tried to please. ---- Clinton might be using drugs. I recently heard he was suffering from a bum Tripp. ---- Question: Why do Estonians keep irrigating their flower gardens with oil? Answer: To keep their guns from rusting. ---- If you are thinking a year ahead, sow seed. If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the people. -Chinese Proverb- ---- A man devoid of religion is like a horse without a bridle. ---- Three little boys were standing around bragging about their daddies. The first little boy bragged that his father was so fast that he could shoot an arrow and run down and catch it before it hit the target. The second little boy bragged that his daddy could shoot a gun and run down and catch the bullet before it hit it's mark. The third little boy, unimpressed with the tales of the other two, stated that those accomplishments were nothing, his dad was a federal worker who got off work everyday at 4:30 and made it home by 3:45! ---- Four men were bragging about how smart their dogs are. The first man was an Engineer, the second man was an Accountant, the third man was a Chemist, the fourth was a Government Worker. To show off, the Engineer called to his dog. "T-Square, do your stuff." T-square trotted over to a desk, took out some paper and a pen and promptly drew a circle, a square and a triangle. Everyone agreed that was pretty smart. But the Accountant said his dog could do better. He called his dog and said, "Slide Rule, do your stuff." Slide Rule went out into the kitchen and returned with a dozen cookies. He divided them into 4 equal piles of 3 cookies each. Everyone agreed that was good. But the Chemist said his dog could do better. He called his dog and said, "Measure, do your stuff." Measure got up, walked over to the fridge, took out a quart of milk, got a 10 ounce glass from the cupboard and poured exactly 8 ounces without spilling a drop. Everyone agreed that was good. Then the three men turned to the Government Worker and said, "What can your dog do?" The Government Worker called to his dog and said, "Coffee Break, do your stuff." Coffee Break jumped to his feet, ate the cookies, drank the milk, dumped on the circle of paper, sexually assaulted the other three dogs, claimed he injured his back while doing so, filed a grievance report for unsafe working conditions, put in for Worker's Compensation and went home on sick leave. ---- The more I learn about terrorism, the better I understand the phone company. ---- He who lives by the sword dies by the crossbow bolt. ---- We can fire politicians because we can fire guns. ---- VOTE: DEMOCRAT, it's easier than THINKING; ---- VOTE: REPUBLICAN, it's easier than THINKING; ---- Never shoot to kill. Always shoot to live. ---- Sure you can trust the Government! Just ask an Indian! ---- Pro-Free Speech. Pro-Gun. Pro-Choice. PRO-FREEDOM! ---- My mind is not for sale or rent to any God or Government. ---- Don't steal. The government hates competition. ---- Why should we trust the government with automatic weapons? ---- Weird enough for Government Work. ---- XXXXXXXXXX the censors! ---- Censorship? We don't have any censorship. If we did, I couldn't say XXXXX or XXXXX. ---- Blessed be the censors for they shall truly inhibit the earth. ---- Clinton can't feel my pain. Clinton IS my pain! ---- "Gun Control" isn't about guns. It's about control. ---- If ignorance is Bliss, Washington must be Paradise! ---- Support the 27th Amendment: Convicted felons shall not have the right to demand or expect better treatment or conditions than the members of the public at large. ---- There is no freedom OF religion without freedom FROM religion. ---- Annoy a politician today - THINK. ---- We're the largest street gang in America. We're the POLICE. ---- Support Capitol Punishment, Flog a Politician Today. ---- Taxation WITH representation isn't so hot, either! ---- LaCroix for President - Put a REAL Bloodsucker in office. ---- OJ: -- ...and Ju$tice for $ome. ---- OJ: The Best Justice Money Can Buy. ---- We're your government. Would we Lie? Federal Investigative Bureau. ---- What's wrong with a waiting period before publishing a newspaper so the government can check your facts? ---- U.S. Constitution, Amendment One... VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. ---- Don't Raise Taxes, Curb Congressional Spending. ---- Freeze Federal Spending. ---- No Censorship - No Exceptions. ---- The Bill of Rights went too far. They should have stopped with "Congress shall make no law." ---- People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's easier to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs. ---- Dittohead ---- If God had meant for me to vote he'd have given me real candidates to choose from. ---- Fight organized crime - Abolish the IRS. ---- I love my country, it's my government I fear. ---- If guns are outlawed can we use swords? ---- Pro is the opposite of Con. - Therefore Congress must be the opposite of Progress. ---- Whitewater Whitehouse - Hillary's decade of Greed. ---- First Hillary, then Gennifer - NOW US! ---- Impeach Clinton - And her husband too! ---- If Guns cause Crime, then Matches cause Arson. ---- Constitution of the United States Amendment 2 VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW ---- The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution. ---- Sig-Sauer: The ultimate Point-and-Click Interface. ---- The inability of men not married to a mother-to-be to have a say in abortions, adoptions, child support and the like is the secondary issue. These men have made a choice already and the choice is irrevocable by that point. Once a sperm is in right place, the deed is done. The primary issue is that men do indeed have a choice in the matter, but it occurs a lot earlier... E-mail, March 07, 1995 2:51PM ---- If guns are outlawed, how will liberals collect taxes? E-mail ---- We ask that the government undertake the obligation above all of providing citizens with adequate opportunity for employment and earning a living. The activities of the individual must not be allowed to clash with the interests of the community, but must take place within its confines and be for the good of all. Therefore, we demand: . . . and end to the power of the financial interests. We demand profit sharing in big business. We demand a broad extension of care for the aged. We demand . . . the greatest possible consideration of small business in the purchases of national, state, and municipal governments. In order to make possible to every capable and industrious [citizen] the attainment of higher education and thus the achievement of a post of leadership, the government must provide an all-around enlargement of our entire system of public education . . . . We demand the education at government expense of gifted children of poor parents . . . The government must undertake the improvement of public health - by protecting mother and child, by prohibiting child labor . . by the greatest possible support for all clubs concerned with the physical education of youth. We combat the . . . materialistic spirit within and without us, and are convinced that a permanent recovery of our people can only proceed from within on the foundation of the common good before the individual good. Excerpts from the political program of the Nazi Party, adopted in Munich, on Feb 24, 1920 - source- DER NATIONALSOZIALISMUS DOKUMENTE 1933-1945 , edited by Walther Hofer, Frankfurt am Mein: Fischer Bucherei, 1957 pp 29-31 Literature DER NATIONALSOZIALISMUS DOKUMENTE 1933-1945 ---- The Clinton Administration has underestimated the extent to which high-tech and privacy groups oppose the Clipper and Tessara chips -- encryption technologies that would allow federal agencies with court orders to eavesdrop on data and voice communications. At the recent conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy, an Administration spokesman asked: "Do you really want to live in a world where law enforcement can not do its job because of the need for privacy?" Pressed to explain how crooks and terrorists smart enough to use encryption could be stupid enough to use the government's own encryption standards, the spokesman insisted: "You shouldn't overestimate the I.Q. of crooks." New York Times 3/26/94 p.19 ---- Power is not a means, but an end. Film 1984 ---- He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past. Film 1984 ---- My wife yes... My dog maybe... My gun NEVER!! ---- Insured by Smith and Wesson. Policy #.357. ---- Coming to a neighborhood near you, the new American revolution -- SOON!!! ---- Visualize whirled peas. ---- Save America... shoot a bureaucrat today. ---- You're STILL a Democrat? -Bumper Sticker- ---- A well-regulated death squad being the best defense of a tyrannical government, the right of the government to selectively enforce disarmament laws shall not be infringed. ---- The Second Amendment Ain't About Duck Hunting. ---- Guns banned in Washington, D.C-City becomes murder capital of the U.S. ---- Why don't politicians trust their employers- US! ---- BAN the FIREARMS and DISMANTLE the CONSTITUTION? ---- First we disarm the people then..... ---- YOU ARE THE MILITIA - the National Guard is not. ---- Ban assault typewriters. ---- Why don't POLITICIANS trust THE PEOPLE? ---- Destroy first the 2nd, second the first amendment. ---- Who are you going to believe, Thomas Jefferson -or Bill Clinton? ---- Street cops support the RTKBA, politicians don't-Who you gonna call? ---- How many people have your guns assaulted? ---- Do away with criminals-not guns! ---- Criminals know Gun Control is good for their business. ---- We need politician control; not gun control! ---- It's the criminals, stupid! ---- Lift the Domestic Arms Embargo! ---- Criminals prefer unarmed victims. ---- Tyrants prefer unarmed peasants. ---- Don't muzzle my rights! ---- Guns? Why should we trust them more than they trust us? ---- If they won't trust me with a gun why should I trust them [with guns]? ---- The 2nd Amendment is about sovereignty, not duck hunting. FEAR A GOVERNMENT THAT FEARS YOUR GUNS. ---- We, the people, SHOULD "outgun" our employees, the police. ---- 911 or 357? The choice should be mine! ---- BEWARE OF DOG! (It eats everything I shoot.) ---- WARNING! All trespassers will be shot! Survivors will be prosecuted. ---- I don't dial 911, I dial .357! ---- Stop Global Whining ---- Rules are the solution to yesterday's problem. ---- Armed men are Citizens; Unarmed men are Subjects. ---- Only free people own guns. ---- Gun control is unilateral victim disarmament. ---- Guns Save Lives - Maybe Yours. ---- Fear a government that fears its citizens ---- Why is the government so afraid of law-abiding citizens? ---- The right to bear arms is the right to be free. ---- WARNING! I'm not a tourist. I'm an ARMED native. -Bumper Sticker in Florida- ---- Arm tourists not criminals! ---- God created man, big and small. Then Samuel Colt made him equal. ---- Socialists reject history. Fair enough. History rejects Socialism. ---- Gun control is a firm grip on a .45. ---- Fight crime. Shoot back. ---- The real reason for the Second Amendment is becoming obvious. ---- The assault weapons ban is drive-by legislation. The target was crime, the victimized innocent bystander is the lawfully armed citizen. ---- When guns are outlawed, Janet Reno will still have tanks. --Remember Waco-- ---- Politicians Prefer Unarmed Peasants. ---- If you're happy and you know it, clank your chains. ---- If guns are outlawed, how will the gov't collect taxes? ---- Nobody (with armed guards) needs a gun like that! ---- Every time history repeats itself, the price goes up. ---- Why do politicians keep their guns? ---- The truth isn't politicaly correct. ---- What we really need are GOVERNMENT free school zones. ---- Only Free People Need Guns. ---- If the government won't trust us, why should we trust them? ---- Turn in your guns and receive a free pair of leg irons! ---- The Liberty Trinity: the ballot box, the jury box, the cartridge box. ---- Those who beat their swords into plowshares will soon be plowing for those who didn't. ---- Remove guns from the street; you still have criminals. Remove criminals from the street; there's no longer a gun problem! ---- When guns are outlawed, only an outlaw government will have guns. ---- War doesn't decide who's right, only who's left. Bumper Sticker ---- Pollution solution: Birth Control. Bumper sticker ---- One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day. Bumper Sticker ---- What's the difference between capitalism and communism? Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Communism is the reverse. ---- Socialism: You have two cows. You keep one and give the other one to the government. Communism: You give both of them to the government and they give you milk. Fascism: The government takes both cows and sells you milk. Capitalism: You keep one cow, sell the other one, and buy a bull. ---- We have excellent gifted programs in every school. The problem is that they are only for athletes. ---- Among animals, it's eat or be eaten. Among people it's define or be defined. ---- I support open elections although a moron can become president. ---- I support gun ownership although guns can be used in crime. ---- I support pregnancy although abortion couldn't happen without it. ---- I support parenthood although parents can abuse their children. ---- I support freedom of religion although cults do the damndest things. ---- I support free speech although people say things I don't like to hear. ---- I support steak-knife ownership although they can be used in stabbings. ---- I support swimming pool ownerships although kids can drown in them. ---- I support pharmaceutical manufacturers although drugs can be abused. ---- I support car ownership although cars can be used to drive drunk. ---- Is your church BATF approved? --Remember Waco-- ---- When the facists come to take your firearms and ammo; Make sure you give them the ammo first. ---- When the fascists come to take your firearms and ammo, let them have it... 125 grains at a time. ---- When the fascists come to take your guns, just keep saying no until you are out of ammo. ---- In January 1993, 120 nations including the USA banned CS tear gas from use in warfare. In April 1993, the US government used it against US citizens. --Remember Waco-- ---- We would know today who invented the wheel if they'd had a spokesperson. ---- Reincarnation may or may not be true, but some people should never have been carnated in the first place. ---- The whole earth is in jail and we're plotting this incredible jailbreak. WAVY GRAVY ---- Soldiers who wish to be a hero are practically zero. But those who wish to be civilians; Jesus, they run in the millions! - WWII latrine graffiti - ---- Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed. - Constitution of the United Nations - ---- Man is the only animal that walks upright and carries a slanted point of view. - Anonymous - ---- A 1969 District of Columbia Court of Appeals decision on Breathalyzer tests rules that for the test to be valid the drunk-driving defendant must be sober enough to give voluntary, informed consent to letting the test be administered. The Washington Star April 16, 1979 ---- A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point. - "When Prophecy Fails" - ---- Revolution is the opiate of the intellectuals. - "Oh, Lucky Man" - ---- The meek will inherit the Earth..... The rest of us will go to the stars. ---- Use it up ... Wear it out. Make it do ... Or do without. US WORLD WAR II MESSAGE ---- Making war for peace is like making love for virginity. -Seattle Graffiti- ---- Q: How many right-to-lifers does it take to change a light bulb? A: Two. One to screw it in and one to say that light started when the screwing began. ---- Q: How many supply-siders does it take to change a light bulb? A: None. The darkness will cause the light bulb to change by itself. ---- A friend with weed is a friend indeed. ---- Women who want to be equal to men lack imagination. -- Graffito in a women's restroom ---- If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. ---- Support the right of unborn males to bear arms! A public service announcement from Phyllis Schlafly, the Catholic Church, and the National Rifle Association ---- If Reagan is the answer, it must have been a VERY silly question. ---- A person who has both feet planted firmly in the air can be safely called a liberal. ---- The Split-Atom Blues Gimme Twinkies, gimme wine, Gimme jeans by Calvin Kline ... But if you split those atoms fine, Mama keep 'em off those genes of mine! Gimme zits, take my dough, Gimme arsenic in my jelly roll ... Call the devil and sell my soul, But Mama keep dem atoms whole! -- Milo Bloom, "Bloom County" ---- One day President Reagan, Chairman Andropov, the Pope, and a boy scout were flying together in an airplane. Right out in the middle of nowhere the plane developed engine trouble and started to go down. Unfortunately, only three parachutes could be found for the four passengers! Andropov grabbed one of the parachutes and declared "Comrades, as leader of the socialist workers revolution, my life must be spared," and he jumped out of the plane. Then Reagan exclaimed "As leader of the greatest nation on earth, I must keep the world safe for democracy," and with that he too jumped to safety. Now if you are following all this (or counting on your fingers) you must see that there is only one parachute left for the two remaining passengers. The Pope looked kindly upon the boy scout and said "I have had a long and productive life, my son. You take the parachute and leave me in God's hands." "That's very kind of you," the observant scout replied, "but there is no need. Reagan just jumped out with my knapsack." ---- "How do you like the new America? We've cut the fat out of the government, and more recently the heart and brain (the backbone was gone some time ago). All we seem to have left now is muscle. We'll be lucky to escape with our skins!" ---- Aide to Raygun: Sir, the poor are outside protesting your budget cuts. Raygun himself: Tell them they'll have to help themselves. Aide to Raygun: Sir, the Pentagon wants another $30 billion. Raygun himself: Tell them to help themselves. ---- Sure, Reagan has promised to take senility tests. But what if he forgets? ---- Laissez Faire Economics is the theory that if each acts like a vulture, all will end as doves. ---- "White House carpenters have reworked the master bedroom, remodeling it so that Ronnie can sleep with his head in the hall. That way, by the time he wakes up, somebody will have already shined his hair." ---- Living in Hollywood is like living in a bowl of granola. What ain't fruits and nuts is flakes. ---- In the beginning was the DEMO Project. And the Project was without form. And darkness was upon the staff members thereof. So they spake unto their Division Head, saying, "It is a crock of shit, and it stinks." And the Division Head spake unto his Department Head, saying, "It is a crock of excrement and none may abide the odor thereof." Now, the Department Head spake unto his Directorate Head, saying, "It is a container of excrement, and is very strong, such that none may abide before it." And it came to pass that the Directorate Head spake unto the Assistant Technical Director, saying, "It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide by its strength." And the assistant Technical Director spake thus unto the Technical Director, saying, "It containeth that which aids growth and it is very strong." And, Lo, the Technical Director spake then unto the Captain, saying, "The powerful new Project will help promote the growth of the Laboratories." And the Captain looked down upon the Project, and He saw that it was Good! ---- Reagan can't act either. ---- Draft beer, not people. ---- The United States Army; 194 years of proud service, unhampered by progress. ---- Carelessly planned projects take three times longer to complete than expected. Carefully planned projects take four times longer to complete than expected, mostly because the planners expect their planning to reduce the time it takes. ---- With all the fancy scientists in the world, why can't they just once build a nuclear balm? ---- What this country needs is a dime that will buy a good five-cent bagel. ---- We will have solar energy as soon as the utility companies solve one technical problem -- how to run a sunbeam through a meter. ---- There was a plane crash over mid-ocean, and only three survivors were left in the life-raft: the Pope, the President, and Mayor Daley. Unfortunately, it was a one-man life-raft, and quickly sinking, so they started debating who should be allowed to stay. The Pope pointed out that he was the spiritual leader of millions all over the world, the President explained that if he died then America would be stuck with the Vice-President, and so forth. Then Mayor Daley said, "Look! We're not solving anything like this! The only fair thing to do is to vote on it." So they did, and Mayor Daley won by 97 votes. ---- There were in this country two very large monopolies. The larger of the two had the following record: The Vietnam War, Watergate, double- digit inflation, fuel and energy shortages, bankrupt airlines, and the 8-cent postcard. The second was responsible for such things as the transistor, the solar cell, lasers, synthetic crystals, high fidelity stereo recording, sound motion pictures, radio astronomy, negative feedback, magnetic tape, magnetic "bubbles", electronic switching systems, microwave radio and TV relay systems, information theory, the first electrical digital computer, and the first communications satellite. Guess which one got to tell the other how to run the telephone business? ---- Power, n: The only narcotic regulated by the SEC instead of the FDA. ---- One seldom sees a monument to a committee. ---- LSD melts in your mind, not in your hand. ---- If God had meant for us to be in the Army, we would have been born with green, baggy skin. ---- Good leaders being scarce, following yourself is allowed. ---- Cold: When the politicians walk around with their hands in their own pockets. ---- The more government does for you the more it can do to you. ---- Government once tried to take guns from honest American citizens -- Lexington and Concord: America's first response to gun control. ---- Bureaucrat: A politician who has tenure. ---- An American is a person who isn't afraid to criticize the President but is always polite to traffic cops. ---- Politics is like coaching a football team. you have to be smart enough to understand the game but not smart enough to lose interest. ---- When in doubt, do what the President does -- guess. ---- Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. -- "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" ---- Corrupt: In politics, holding an office of trust or profit. ---- President Reagan has noted that there are too many economic pundits and forecasters and has decided on an excess prophets tax. ---- The new Congressmen say they're going to turn the government around. I hope I don't get run over again. ---- Q: How many Oregonians does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Three. One to screw in the lightbulb and two to fend off all those Californians trying to share the experience. ---- When the government bureau's remedies do not match your problem, you modify the problem, not the remedy. ---- Fairy Tale: A horror story to prepare children for the newspapers. ---- A diplomat is a man who can convince his wife she'd look stout in a fur coat. ---- A candidate is a person who gets money from the rich and votes from the poor to protect them from each other. ---- PLUNDERER'S THEME (to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocius) Pillage, rape, and loot and burn, but all in moderation. If you do the things we say, then you'll soon rule the nation. Kill your foes and enemies and then kill your relations. Pillage, rape, and loot and burn, but all in moderation. ---- Ban the bomb. Save the world for conventional warfare. ---- "All flesh is grass." -- Isiah Smoke a friend today. ---- Acid -- better living through chemistry. ---- Reporter (to Mahatma Gandhi): Mr Gandhi, what do you think of Western Civilization? Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea. ---- In case of atomic attack, the federal ruling against prayer in schools will be temporarily canceled. ---- Old soldiers never die. Young ones do. ---- A chubby man with a white beard and a red suit will approach you soon. Avoid him. He's a Commie. ---- Question: Man Invented Alcohol, God Invented Grass. Who do you trust? ---- It seems like the less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag. ---- NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION ---- ... But among the children of the Great Society there were those whose skins were black. And lo! Their portion was niggardly, and of the fatted calf they were sucking hind teat ... Now it came to pass that a prophet rose up amongst them, and they called him King. And he went unto Pharaoh and said, "Let my people go to the front of the bus." But Pharaoh answered: "In the fullness of time and with all deliberate speed shall this thing come to pass. When ye shall prove yourselves worthy, shall ye have your just portion -- yea, verily, like unto a snowball in Hell." The Begatting of a President ---- Today is a good day to bribe a high-ranking public official. ---- Now and then, an innocent man is sent to the Legislature. ---- "He's just a politician trying to save both his faces ..." ---- A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip. ---- Pro is to con as progress is to Congress. ---- Liberty No piece, no peace. Know piece, know peace. ---- Secret #905: They say Washington DC is filled with beautiful, intelligent young women looking for husbands. Hey, I'm a husband. ---- Secret #26: A journalist from Ottawa called and asked me what I thought about Canadian intelligence. I said I thought it was technically possible. ---- The difference between a Nixon Presidency and a bucket of shit is the bucket. -Seattle Graffiti- ---- Most legislators are so dumb that they couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel. ---- The world is an 8000 mile in diameter spherical pile of shit. ---- The difference between this school and a cactus plant is that the cactus has the pricks on the outside. ---- God isn't dead, He's just trying to avoid the draft. ---- God isn't dead -- he's been busted. ---- If you can believe ten impossible things before breakfast, then you should join THE CHURCH OF COUNTERFACTUAL BELIEF The Church of Counterfactual Belief has been set up to cater to all who do not allow demonstrable truth to get in the way of their beliefs. In addition to creation science and the flatness of the earth, the following beliefs have been certified by Pope Duane as Church dogma: -- That there is a hole in the Earth at the North Pole from which UFOs come. -- That pi equals precisely 3.000. -- That sex can be enjoyed only by blacks and homosexuals. -- That Billy Joe Wilson (Hoopla, Miss.) has successfully squared the circle. -- That Harry Truman is still president, and doing a fine job. -- That pi equals precisely 22/7. Several other important counterfactual beliefs are presently being studied, including Reaganomics, A.I., and that the moon landings were done in a Hollywood special effects studio. These will be the subject of a forthcoming Papal Bull ... ---- If a President doesn't do it to his wife, he'll do it to his country. ---- Q: Why is Bill Clinton so interested in the Middle East? A: He thinks the Gaza Strip is a topless bar. ---- Q: What game did Monica Lewinsky play with Bill Clinton? A: Swallow the leader. ---- Q: By the way, have you heard about the new White House party game? A: Its called swallow the leader. ---- Q: What is the difference between Bill Clinton and the Titanic? A: Only 200 women went down on the Titanic. ---- There was a survey in the US where 600 women were asked if they would sleep with Bill Clinton. 82% replied never again. ---- Saddam's advice for President Clinton after news of the sex scandal? "Camels won't talk." ---- A philandering pres named Bill, Was married to a lawyer named "Hill", He played on the side, And repeatedly lied, 'Cuz his female intern said "I will" ---- (Regarding Monica Lewinsky and the Whitehouse sex scandel) I don't understand the big deal, I mean, she knew it was an "entry position" when she hired on didn't she? ---- Q. Do you know what Ted Kennedy has that Bill Clinton wishes he had? A. A dead girlfriend. ---- Clinton's big mistake is that he didn't have Teddy Kennedy drive her home. ---- Rumor has it that Clinton will admit to having sex with her once, but then claim he did not climax and did not enjoy it. ---- Name for Clinton supporters: The Oral Majority. ---- Names for the scandel: ForniGate, TailGate, ZipperGate. ---- I support penis ownership although they are used in rapes. ---- Re-elect Nixon '76 '84 . . . Yes, we should never have changed "Dicks" in the middle of a screw. -Seattle Graffiti- ---- Nancy Reagan wants divorce old Ron ... seems he's making it hard for everyone but her. ---- Communists do it without class. ---- Politicians do it to everyone. ---- 77. HO HUM -- The Redundant ------- (7) This hexagram refers to a situation of extreme --- --- (8) boredom. Your programs always bomb off. Your wife ------- (7) smells bad. Your children have hives. You are working ---O--- (6) on an accounting system, when you want to develop ---X--- (9) the GREAT AMERICAN COMPILER. You give up hot dates --- --- (8) to nurse sick computers. What you need now is sex. Nine in the second place means: The yellow bird approaches the malt shop. Misfortune. Six in the third place means: In former times men built altars to honor the Internal Revenue Service. Great Dragons! Are you in trouble! ---- God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the weaponry to make the difference. ---- I have the heart of a liberal. It's in a jar on my desk. ---- Why does Hillary often have a grimace on her face? Bill sometimes forgets to take the dildo out. ---- Reality is a cop-out for people who can't handle drugs. ---- Cocaine -- the thinking man's Dristan. ---- Did you hear about the new German microwave oven? ... Seats 500. ---- Q: If Tarzan was Jewish, and Jane was a princess, what would Cheetah be? A: A fur coat. ---- How can you determine that a death certificate was filled by a Soviet emigre doctor? He signs his name under "cause of death." ---- This calls for a particularly subtle blend of psychology and extreme violence. ---- Balance the Budget. Declare politicians as game and sell Hunting Stamps. ---- Grow your own dope. Plant a politician. ---- Is it too late to get the Russians to nuke Washington? ---- At any time, at any place, our snipers can drop you. Have a nice day. (Unmentioned corollary: If you run, you will just die tired.) ---- Keep the books - BURN the censors. ---- Made in America by lazy illiterate American workers - Tested in Japan [A Bomb] -Bumper Snicker- ---- Kill a commie for Christ! ---- There . . . was a young Senator from Mass who wanted a new piece of ass he lucked out and found her but fucked up and drowned her and the White House slipped out of his grasp. -Seattle Graffiti- ---- Getting an education at the University of California is like having $50.00 shoved up your ass, a nickel at a time. ---- Immanuel Kant was a real pissant Who was very rarely stable. Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar Who could think you under the table. David Hume could out-consume Schopenhauer and Hegel, And Wittgenstein was a beery swine Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel. There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya 'Bout the raising of the wrist. Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed! John Stuart Mill, of his own free will, On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill. Plato, they say, could stick it away Half a crate of whiskey every day. Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle, Hobbes was fond of his dram, And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart: "I drink, therefore I am" Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed; A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed! -- Monty Python's Flying Circus ---- Heard about the new Ronald Reagan bucket at Kentucky Fried Chicken? It's full of right wings and assholes. ---- The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military. The hired servants of our rulers. Only the government -- and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws. Edward Abbey "The Right to Arms" [New York, 1979] ---- The bigger the appropriations bill, the shorter the debate. Senator James Abourezk ---- We've been waiting for this one a long time. The steps have been slow and incremental, but now, thanks to this judicious and far-sighted law, we can finally take full advantage of the Second Amendment rights guaranteed us under the United States Constitution. No longer will we have to become a convenience store owner or an elementary school teacher just to get our mitts on some of this tasty ordnance. Sally Ack-Ack Spokesman for the NWMDA (National Weapons of Mass Destruction Association, formerly known as the NRA). October 9, 2021 Tactical Nuclear Weapons Approved for American Consumers http://www.avantnews.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=256 ---- The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. - Lord Acton - ---- It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason. Lord Acton ---- The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority. Lord Acton ---- Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Lord Acton Lecture February 26, 1877 ---- And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton 1887 ---- There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion. Lord Acton ---- The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. Lord Acton 1881 Letter to Mary Gladstone ---- Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity. Lord Acton ---- The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the party that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections. Lord Acton ---- This planet has -- or rather had -- a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy. -- Douglas Adams ---- Power, whether vested in the many or a few, is ever grasping, and, like the grave, cries, "Give, give!" -Abigail Adams- Revolutionary War patriot, and wife of John Adams ---- If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. -Samuel Adams- 1776 ---- 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 ---- Dear Lord, observe this bended knee This visage meek and humble, And hear this confidential plea Voiced in reverent mumble: Give me Shylock, give me Fagin But O God spare me Ronald Reagan! -- Ansel Adams ---- I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. John Adams ---- Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. John Quincy Adams ---- I believe the American would prefer the policeman's truncheon to the anarchist's bomb. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew ---- Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation. The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iranian President April 14, 2006 As quoted in the April 16, 2006 Scotland on Sunday [With Iran enriching Uranium as fast as it can it's not hard to imagine what kind of storm he has in mind.--Joe] ---- You loot, we shoot! Employees at A.J.'s Produce Co. A spray-painted bright-red warning for would-be thieves on the sides of the building on Chartres Street in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina From: http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/083105/new_getout001.shtml August 31, 2005 ---- We want to give you the joyous news of the martyrdom of the mujahed sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The death of our leaders is life for us. It will only increase our persistence in continuing holy war so that the word of God will be supreme. Abu Abdel-Rahman al-Iraqi Identified as the deputy "emir" or leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. June 6, 2006 http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2006/06/08/news/local/doc44880ead70060715103125.txt ---- Al-Zarqawi was eliminated. Nouri al-Malki Prime Minister of Iraq June 6, 2006 http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2006/06/08/news/local/doc44880ead70060715103125.txt ---- Everyone says that this is the first free elections in Iraq for fifty years. That is another lie. There has never been one single free election in the long history of the Arabs ever. This is the first one. It took the Americans to conduct it and force it down the throats of dictators, terrorists, exploding deranged humans, and odds as big as the distance between the USA and the Middle East. ... Perhaps in the coming weeks we will take issue with America again. But for today, I am celebrating by having a McDonald's. I hate fast food, but for this day I will make an exception. Dr. Mohammed T. Al-Rasheed Thursday, 3, February, 2005 http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=58456&d=3&m=2&y=2005 On the elections in Iraq. ---- Of course, small arms are not the root cause of conflict in these and other regions. We cannot ease every tension or prevent every fight. But we can help make bad situations better by doing more to ensure that arms do not fall into the wrong hands. We can help governments that want help to keep dangerous weapons off their streets. And we can make it harder for the forces of extremism and hate to get the weapons they need to carry out their destructive designs. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright Remarks on the Occasion of Receiving the International Rescue Committee Freedom Award New York, New York, November 10, 1998 ---- Abortion Simile Hmmm. I wonder what would happen if you'd remove liberals from their life support system of government grants and welfare programs. Do you think they could make it? If it's proven they could not, would it be OK to abort them from society? -Rachel R. Alexander- E-mail Microsoft's Left vs. Right Discussion alias, Tuesday, April 04, 1995 11:02AM ---- A leftist idea can be recognized by three earmarks, It will be: 1)Founded in ignorance, 2) Focussed on irrelevance, 3) Engaged in wishful thinking. Mark Philip Alger http://www.babytrollblog.com/ ---- The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crises, maintain their neutrality. -Dante Alighieri- Literature Inferno ---- The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. Dante Alighieri ---- Communism: Nobody's got nothing but everybody's working. - Fred Allen ---- "Yes, that was Richard Nixon. He used to be President. When he left the White House, the Secret Service would count the silverware." -- Woody Allen, "Sleeper" ---- We have a long, hard road ahead of us. I feel more comfortable knowing you all will be there by my side as we battle the forces of stupidity and take comfort in the knowledge that each of you will do everything they can to retain our rights as citizens of the free world. And, if God forbid it all goes south, at least we have Joe Huffman on our side. Rob Allen May 20, 2008 in an email he sent to bloggers he met at the NRA convention. ---- I, for one, "liked" gridlock. -John Allred- E-mail Direct ---- The philosopher aspires to explain away all mysteries, to dissolve them into light. Mystery, on the other hand is demanded and pursued by the religious instinct; mystery constitutes the essence of worship. -Henri Frederic Amiel- ---- The efficacy of religion lies precisely in what is not rational, philosophic, nor eternal; its efficacy lies in the unforeseen, the miraculous, the extraordinary. Thus religion attracts more devotion according as it demands more faith--that is to say, as it becomes more incredible to the profane mind. -Henri Frederic Amiel- ---- What rational person thinks the Constitution needs restoring? Jack Anderson Page 15 Inside The NRA -- Armed And Dangerous ISBN 0-7871-0677-1 First Printing January 1996 ---- Everybody knows I have the heart of a liberal. I keep it in a jar on my desk. Colorado Sen. John Andrews ---- Handguns should be banned because they can kill quickly and from a long distance giving victims little chance to escape. If they use knives or any other weapon then the victims can escape. We should be tightening our borders to ensure no one can bring any guns across the border and maybe lobby the Americans for a gun ban (too bad Americans to believe in this) or else energy exports are reduced. rewrite the safe schools act to determine which disipline method is needed on a case-by-case basis (i.e instead of expulsion, we should try mental health programs) Some police presence near schools can be helpful but can't be everywhere at once. I DONT WANT TO SEE ANY OPPOSITION TO THIS REMARK. Anonymous September 9, 2007 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070912.wstab0912/CommentStory/National/#comment1224179 ---- Thank you for saving my life, and to the rest of you thank you for fighting for this man's right to protect me and my child. Tell him for me that I will no longer be part of the group who invades his home, and tries to tell him how to store his guns. Tell him I will never be part of any group who tries to make it impossible for him to buy his tool he used to save me. And tell him I will never again tell him how to raise his children properly, because obviously I was oblivious to the fact that responsible people such as him know how to raise their children better than I do. Anonymous Forgive me, for I have sinned.--An About Face After Being Saved by a Gun Owner http://www.keepandbeararms.com/newsarchives/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=680 ---- To plunder, to lie, to show your arse, are three essentials for climbing high. -Aristophanes- ---- You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner. - Aristophanes - ---- Neglect of an effective birth control policy is a never failing source of poverty which, in turn, is the parent of revolution and crime. - Aristotle - ---- Those who have 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, quoted by John Trenchard and Walter Moyle "An Argument showing That a Standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government, and Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy." ---- The reason families need two incomes today is not to support themselves but to support the government. -Dick Armey- E-mail, ---- Nominated for quote of the year is the statement made by Representative Dick Armey, who when asked if he were in the President's place, would he resign, responded: If I were in the President's place I would not get a chance to resign. I would be lying in a pool of my own blood hearing Mrs. Armey standing over me saying, "How do I reload this damn thing?" ---- Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. Richard Armour ---- Since emotions are few and reasons are many (said the robot, Giskard), the behaviour of a crowd can be more easily predicted than the behaviour of one person can. Isaac Asimov ---- United Nations, New York, December 25. The peace and joy of the Christmas season was marred by a proclamation of a general strike of all the military forces of the world. Panic reigns in the hearts of all the patriots of every persuasion. Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all-time low over the world. -- Isaac Asimov ---- Guns ARE evil! And very little good comes from the availability of a bullet designed to kill human beings! Mackenzie Astin ---- Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking. -Clement Atlee- 1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar ---- By the time of the nation's tricentennial, there will be more government workers in the United States than there are workers. -Norman R. Augustine- From: "Defense Systems Management Review" ---- People working in the private sector should try to save money if at all feasible. There remains a possibility that it may someday be valuable again. -Norman R. Augustine- From: "Defense Systems Management Review" ---- One-tenth of the people involved in a given endeavor produce at least one-third of the output, and increasing the number of participants merely serves to reduce the average performance. -Norman R. Augustine- From: "Defense Systems Management Review" ---- In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery? Saint Augustine ---- If current trends persist, most new systems will be obsolete only slightly before they are born. -Norman R. Augustine- From: "Defense Systems Management Review" ---- In this case, the facts simply do not fit the rhetoric behind the District’s gun ban. Such bans do not produce good results. Rather, such bans irrationally strip law-abiding citizens of the most effective means of defending themselves and their loved ones--and, if the evidence indicates anything, it is that criminals take full advantage. Marc James Ayers February 8, 2008 Brief of criminologists, social scientists, other distinguished scholars and the Claremont Institute as amici curiae in support of respondent. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacCriminologistsreprint.pdf ---- In 1946 there were 34,400 civilian firearms per 100,000 Americans and the murder rate was 6.9 per 100,000 population; 60 years later in 2004, gun ownership had almost tripled (85,000 guns per 100,000). Yet the murder rate had actually declined to 5.5 per 100,000. This evidence discredits the simplistic notion that increasing the civilian gunstock produces concomitant (or any) increases in murder. Marc James Ayers February 8, 2008 Brief of criminologists, social scientists, other distinguished scholars and the Claremont Institute as amici curiae in support of respondent. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacCriminologistsreprint.pdf ---- If you want a gun, you can get one in a day, a couple of hours maybe. The gun registry hasn't made any difference on that. Andrew Bacchus Founder of Toronto's Vice Lords gang who is now working with Breaking the Cycle, a gang-exiting program June 18, 2006 Gun Control System Targeted in Canada http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-guns18jun18,1,7907209.story?coll=la-headlines-world ---- I prefer to have my name on only enough lists to stay off the list of people who don't appear on very many lists. From: Anthony Q. Bachler (c-whizard@nospam.earthlink.net) Newsgroups: alt.engr.explosives Date: 2003-02-09 14:32:03 PST ---- It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep may be. Sir Francis Bacon From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 10 September 1996 ---- Gun control means being able to hit your target. If I have a 'hot button' issue, this is definitely it. Don't even think about taking my guns. My rights are not negotiable, and I am totally unwilling to compromise when it comes to the Second Amendment. Michael Badnarik ---- Millions of sensible people are too high-minded to concede that politics is almost always the choice of the lesser evil. "Tweedledum and Tweedledee," they say, "I will not vote." Having abstained, they are presented with a President who appoints the people who are going to rummage around in their lives for the next four years. Consider all the people who sat home in a stew in 1968 rather than vote for Hubert Humphrey. They showed Humphrey. Those people who taught Hubert Humphrey a lesson will still be enjoying the Nixon Supreme Court when Tricia and Julie begin to find silver threads among the gold and the black. -- Russel Baker, "Ford without Flummery" ---- And hey! Nuclear Winter will stop Global Warming! It's a two-fer! Kevin Baker http://www.haloscan.com/comments/khbaker/8071928455333062644/#572327 ---- So when is "legislating from the bench" valid, and when not? I would argue that two conditions must be met. First, it can and should only be done by the Supreme Court. To bestow that power on lower courts invites, if not anarchy, then disrespect for law by the citizenry. Second, any decision that violates stare decisis must be done in order to broaden individual rights and freedoms - the "privileges and immunities" of citizens - that have been improperly restricted by decades of grain-upon-grain infringement. Someone has to have the power to say "That's a heap," and knock it down. Kevin Baker March 6, 2007 Dred Scott and Legislating from the Bench http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2007/03/dred-scott-and-legislating-from-bench.html ---- And now we're at a point, politically, where there are three candidates running who have a realistic shot at the Presidency, and I wouldn't urinate on any of them if their hair was on fire. Where the hell is the space colony they promised me when I was a child, watching men leave bootprints and tire tracks in the lunar dust? Where is my new frontier, my place to go to so that I may live free? Kevin Baker That's 35 in Dog Years http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/05/thats-35-in-dog-years.html ---- Do not fix the mistake - Fix the blame. George Barbarow ---- I know that I'm not a Democrat, because I don't think the Democrats have done a good job helping black people or poor people . . . I guess the only thing left to me is to be a Republican. -Charles Barkley- ---- Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds. John Perry Barlow ---- You do not know our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society more order than could be obtained by any of your impositions. John Perry Barlow [Barlow was speaking of the Internet but he just as well could have been talking about the gun culture in our country.--Joe] ---- The NRA is extreme. Their positions on gun policy are, as the police chief of Los Angeles William Bratton has said, "Sheer lunacy." It is only a matter of time before the NRA either adjusts to the real world or loses its power. A modern democratic society has the right to self-defense and that's exactly why the battle for sensible gun laws will ultimately be won by the reasonable voices in our society. We have the right to defend ourselves against madmen with assault weapons. We have the right to defend ourselves against unrestricted gun sales to criminals or terrorists. And we're eventually going to win those rights. Michael D. Barnes June 23, 2004 President, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence AN ASSAULT ON OUR SAFETY: GUN POLICY IN AMERICA https://www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/04/04-06barnes-speech.html ---- Q: Mr. LaPierre claimed membership of the NRA was about 3.5 million. What is the combined membership of the Brady Center, particularly after joining forces with the Million Mom March? A: We're a lot smaller, unfortunately. We're working to grow, we're about a half million. We've started a new effort through the Internet to expand our outreach and we're now up to over a quarter million new people, who are not members, but have logged on to sign, for example, our petition in support of renewing the federal ban on assault weapons. The NRA likes to brag about its millions of members and our information is that it has dwindled significantly. They were over four million about four, five years ago, they used the Clinton administration as a real boogeyman to build up their membership, but The New York Times and others have indicated that their finances have suffered significantly recently and their membership is probably more like 2.5 million, but that's still a lot. But there are 90 million gun owners in the United States. Only 3.5 million want the insurance and magazines and the various things you get for joining the NRA. When you look on our side and who supports us, for example, in the fight to renew the assault weapons ban, we've got over 300 organizations in the United States working with us: teachers, nurses, doctors, the American Academy of Pediatrics, religious organizations, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP. I'll put our supporters in this cause up against the NRA any day of the week. We represent far, far more Americans, and the polling is very clear on that. Michael D. Barnes President, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence June 23, 2004 AN ASSAULT ON OUR SAFETY: GUN POLICY IN AMERICA https://www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/04/04-06barnes-qa.html ---- And remember that, even though income taxes can be a 'pain the neck,' the folks at the IRS are regular people just like you, except that they can destroy your life. Dave Barry ---- The IRS spends God knows how much of your tax money on these toll-free information hot lines staffed by IRS employees, whose idea of a dynamite tax tip is that you should print neatly. If you ask them a real tax question, such as how you can cheat, they're useless. So, for guidance, you want to look to big business. Big business never pays a nickel in taxes, according to Ralph Nader, who represents a big consumer organization that never pays a nickel in taxes... -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes" ---- You first have to decide whether to use the short or the long form. The short form is what the Internal Revenue Service calls "simplified", which means it is designed for people who need the help of a Sears tax-preparation expert to distinguish between their first and last names. Here's the complete text: "1. How much did you make? (AMOUNT) "2. How much did we here at the government take out? (AMOUNT) "3. Hey! Sounds like we took too much! So we're going to send an official government check for (ONE-FIFTEENTH OF THE AMOUNT WE TOOK) directly to the (YOUR LAST NAME) household at (YOUR ADDRESS), for you to spend in any way you please! Which just goes to show you, (YOUR FIRST NAME), that it pays to file the short form!" The IRS wants you to use this form because it gets to keep most of your money. So unless you have pond silt for brains, you want the long form. -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes" ---- All the big corporations depreciate their possessions, and you can, too, provided you use them for business purposes. For example, if you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, a business-related newspaper, you can deduct the cost of your house, because, in the words of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger in a landmark 1979 tax decision: "Where else are you going to read the paper? Outside? What if it rains?" -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes" ---- But the greatest Electrical Pioneer of them all was Thomas Edison, who was a brilliant inventor despite the fact that he had little formal education and lived in New Jersey. Edison's first major invention in 1877, was the phonograph, which could soon be found in thousands of American homes, where it basically sat until 1923, when the record was invented. But Edison's greatest achievement came in 1879, when he invented the electric company. Edison's design was a brilliant adaptation of the simple electrical circuit: The electric company sends electricity through a wire to a customer, then immediately gets the electricity back through another wire, then (this is the brilliant part) sends it right back to the customer again. This means that an electric company can sell a customer the same batch of electricity thousands of times a day and never get caught, since very few customers take the time to examine their electricity closely. In fact the last year any new electricity was generated in the United States was 1937; the electric companies have been merely re-selling it ever since, which is why they have so much free time to apply for rate increases. -- Dave Barry, "What is Electricity?" ---- Harry is heavily into camping, and every year in the late fall, he makes us all go to Assateague, which is an island on the Atlantic Ocean famous for its wild horses. I realize that the concept of wild horses probably stirs romantic notions in many of you, but this is because you have never met any wild horses in person. In person, they are like enormous hooved rats. They amble up to your camp site, and their attitude is: "We're wild horses. We're going to eat your food, knock down your tent and poop on your shoes. We're protected by federal law, just like Richard Nixon." -- Dave Barry, "Tenting Grandpa Bob" ---- Let's talk about how to fill out your 1984 tax return. Here's an often overlooked accounting technique that can save you thousands of dollars: For several days before you put it in the mail, carry your tax return around under your armpit. No IRS agent is going to want to spend hours poring over a sweat-stained document. So even if you owe money, you can put in for an enormous refund and the agent will probably give it to you, just to avoid an audit. What does he care? It's not his money. -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes" ---- We're deep into the holiday gift-giving season, as you can tell from the fact that everywhere you look, you see jolly old St. Nick urging you to purchase things, to the point where you want to slug him right in his bowl full of jelly. -- Dave Barry, "Simple, Homespun Gifts" ---- Wood is highly ecological, since trees are a renewable resource. If you cut down a tree, another will grow in its place. And if you cut down the new tree, still another will grow. And if you cut down that tree, yet another will grow, only this one will be a mutation with long, poisonous tentacles and revenge in its heart, and it will sit there in the forest, cackling and making elaborate plans for when you come back. Wood heat is not new. It dates back to a day millions of years ago, when a group of cavemen were sitting around, watching dinosaurs rot. Suddenly, lightning struck a nearby log and set it on fire. One of the cavemen stared at the fire for a few minutes, then said: "Hey! Wood heat!" The other cavemen, who did not understand English, immediately beat him to death with stones. But the key discovery had been made, and from that day forward, the cavemen had all the heat they needed, although their insurance rates went way up. -- Dave Barry, "Postpetroleum Guzzler" ---- The problem ... is that we have run out of dinosaurs to form oil with. Scientists working for the Department of Energy have tried to form oil using other animals; they've piled thousands of tons of sand and Middle Eastern countries on top of cows, raccoons, haddock, laboratory rats, etc., but so far all they have managed to do is run up an enormous bulldozer-rental bill and anger a lot of Middle Eastern persons. None of the animals turned into oil, although most of the laboratory rats developed cancer. -- Dave Barry, "Postpetroleum Guzzler" ---- Some of you ... may have decided that, this year, you're going to celebrate Christmas the old-fashioned way, with your family sitting around stringing cranberries and exchanging humble, handmade gifts, like on "The Waltons". Well, you can forget it. If everybody pulled that kind of subversive stunt, the economy would collapse overnight. The government would have to intervene: it would form a cabinet-level Department of Holiday Gift-Giving, which would spend billions and billions of tax dollars to buy Barbie dolls and electronic games, which it would drop on the populace from Air Force jets, killing and maiming thousands. So, for the good of the nation, you should go along with the Holiday Program. This means you should get a large sum of money and go to a mall. -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide" ---- ... Now you're ready for the actual shopping. Your goal should be to get it over with as quickly as possible, because the longer you stay in the mall, the longer your children will have to listen to holiday songs on the mall public-address system, and many of these songs can damage children emotionally. For example: "Frosty the Snowman" is about a snowman who befriends some children, plays with them until they learn to love him, then melts. And "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is about a young reindeer who, because of a physical deformity, is treated as an outcast by the other reindeer. Then along comes good, old Santa. Does he ignore the deformity? Does he look past Rudolph's nose and respect Rudolph for the sensitive reindeer he is underneath? No. Santa asks Rudolph to guide his sleigh, as if Rudolph were nothing more than some kind of headlight with legs and a tail. So unless you want your children exposed to this kind of insensitivity, you should shop quickly. -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide" ---- -- Gifts for Children -- This is easy. You never have to figure out what to get for children, because they will tell you exactly what they want. They spend months and months researching these kinds of things by watching Saturday- morning cartoon-show advertisements. Make sure you get your children exactly what they ask for, even if you disapprove of their choices. If your child thinks he wants Murderous Bob, the Doll with the Face You Can Rip Right Off, you'd better get it. You may be worried that it might help to encourage your child's antisocial tendencies, but believe me, you have not seen antisocial tendencies until you've seen a child who is convinced that he or she did not get the right gift. -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide" ---- I am not going to hide how much guns disgust me. I think they are one of the, if not THE, most vile contraptions on earth. To give you an idea how much, I wrote three papers in college on guns and gun control in one semester. I cannot begin to tell you how many extremely heated discussions I've had with friends and family about guns. While I strive to understand how anyone can think that any one person should hold that much power - the ability to intimidate and/or take someone's life with a gun. I can't deny an individuals constitutional right to bear arms, no matter how painful it may be for me to accept. But as far as I am concerned, no one needs a gun at all. Not you, certainly not me. Not good people. Not bad people. The general public has no reason to own firearms such as semi-automatic guns or assault rifles and should be completely banned and destroyed, along with all the other types of guns (as far as I am concerned). There is no excuse, nor any reason, why guns should be allowed in homes with children. The two simply do not mix, and it is completely irresponsible parenting. Don't try the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" argument with me. I really despise that saying. Power changes people and guns provide more power than any one individual was meant to have. Woody Bass February 4, 2007 Are guns too accessible? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ---- If we can't control guns we should ban it. Judy Bassingthwaighte Director of Gun Free South Africa February 19, 2007 http://www.africa-interactive.net/index.php?PageID=3267 ---- Guns destroy and kill and they are a threat to our democracy. Judy Bassingthwaighte Director of Gun Free South Africa January 24, 2006 http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=3079045 ---- If every person has the right to defend--even by force--his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right -- its reason for existing, its lawfulness -- is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force -- for the same reason -- cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups. Frédéric Bastiat The Law -- What is Law? 1850 ---- Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. -- Frederic Bastiat ---- The politician attempts to remedy the evil by increasing the very thing that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder. Frederick Bastiat ---- You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go around repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in their struggle for independence. -Charles A. Beard- American historian ---- It comes down to Larry, Curly, and Moe? Glenn Beck http://www.glennbeck.com/ NRA Annual Convention Keynote speech May 17, 2008 Referring to the remaining three viable candidates for president in 2008. ---- Before I pay over $10 for a gallon of gas I will drill through a polar bears head. -- I would feel bad. But I would do it. Glenn Beck http://www.glennbeck.com/ NRA Annual Convention Keynote speech May 17, 2008 ---- We like lawyers, crooks, and crack dealers better than Washington! Glenn Beck http://www.glennbeck.com/ NRA Annual Convention Keynote speech May 17, 2008 [After pointing out the President and Congress have approval ratings that are some of the lowest ever.--Joe] ---- The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government. Henry Ward Beecher ---- This is a free country. Within very broad limits, people may live as they wish. And yet, we believe that some ways of living are better than others. Better because they bring more meaning to our lives, to the lives of others, and to our fragile fallible human condition. Marriage and parenthood should be held up because between husband and wife and in fatherhood and motherhood come blessings that cannot be won in any other way. -William J. Bennett- Speech to the 1992 Republican National Convention ---- We must develop a fair appreciation for the real strengths and limitations of government effort on behalf of children. Government, obviously, cannot fill a child's emotional needs. Nor can it fill his spiritual and moral needs. Government is not a father or mother. Government has never raised a child, and it never will. -William J. Bennett- Speech University of Notre Dame, 10/94 10/1/94 ---- [E]ducation is, after all, a serious business. Its lifeblood is standards. If there are no standards, how do we call something higher education? -William J. Bennett- Speech University of Notre Dame 10/90 10/1/90 ---- Banning guns is an idea whose time has come. U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden November 18, 1993 Associated Press ---- Liar: A lawyer with a roving commission. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- ... but as records of courts and justice are admissible, it can easily be proved that powerful and malevolent magicians once existed and were a scourge to mankind. The evidence (including confession) upon which certain women were convicted of witchcraft and executed was without a flaw; it is still unimpeachable. The judges' decisions based on it were sound in logic and in law. Nothing in any existing court was ever more thoroughly proved than the charges of witchcraft and sorcery for which so many suffered death. If there were no witches, human testimony and human reason are alike destitute of value. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of the scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Pig: An animal (Porcus omnivorous) closely allied to the human race by the splendor and vivacity of its appetite, which, however, is inferior in scope, for it balks at pig. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Anoint: To grease a king or other great functionary already sufficiently slippery. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Alliance: In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pocket that they cannot separately plunder a third. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Magpie: A bird whose theivish disposition suggested to someone that it might be taught to talk. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Man, n.: An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Honorable: Afflicted with an impediment in one's reach. In legislative bodies, it is customary to mention all members as honorable; as, "the honorable gentleman is a scurvy cur." -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Once Law was sitting on the bench And Mercy knelt a-weeping. "Clear out!" he cried, "disordered wench! Nor come before me creeping. Upon you knees if you appear, 'Tis plain you have no standing here." Then Justice came. His Honor cried: "YOUR states? -- Devil seize you!" "Amica curiae," she replied -- "Friend of the court, so please you." "Begone!" he shouted -- "There's the door -- I never saw your face before!" -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Incumbent: Person of liveliest interest to the outcumbents. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Coronation: The ceremony of investing a sovereign with the outward and visible signs of his divine right to be blown skyhigh with a dynamite bomb. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Idiot: A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Peace: In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" ---- Aristocrat: A democrat with his pockets full. - Josh Billings ---- Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. Otto von Bismarck ---- Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable... the art of the next best... - Otto von Bismark - ---- Gun control measures, from the slave gun bans of the 1700s South to the Brady Bill regulations of the 1990s have unfairly targeted black Americans and have worked to curtail a disproportionate number of their constitutional rights. Access to firearms was understood by our founders and many early American jurists as an essential aspect of full US citizenship, and it was for this reason that the Black Codes established after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment -- which constitutionally abolished slavery -- prevented black freemen from owning guns. Ken Blackwell http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/KenBlackwell/2007/02/06/second_amendment_freedoms_aided_the_civil_rights_movement?page=full& comments=true ---- In Iraq and Afghanistan, al Qaeda has taken a stand. They know that if progress and democracy take root in those two previously failed and terrorized states, then their values of violence and hatred against those who disagree with them will in turn be uprooted. That's why they fight and why they will continue to fight very hard. For three years, al Qaeda have sought to murder innocent people, promote sectarian killing and wreck the democratic process in Iraq. This terrorism is a global movement. Their attack in Iraq has only ever been part of a wider attack that they have carried into conflicts and countries the world over. Indeed, there is barely a major nation in the world that has not felt the outreach of their evil. Defeat them in Iraq and we will defeat them everywhere. We need to do so armed, of course, with weapons, but also with one simple idea -- that where people want to live in freedom and be governed by democracy, they should be able to do so and the world should stand united behind them. In Iraq today, that idea has shown its worth. Tony Blair June 8, 2006 http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/08/iraq.blair/ ---- The problem, it seems to me, is this. People are pack animals and they want -- need -- approval from the herd. So, forcing this one-size-fits-not-nearly-everyone way of life down everyone's throat is detrimental to everyone. Living a life that doesn't fit is miserable and that misery plays out in unhappy ways in people's lives. Jenny Block March 27, 2008 Open Relationships: What the World Already Has http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20080328/cm_huffpost/093799 ---- There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest. Napoleon Bonaparte ---- Democracy is an abuse of statistics. Jorge Luis Borges ---- In a constitutional democracy the moral content of law must be given by the morality of the framer or legislator, never by the morality of the judge. -Robert Bork- Speech American Enterprise Institute, 1984 ---- The First Amendment is about how we govern ourselves -- not about how we titillate ourselves sexually. -Robert Bork- Television an interview on ABC's This Week, June 25, 1989 6/25/89 ---- The judge's authority derives entirely from the fact that he is applying the law and not his personal values. That is why the American public accepts the decisions of its courts, accepts even decisions that nullify the laws a majority of the electorate or their representatives voted for. Opening statement at hearings to become associate justice of the Supreme Court, 1987 -Robert Bork- Speech Congress 1987 ---- [W]hen a judge goes beyond [his proper function] and reads entirely new values into the Constitution, values the framers and ratifiers did not put there, he deprives the people of their liberty. That liberty, which the Constitution clearly envisions, is the liberty of the people to set their own social agenda through the process of democracy. -Robert Bork- Speech Congress 1987 ---- Those who made and endorsed our Constitution knew man's nature, and it is to their ideas, rather than to the temptations of utopia, that we must ask that our judges adhere. -Robert Bork- Literature The Tempting of America ---- The power and potential abuse of the licensing of gun owners lies with who owns and controls the database. They (your government) have already demonstrated that their intentions cannot be trusted. -Brian Bourgoin- E-mail Direct - June 23, 1994 10:56AM ---- The question is not whether America would be a better country if fewer people owned guns but whether government seizures of some private guns will make people more safe. Given the fact that the government can neither successfully ban guns nor defend American citizens, does the government have the moral right to attempt to selectively seize guns from law-abiding citizens? -James Bovard- Lost Rights ISBN 0-312-12333-7 Copyright 1994, 1995 ---- The more difficult the government makes it for law-abiding citizen to get guns, the more power criminals who do have guns will have. Gun bans destroy the possibility of a balance of power of fire-power between law-abiding citizens and violent criminals. -James Bovard- Lost Rights ISBN 0-312-12333-7 Copyright 1994, 1995 ---- In Massachusetts, a man was sentenced to a year in prison for shooting a coworker who was busy knifing him--for the second time--even though the Massachusetts Supreme Court admitted that "it is possible that the defendant is alive today only because he carried the gun that day for protection." From the book "Lost Rights", page 221. by James Bovard MA SC quote from Commonwealth v. Lindsay, 396 Mas. 840, 489 N.E. 2d 666, 669 (1986) ---- The creeping political repeal of the right to self-defense is a huge decrease in the modern American's liberty because the government has completely failed to fill the void. The government has stripped millions of people of their right to own weapons--yet generally left them free to be robbed, raped, and murdered. Gun bans are one of the best cases of laws that corner private citizens--forcing them either to put themselves into danger or to be a lawbreaker. -James Bovard- Lost Rights ISBN 0-312-12333-7 Copyright 1994, 1995 ---- Gun bans are an attempt to confiscate the right of self-defense. Politicians perennially react to the police's total failure to control crime by trying to disarm law-abiding citizens. In a nutshell, gun bans mean that because criminals abuse guns, law-abiding citizen have no right to defend themselves. -James Bovard- Lost Rights ISBN 0-312-12333-7 Copyright 1994, 1995 ---- Gun bans in response to high crime rates mean closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. The higher the crime rate, the less right the government has to restrict or impede people's ability to defend themselves. According to gun ban advocates, government has a specific, concrete obligation to disarm each citizen, but only an abstract obligation to defend the citizen. -James Bovard- Lost Rights ISBN 0-312-12333-7 Copyright 1994, 1995 ---- Gun bans don't ban guns; rather, they only ban citizens from legally defending themselves with guns. -James Bovard- Lost Rights ISBN 0-312-12333-7 Copyright 1994, 1995 ---- Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. - General Omar Bradley - ---- I commend Senator Durbin, Congressman John Porter and the rest of our friends in the Congress for introducing this important legislation. To allow this nation to return to cash-and-carry tragedies is unimaginable. Sarah Brady Chair of HCI (now The Brady Campaign) February 24, 1999 Regarding a proposed federal law for a permanent waiting period for firearms purchases after the temporary waiting period expired when the "instant check" came online. From http://www.bradycampaign.org/press/release.php?release=164 (as of October 27, 2005) [This is how the other side works. Get something through then incrementally "improve" it. We need to do the same. -- Joe] ---- Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when all those who would resist us have been totally disarmed. Sarah Brady, for Handgun Control Inc., to Senator Howard Metzanbaum. National Educator 1994, page 3. ---- With a policy that tightly controls guns or bans them altogether, colleges and schools can ensure that the only people carrying guns are their security guards and the police. This is the way it has likely always been, and schools are safer because of it. For maximum safety and security, this is the way it should always be. Brady Campaign No Gun Left Behind May 2007 http://www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/pdf/reports/no-gun-left-behind.pdf ---- We must prepare for a long hard battle. So much of what we have worked for in the past and everything we're currently working on could be destroyed by the heinous decision of right-wing activist judges who chose to ignore more than 60 years of precedent in order to help the gun lobby accomplish in the courts what it has been unable to accomplish in Congress. Sarah Brady Email, July 20, 2007 Chair Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence ---- This dramatic decrease in gun violence debunks the gun lobby's myth that gun control doesn't work. Common sense laws can and have worked. The gun lobby claims that 'an armed society is a polite society', when, in fact, the opposite is true. These reports show that fewer guns on our streets means less crime and less violence. While we are grateful for this news, we know that more can and must be done. We have eliminated a number of sources for crime guns but loopholes still exist which allow criminals to ‘lie and buy.' We need to institute a national one-gun-a-month law to reduce gun trafficking to criminals even further. We need to close the gun show loophole which allows so-called ‘private collectors' at gun shows to sell their wares to anyone without doing a criminal background check. Sarah Brady Chair of Handgun Control, Inc January 4, 1999 http://www.handguncontrol.org/press/15rel.htm (as of February 15, 1999) ---- These numbers should make everyone question the NRA's campaign for lax CCW laws under the guise of fighting crime. If the gun lobby is truly interested in reducing crime, they should work for common sense measures like stopping criminals from getting guns at gun shows and limiting handgun sales to one per person per month to cut gun trafficking. Working with lawmakers, law enforcement, the public health community and civic leaders on proven crime-fighting strategies, we can make America safer for everyone. Sarah Brady Regarding a 'study' that claims crime rates fell faster in states that did not have 'shall issue' concealed carry laws. From: http://www.handguncontrol.org/press/RLSE.htm As of January 20, 1999 ---- More than ninety percent of Americans agree that a waiting period to purchase firearms is sane, sensible policy, and the success of the Brady Law over the last five years proves them right. Why are we fixing what isn't broken? And why will we again be losing innocent people to an enraged spouse, a disturbed employee, or a would-be criminal needing a fast and easy firearm? Sarah Brady Press Release from HCI November 30, 1998 From http://www.handguncontrol.org/press/nov30-98.htm (as of February 18, 1999) ---- Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. Louis D. Brandeis ---- Radicals who would take us back to the roots of things often fail because they disregard the fruit Time has produced and preserved. Conservatives fail because they would preserve even what Time has decomposed. - Louis D. Brandeis - ---- Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. Justice Louis Brandeis 1928 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis Olmstead v. US 277 US 479 http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=277&invol=438 ---- Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. -Justice Louis Brandeis- Literature Abortion: the Silent Holocaust ---- It was amazing seeing something that was used for so much violence, hurt and destruction, to watch its power being taken away. This really hits so close to home. Melanie C. Brandon Fashion statement for gun control Designer Melanie C. Brandon has made jewelry from a machine gun and pistols seized in Phila. and melted down. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20070910_Fashion_statement_for_gun_control.html ---- You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. - Jeannette Rankin Brigade ---- On this day set aside to honor the great warrior for the rights of Americans to be free of oppression by their government I like to reflect on the great struggle of the '60s and remember the sacrifices made in the name of Constitutional Rights. Happy Robert E. Lee's birthday! Mike Brown January 21, 2008 Lewiston Pistol Club Email Discussion List ---- This kind of fuzzy thinking is typical of anti-gun lobbyists, who never let facts get in the way of a good story or tarnish their dream of a world without guns. Michael S. Brown Friday, April 21, 2006 http://www.columbian.com/opinion/news/04212006news22110.cfm ---- Washingtonians are not stupid. We are aware that gun laws have failed miserably wherever they have been tried. Anyone who knows how to visit the FBI Web site can tell you that the most dangerous places in the United States often are the places with the strictest gun laws. Gun laws overseas have been no more successful. Asking the Legislature to give us more is a colossal waste of time and an insult to our intelligence. Michael S. Brown, O.D. Brown, of Vancouver Washington is a member of Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws www.dsgl.org. February 1, 2007 Evidence says gun laws don't work Seattle Post Intelligencer http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/301881_gunrebut01.html ---- We are...opposed to all forms of birth control with the excepton of natural family planning [the rhythm method]. -Judie Brown- President, American Life Lobby ---- We need to reduce government to just the functions authorized in the Constitution. Then, if you believe that makes the federal government too big or too little, you can work to amend the Constitution to make it more to your liking. But the first step is to establish limits, so that we no longer have unlimited government that the politicians can use for anything they want. Harry Browne March 1998 Libertarian Candidate for President in 1996. ---- When the government tries to stop someone from ruining his life with drugs, it converts a personal tragedy into a national disaster. Harry Browne March 1998 Libertarian Candidate for President in 1996. ---- It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people. -Guido (Giordano) Bruno (1548-burned at stake, 1600) ---- ... religion is needed for restraining rude populations, which have to be ruled, whereas rational demonstration is for such, of a contemplative nature, as know how to rule themselves and others. -Guido (Giordano) Bruno (1548-burned at stake, 1600) ---- Judging from Waco and the Weavers, the feds are almost one hundred times more likely to kill an innocent person than a guilty one. -Jack Buchmiller- From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 15 30 November 1994 ---- How can the modern relativist exercise tolerance if he doesn't believe in anything to begin with? It is not hard to exhibit toleration toward a point of view if you have no point of view of your own with which that point of view conflicts. -William F. Buckley, Jr.- Literature Up From Liberalism ---- [T]he government of the United States, under Lyndon Johnson, proposes to concern itself over the quality of American life. And this is something very new in the political theory of free nations. The quality of life has heretofore depended on the quality of the human beings who gave tone to that life, and they were its priests and its poets, not its bureaucrats. -William F. Buckley, Jr.- Periodical National Review, August 7, 1965 ---- Socialize the individual's surplus and you socialize his spirit and creativeness; you cannot paint the Mona Lisa by assigning one dab of paint to a thousand painters. -William F. Buckley, Jr.- Literature Up From Liberalism ---- I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University. -William F. Buckley, Jr.- Literature Rumbles ---- We are so concerned to flatter the majority that we lose sight of how very often it is necessary, in order to preserve freedom for the minority, let alone for the individual, to face that majority down. William F. Buckley ---- Mrs. Roosevelt's polemical life was lived right in the heart of liberal mania, with the results that, themselves bereft of their senses, they were incapable of recognizing that Mrs. Roosevelt was bereft of hers. -William F. Buckley, Jr.- Literature Up From Liberalism ---- ---- The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry. William F. Buckley ---- [National Review] stands athwart history, yelling Stop. -William F. Buckley, Jr.- Periodical Inaugural issue, National Review ---- 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.- Literature Up From Liberalism ---- But I wonder when else, in the history of controversy, there has been such consistent intemperance, insularity, and irascibility as the custodians of the liberal orthodoxy have shown toward conservatives who question some of the orthodoxy's premise? The liberals' implicit premise is that intercredal dialogues are what one has with Communists, not conservatives, in relationship with whom normal laws of civilized discourse are suspended. -William F. Buckley, Jr.- Literature Up From Liberalism ---- The state is a divine institution. Without it we have anarchy, and the lawlessness of anarchy is counter to the natural law: so we abjure all political theories which view the state as inherently and necessarily evil. But it is the state which has been in history the principal instrument of abuse of the people, and so it is central to the conservatives' program to keep the state from accumulating any but the most necessary powers. -William F. Buckley, Jr.- Literature The Catholic ---- World War is the second worst activity of mankind, the worst being acquiescence in slavery. -William F. Buckley, Jr.- Literature On the Right ---- All the gun laws in the world wouldn't have stopped a lunatic like Cho Seung-Hui. Brad Bumsted April 23, 2007 Extreme Gun Control Pittsburgh Tribune Review http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=18247777&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=6 ---- People in a society find ways to avoid conflict, and instead they find substitutes for it. I think the gun has become one of those substitutes. Instead of addressing the root causes of the inequalities in our society, such as the limits of access to education, jobs, housing, the legal system etc., we invent or come up with crime scenarios. The gun becomes the substitute way to solve conflict in the United States, and the biggest conflict of all is crime. So that's how I view it as a political fetish -- that it's a substitution. This is a moment in the United States when access to political power is, I think, limited to a class of professional politicians and lobbyists. And the act of buying a gun can mimic political action. It makes people feel as if they are engaging in politics of political protest. I'll give an example of how I think guns have political meaning. One of my old friends who is an ex-Vietnam vet, a Navy pilot, said to me one night, "Whenever I get mad at the government, I go out and buy a gun." And to me, that's a form of mimicking political action. One is left only with a gun in one's closet. One has not changed or affected the government at all. In that way, I see it as a fetish, a substitute. Joan Burbick October 16, 2006 Joan Burbick's 'Gun Show Nation' Explains How the "Gun Rights" Movement is a White Male Political Power Play ---- Without bigots, eccentrics, cranks, and heretics, the world would not progress. - Frank Gelett Burgess - ---- 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; also he lives precariously, and at discretion. James Burgh "Political Disquisitions: Or, an Enquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses" London, 1714-1775 ---- We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation. -Edmund Burke- (1729-97), Irish philosopher, statesman. First Letter on a Regicide Peace (1796; published in The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, vol. 9, ed. by Paul Langford, 1991). ---- Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist. -Edmund Burke- (1729-97), Irish philosopher, statesman. ---- The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke- (1729-97), Irish philosopher, statesman. ---- Modern liberalism, for most liberals is not a consciously understood set of rational beliefs, but a bundle of unexamined prejudices and conjoined sentiments. The basic ideas and beliefs seem more satisfactory when they are not made fully explicit, when they merely lurk rather obscurely in the background, coloring the rhetoric and adding a certain emotive glow. -James Burnham- Literature Suicide of the West ---- The economic egalitarianism of the liberal ideology implies ... the reduction of Westerners to hunger and poverty. -James Burnham- Literature Suicide of the West ---- After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. -William Burroughs- (b. 1914) U.S. author. "The War Universe," taped conversation (published in Grand Street, no. 37; repr. in Painting and Guns, 1992, in a slightly different form. ---- Man is something more than a carcass loosely coupled to a ghost. - Sir Cyril Burt - ---- Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion. Robert Burton ---- This seems like it is a tremendous over-reaction. This week I've seen prayers on campus and kids afraid to go on campus. If he violated a campus gun policy, I'm not opposed to the college putting him through their standards. But as a Marietta College graduate, I'm offended that they would ban him from the school so quickly. It doesn't sound like he had due process. It seems the college and the students think that if you have guns, you are inherently dangerous. But there are those of us who carry guns and who are not dangerous. Bill Burton Sheriff: Student a gun enthusiast http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/500655.html ---- Today, America is fighting a war that is testing our Nation's resolve. We are once again answering history's call with confidence, and we know that freedom will prevail. Our brave men and women in uniform have stepped forward to fight our enemies abroad so that we do not have to face them here at home, and we are grateful for the courageous individuals bringing terrorists to justice around the world. We are also confronting the extremists in the great ideological struggle of the 21st century. September the 11th made clear that, in the long run, the only way to secure our Nation is to advance liberty and democracy as the great alternatives to repression and radicalism. By working together with our friends and allies, we are helping spread the blessings of freedom and laying the foundations of peace for generations to come. George W. Bush President of the United States of America September 7, 2006 Patriot Day 2006 href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060907-7.html ---- The war we fight today is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century. President George W. Bush August 31, 2006 In a speech to veterans at an American Legion convention in Salt Lake City. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/washington/01bush.html?hp&ex=1157083200&en=ee317cef5e588a8a&ei=5094&partner=homepage ---- As veterans you have seen this kind of enemy before. They are successors to fascists, to Nazis, to communists and other totalitarians of the 20th century. And history shows what the outcome will be. This war will be difficult. This war will be long. And this war will end in the defeat of the terrorists. President George W. Bush August 31, 2006 In a speech to veterans at an American Legion convention in Salt Lake City. http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/15408942.htm ---- Despite their differences, these groups form the outline of a single movement, a worldwide network of radicals that use terror to kill those who stand in the way of their totalitarian ideology. And the unifying feature of this movement, the link that spans sectarian divisions and local grievances, is the rigid conviction that free societies are a threat to their twisted view of Islam. President George W. Bush August 31, 2006 In a speech to veterans at an American Legion convention in Salt Lake City. http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/15408942.htm ---- All progress is based on the universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income. - Samuel Butler - ---- I believe that guns don't kill people. Husbands that come home early do. Larry the Cable Guy Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again ---- Whatever became of Strange de Jim? Well, he found a substitute for cocaine: "You cover Q-tips with sandpaper and ram them up your nostrils as far as they will go. Then you sniff talcum powder while shredding hundred dollar bills." -- Herb Caen ---- Government: Organized crime with an attitude. -D'Arcy Cain - ---- He wasn't much of an actor, he wasn't much of a Governor -- Hell, they HAD to make him President of the United States. It's the only job he's qualified for! -- Michael Cain ---- Abortion is the taking of a life. -Mary Calderone- Periodical American Journal of Public Health vol 50 no. 71960 ---- A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare. Court ruling against home schooling in California. ---- THE PEOPLE: The people is a beast of muddy brain that knows not its own strength. - Tommaso Campanella ---- Pioneering basically amounts to finding new and more horrible ways to die. - John W. Campbell - ---- A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad.... Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse. Albert Camus ---- One thousand letters a day did not represent what the First District wanted. -Congressperson Maria Cantwell- Washington State First District Town Hall Meeting, North Kirkland Com Ctr, 7/16/94 She was responding to a question about why, when most of the 1000 letters, phone calls, and faxes her office was receiving each day about the Brady Bill were opposed to it, she voted for it. ---- The world looks as if it has been left in the custody of trolls. Father Robert F. Capon ---- When I sell liquor, it's called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, its called hospitality. AL CAPONE ---- Distinguishing between political parties on a basis of their respect for rights is rather like distinguishing between motorcycle gangs on a basis of their taste in beer. -Doug Caprette- E-mail ---- This delay is yet another example of Home Office inability to operate computer systems, and if they cannot get a relatively simple system for a firearms register like this to work so many years after such an awful disaster, what hope is there for the vast system needed to make identity cards work? Alistair Carmichael Orkney and Shetland MP March 5, 2006 Dunblane gun crackdown 'a failure' News.Scotsman.com http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=334282006 ---- I can imagine no greater misfortune for a cultured people than to see in the hands of the rulers not only the civil, but also the religious power. -Caius Valerius Catullus- ---- When sending children to a friend's home for a playdate, ask the parent or guardian if there is a handgun in the home. Do not send your child to a home where a handgun is present. Cease Fire, Inc. P.O. Box 33424 Washington, D.C. 20033-0424 From: http://www.ceasefire.org/html/hfp2risk.html (as of November 11, 1998) mailto:info@ceasefire.org ---- We can't just jump into the dark and make conclusions without facts. That's how we got the gun registry in the first place. That's how we spent a billion dollars on a policy that didn't prevent the tragedy. Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada September 16, 2006 http://www.canada.com/theprovince/story.html?id=eafd86cf-321c-42b2-a82e-b1269254dfb0 ---- The Liberal party has no direction. The real challenge for the next leader will obviously be to unite the party and give them some direction other than just to run with whatever the issue of the week is that they think they can make a cheap point out of. Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada September 16, 2006 $1-billion didn't prevent tragedy http://www.canada.com/theprovince/story.html?id=eafd86cf-321c-42b2-a82e-b1269254dfb0 ---- We manipulate nature as if we were stuffing an Alsatian goose. We create new forms of energy; we make new elements; we kill crops; we wash brains. I can hear them in the dark sharpening their lasers. - Erwin Chargaff - ---- To know how to say what others only know how to think is what makes men poets or sages; and to dare to say what others only dare to think makes men martyrs or reformers or both. Elizabeth Charles ---- The NRA should be banned as a terrorist organization. They have contributed to more deaths in the United States than any other terrorist group. Charlie Your Thoughts on How to Stop the Gun Lobby Freedom State Alliance http://www.freedomstatesalliance.com/?p=101 ---- It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. Dick Cheney Probably quoting someone else. ---- As a man, sows, so shall he reap. In works of fiction, such men are sometimes converted. More often, in real life, they do not change their natures until they are converted into dust. One does well to distrust a tamed tiger. Charles Waddell Chesnutt http://docsouth.unc.edu/chesnuttcolonel/bio.html The Marrow of Tradition http://docsouth.unc.edu/chesnuttmarrow/chesmarrow.html 1901 ---- Those who set in motion the forces of evil cannot always control them afterwards. Charles Waddell Chesnutt http://docsouth.unc.edu/chesnuttcolonel/bio.html The Marrow of Tradition http://docsouth.unc.edu/chesnuttmarrow/chesmarrow.html 1901 ---- Nowadays a citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine, except that the fine is generally much lighter. -G.K. Chesterton- 1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar ---- It's a little, little gun, it's not an assault weapon. Florida Governor, who supports a nationwide ban on so-called "assault weapons" (semi-auto's), when a reporter discovered he owned a Ruger Mini-14, prohibited under proposals being considered by Congress, quoted in the "Tampa Tribune". -Lawton Chiles- Periodical Tampa Tribune ---- I would say that what is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb. Having one, or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that's not very dangerous. Where will it drop it, this bomb? On Israel? It would not have gone 200 metres into the atmosphere before Teheran would be razed. French President Chirac In an interview on January 31, 2007 with Le Nouvel Observateur, The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2579823,00.html ---- I believe that the shooting sports (unlike such stylishly sanitized designer pursuits as fly fishing for the 90s) serve as the politically incorrect metaphor for that most unpopular of citizens - the Classical Man (as opposed to the Modern Man). As such, when I am asked by one who fears and loathes firearms, why anyone would find fascination in weapons, my answer is, 'For the same reason that makes you afraid of such things'. -Jack Chleva- ---- Government turns to clandestine terrorist operations when it is afraid of it's own population. -Noam Chomsky- ---- Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party. -Winston Churchill- Literature Great Quotes From Great Leaders ---- Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times. -Winston Churchill- Literature Great Quotes From Great Leaders ---- Never turn your back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never! Winston Churchill ---- Democracy is the worst form of government. Except for all others. -Winston Churchill- Literature ---- The vice of capitalism is it's unequal distribution of blessings, the virtue of socialism is its equal distribution of misery. -Winston Churchill- E-mail ---- I have only one purpose, the destruction of Hitler, and my life is much simplified, thereby. If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favorable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons. -Winston Churchill- Literature The Grand Alliance: Who Said What When ---- [Sir Stafford Cripps] has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. -- Winston Churchill ---- Democracy is a very bad form of government -- except for all the others that have been tried from time to time. - Winston Churchill ---- In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable. Winston Churchill, of Montgomery ---- When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite. Winston Churchill, On formal declarations of war ---- The problems of victory are more agreeable than the problems of defeat, but they are no less difficult. -Winston Churchill- Speech House of Commons - 11/11/42 ---- If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when 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 of 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- ---- I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar. -Winston Churchill- Literature Great Quotes From Great Leaders ---- If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce -- Winston Churchill ---- The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. Winston Churchill ---- You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. Winston Churchill ---- [Prime Minister Joseph] Chamberlain loves the working man -- he loves to see him work. -- Winston Churchill ---- You will never succeed in getting at the truth if you think you know, ahead of time, what the truth ought to be. - Marchette Chute - ---- Mayor Vincent J. `Buddy' Cianci on the ACLU's suit to have a city nativity scene removed: "They're just jealous because they don't have three wise men and a virgin in the whole organization." ---- Popular theology... is a massive inconsistency derived from ignorance... the gods exist because nature herself has imprinted a conception of them on the minds of men. - Cicero - ---- Man is nothing else than fetid sperm, a sack of dung, the food for worms... You have never seen a viler dunghill. - St. Bernard of Clairaux - ---- Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. ARTHUR C CLARKE ---- All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All separated from government are compatible with liberty. -Henry Clay- ---- O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle--be thou near them! . . . O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells, help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead: help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief. . . . For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, Blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it in the spirit of love, of Him who is the Source of Love, and who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all who are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. -Samuel Langhorne Clemens- ---- In the great scale of politics, I am in the broad middle. I'm not a screaming way-out liberal ... -Eleanor Clift- Television Journalists' Roundtable, quoted in The Limbaugh Letter 5/94 ---- Hillary and Bill Clinton cheating on their taxes was a protest against Reagan era tax breaks for the wealthy ... They knew ... the IRS would catch up with them and tack penalties ... If more people had been as far sighted and altruistic as the Clintons, we could retroactively erase the deficit. -Eleanor Clift- Television The McLaughlin Group, quoted in The Limbaugh Letter 5/94 ---- I think, as I said, what Governor Florio did and what Governor Wilder did, I think will contribute to Americans facing this and trying to reconcile our absolute obligation under the Constitution to give people the right to have a firearm... -- Bill Clinton, 3/1/93 ---- And we should -- then every community in the country could then start doing major weapon sweeps and then destroying the weapons, not selling them. -- Bill Clinton, 10/1/93 ---- I also support a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, which have no legitmate hunting purpose. This will limit access to multiple-round clips like the one used in the tragic killings in Killeen, Texas. -- Bill Clinton, 8/10/93 ---- I think -- you know, we can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans to legitimately own handguns and rifles... -- Bill Clinton, 3/1/93 ---- But a mix of boys and guns isn't an automatic formula for mayhem. Indeed, a student hailed as a hero for stopping Kinkel's rampage belongs to the National Rifle Association. There is something else at work, a toxic combination of biology and environment. John Cloud Of Arms and the Boy Time Magazine, July 6, 1998 ---- Guns are for self-defense, hunting dangerous and delicious animals, and keeping the king of England out of your face. Krusty the Clown ---- ...researchers concluded that the total 1992 cost of firearm violence was $112 billion when taking into consideration direct medical costs, lost productivity, and lost quality of life. This study also reported that each of the estimated 4.91 billion bullets sold in 1992 represented $23 in costs due to firearm violence, including $0.60 in medical and emergency services, $7.20 in lost productivity, and $15.10 in pain, suffering, and lost quality of life. Coalition to Stop Gun Violence See: http://www.gunfree.org/csgv/bsc_eco.htm (as of 11/12/98) ---- It may not have been everything it was advertised to be, but we think it was great. Nobody would turn down the chance to put more cops on the street. Officer Brian Coats from the Redmond police in the March 22nd issue of The Seattle Times regarding the 100,000 cops on the street claim made for the 1994 Crime Bill. From http://www.seattletimes.com/news/local/html98/cops_19990322.html as of March 22, 1999 ---- If Reagan were a teacher at a nonprestigious junior college he'd be denied tenure. The man needs to drop bread crumbs on his way into sentences so he can find his way out again. -Sherry Coben- ---- The more guns you have, the greater the chance they will be used. But both common sense and the law of averages escape presidential candidates, especially Republicans looking to assert their conservative bona fides. When it comes to gun control, they not only have to be against it but they have to insist -- in raging opposition to common sense -- that the more guns around, the safer everyone is. [...] He is the True Republican -- a credit to his party, a threat to us all. Richard Cohen July 31, 2007 Thompson on Horseback http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001273.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 ---- The art of taxation consists of plucking the goose so you get the largest amount of feathers with the smallest amount of hissing. - Jean Baptiste Colbert ---- Religion has treated knowledge sometimes as an enemy, sometimes as a hostage; often as a captive and more often as a child; but knowledge has become of age and religion must either renounce her acquaintance, or introduce her as a companion and respect her as a friend. -Charles Caleb Colton- ---- When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results. -- Calvin Coolidge ---- I do not think I mentioned the name of the BATgirl who stomped the kitten to death in the course of the Lamplugh raid. Her name is Donna Slusser. That is one to remember along with Lon Horiuchi. We are treated to inquiries and investigations, but it seems very difficult to ask a straight question of a perpetrator. "Mr. Horiuchi, why did you shoot Vicki Weaver in the face? Ms. Slusser, why did you stomp on that kitten?" "Self defense" will not do. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 10 August 1995 ---- A family member recently returned from Bolivia points out that they do not seem to have a gun problem in that country. They have what may be the ideal gun control laws - there are none. Additionally, cocaine in various forms is available on the open market, and they do not have any trouble with drug lords. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 16 December 1996 ---- Our friend the Count Randaccio-Lodi informs us that this business of "politically correct" communication has begun to affect the Italian language too. The Italian word for such talk is sinistrese, indicating its origin on the political left. "Certain words are replaced by others giving a bad thing a nice sounding appearance (like gay for sodomite or progressive for communist). Trouble is that this game never ends since sooner or later the meaning catches up with the sound and a new word must be issued." I know this curious affliction still afflicts the English-speaking world, despite its obvious foolishness, but I had not thought it had gone abroad just yet. We do not hear of it in German or French, but I suppose the time will come. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 16 December 1996 ---- The antics of the sleazemaster reached a new peak just before the election. He stated for the record that he thought Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was included in the Constitution. He paid special attention to the death of a police officer incurred in the line of duty and insisted that his bullet-banning policies would have saved the officer's life - and it turns out that the officer was killed in an auto accident. He paid specific honor on Veterans Day to the war dead at Arlington Cemetery. There must have been a great rumbling noise caused by all those dead soldiers turning over in their graves. And yet the people went right out and elected him. As Harry Hopkins, FDR's sidekick and exec, put it: "The people are too damn dumb to understand." Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 14 December 1996 ---- Michael Howard is "Home Secretary" of the U.K., sort of a national chief of police. In his words, "Gun ownership is a privilege, not a right, and the use of firearms in self-defense is not acceptable for civilians in this country" (presumably it is okay for a soldier). So much for The Land of Hope and Glory! Die if you must but do not shoot back. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 13 November 1996 ---- We have been reading "Unlimited Access," by Gary Aldrich. This work is absolutely required reading for every responsible U.S. citizen. If we accept the word of this veteran F.B.I. agent, as we are inclined to do, the court of Caligula did not match the Clinton White House for iniquity. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 16 December 1996 ---- We hear from the British press that it is now "too late to disarm the U.S. public." God save the mark! Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 13 November 1996 ---- Napoleon may have got off to a scruffy start as a Corsican corporal, but he did develop a good deal more class than Bill Clinton. When the Emperor wanted a special girl in Warsaw he sent a Field Marshal to pick her up. Clinton sent a couple of enlisted men. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 13 November 1996 ---- We heard the Feds recently insisting that those are not black helicopters, they are dark green. Sorry about that. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 2 February 1997 ---- We read a notice from Canada to the effect that "The purpose of anti-gun legislation is to establish criminal supremacy over the citizen by awarding the goblins the status of being the sole armed caste of the population." The publisher has gone on to state that the time has come to ask ourselves what is behind all this. Well, we know what motivates the hoplophobe. He simply envies the man who can cope where he, the hoplophobe, cannot. A skilled, armed man lives on a plane of security and contentment different from that of others. This is not egalitarian! The man who cannot cut it, envies, fears and sometimes hates the man who can. This is all very clear, it is just a pity that so many people choose to hide their perfidious motivation behind what they claim to be "crime control." Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 1 January 1997 ---- We are informed by presumably good authority that 90 percent of the young men now recruited by the Marine Corps have never handled a rifle in their lives. If I were king, the Marines would not recruit anybody until he could shoot "expert" in a prescribed course with the service rifle. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 11 September 1996 ---- We note with amazement that Bill Clinton has had the chutzpah to pose as a devotee of Theodore Roosevelt. For a draft dodger to presume to align himself with the hero of San Juan Hill is possibly the crowning impertinence of the 20th century. As it has been mentioned, the Clinton administration may be quaintly characterized as "the evil of two lessers." Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 11 September 1996 ---- From family member Paul Kirchner of Connecticut we receive the following anecdote: "I recently had an interesting conversation with a Polish immigrant who was driving a cab. I have met about a half dozen Polish immigrants in recent years and I have been consistently impressed by them - they are better educated and more politically sophisticated than the average American. When I asked this fellow what surprised him most about the United States he said, 'l. Affirmative action, 2. Bad manners, 3. The fact that we are more relentlessly propagandized by our mass media than he was in Communist Poland.'" Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 11 September 1996 ---- By now the British have fairly written into law the position that a personally owned firearm may only be acceptable for "sporting purposes." Teddy Kennedy used this idea in the 1968 gun law, despite the fact that we in America are protected, at least theoretically, by the Second Amendment, which has nothing whatever to do with sport. Various sorts of legislators are still at it, and the BATF takes the notion of "legitimate sporting purpose" seriously, even though this would appear to be obviated by the supreme law of the land. This is a fight in which we all must continue to participate. Self-defense has nearly come to be a misdemeanor on the face of it in Britain, where the subject is conditioned with the belief that whatever happens he (or she) must not fight back. If the wimps prevail in the next election, you may be sure that America will then gain on Great Britain on the road to serfdom. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 9 August 1996 ---- A family member recently returned from Bolivia informs us that Bolivian gun laws may be the best in the world. There are none, and Bolivia gets by with a serious law against murder. Funny that no one in Britain or America has thought of that so far! Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 9 August 1996 ---- On the subject of concealed carry, it occurs to us that the occupation most in need of this asset is that of trained nurse. A nurse goes on and off duty at all hours. Most nurses are young, trim, reasonably attractive females. They must necessarily make their way from the hospital door to a parked car out on a darkened parking lot in all kinds of weather. It seems to me that a trained nurse should be issued a concealed carry permit - and her tuition- free application to a reputable pistol school - when she gets her RN certificate. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 8 July 1996 ---- Did any of you catch the testimony of the handwriting experts in the Vince Foster case who established that the so-called suicide note left by the deceased was a forgery? The New York Times did not exactly censor this item, but placed it where it could hardly be found in the back pages of the financial section. When quizzed about this, the editor stated that he thought implications to the effect that Vince Foster was murdered lead to inappropriate attitudes on the part of the reading public. I am sure that the White House is in full accord with this policy. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 8 July 1996 ---- As you know, the British subject is effectively forbidden the use of firearms in defense of his life. So now we read in the English press of one retired army officer who overcame this problem by repelling boarders with his sword. When three goblins broke into his house with knives, he produced his regimental sabre and gave battle. He ran those birds out of his house and well down the street, though the account does not say that he damaged any of them severely. Swordsmanship is effectively a lost art, but I doubt if the world's miscreants are fully aware of that. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 7 June 1996 ---- You may remember the attributed demand from President Jefferson for "men to match my mountains." In today's scene, the politically correct version of that might be "Send me mole hills to match my men-and-women!" Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 11 September 1996 ---- It has long been a principle of mine that a man cannot have too many books, too many wines, or too much ammunition. It turns out that a number of governments in the world manifest considerable distress at the idea of large amounts of ammunition in private hands. They insist that any man who stockpiles thousands of rounds must have some sinister and ulterior purpose which should be investigated by the state. Here we have yet another example of the thought control characteristic of the Age of the Common Man. Many on the left seem to hold that one may be punished not for what he does, but for what he thinks - as with what have come to be called "hate crimes." In this age of thought-control, various sorts of busybodies, in and out of government, feel the need to arrange your thinking for you. In this matter of ammunition, I personally like to keep a large supply on hand, not for any specific purpose, but simply because it makes me feel good. To have a large supply - several thousand rounds - of 45 ACP or 30-06 or 308 is comforting in and of itself, and by no means necessarily because one has some conspiratorial notion about expending it. As you know, there are people such as Senator Moynihan who feel that the subtle way to disarm the people is to cut off the supply of ammunition. We hope that such people do not prevail, but it does not hurt to be prepared for unpleasant eventualities - thus we have seatbelts, crash helmets, life jackets, and pistols. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 9 August 1996 ---- We hear that one of the men shot at Tinananmen Square was able to speak out as follows before he died: "Tell the American people never to lose their guns. As long as they keep their guns in their hands what's happened here will never happen there." Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 3 February 1996 ---- We discover with some gratification that a Swiss citizen, in order to maintain his rights of citizenship, must qualify annually with his rifle, even when he is on station overseas. We knew that the Swiss had to do this while in Switzerland, but we find that Swiss diplomats in Washington are experiencing some difficulty in finding a facility on which to maintain their Swiss citizenship. Riflemaster John Pepper has been helpful in this matter by encouraging these people to make use of the Fort Meade ranges where he conducts his training and competition operations. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 3 February 1996 ---- Note that twenty-eight states now have "right to carry" laws on the books, and that crime is down. The notion that the state can grant such a right is philosophically moot, but let us be glad with what we've got. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 3 February 1996 ---- In view of the recent shenanigans in Washington, does it not seem that things run better when the government is shut down? Of course, the administration only furloughed "non-essential" workers. Just what the government is doing hiring non-essential workers is not explained. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 3 February 1996 ---- If you liked Ruby Ridge, you will love Clinton's second term. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 3 February 1996 ---- Despite the best efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we now have access to a photograph of Lon Horiuchi, who shot Vickie Weaver in the face but who still has not been brought to justice. Col. Bob Brown ran it down in a West Point yearbook and it appears on page 38 of the December issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine. It is not very clear, and it is twenty years old, but it is better than nothing. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 13 November 1995 ---- We learn from the Clinton administration that there is now a move afoot in the United Nations to ban all international traffic in smallarms. This turns out to be a Japanese idea whose time, God help us, has not yet come, but Bill and Hillary are all for it. It can be said a fanatic is defined as one who doubles his efforts after he has lost sight of his goals. Examples will occur to you. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 6 May 1996 ---- We are informed by a good friend in Sweden that the allowance for private ownership of ammunition in that country is 25,000 rounds per each weapon owned. We found this hard to believe, and checked it further. The figure is correct - 25,000 rounds. Basically, we are opposed to arbitrary limitations on private armament, but somehow we do not find a 25,000 limit all that oppressive. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 12 October 1995 ---- I am sure you are all glad to learn that the BATmen now have their own air force, composed of 22 OV10Ds they purchased from the Marine Corps. That is just what those boys need in their further operations against gun owners - close air support! Obviously the sooner we abolish the BATmen the better off everybody will be. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 11 September 1995 ---- The syndicated columnist, Walter Williams, who happens to be a college professor, has recently finished a study of governmental murder and has concluded that in the twentieth century far more people were killed by their own governments than died in war. Statistics are always questionable, but Williams' come out as follows: Killed in Warfare: 39 million Killed by Lenin and Stalin: 62 million Killed by Mao Tse-tung: 35 million Killed by Hitler: 21 million These are the leaders, and the figures are beyond comprehension, but coming down to more comprehensible numbers we find that 2 million were killed in Turkey, 2 million in Cambodia, 1.5 million in Mexico, and 1 by Tito in the Balkans. It should be noted that the time over which these atrocities were perpetrated has a bearing on the magnitude of their atrocity. Combined executions committed by Lenin and Stalin, for example, were spread over 70 years between 1917 and 1987. Mao's murders took place over about 37 years between 1949 and 1987, so his intensity could have been greater. Hitler's 21 million were murdered over a much shorter period, and so the intensity factor pretty well evens out, but the fact remains that vastly more homicide was perpetrated in this century of slaughter by governments against their own people than by armies against enemies. Man's inhumanity to man seems more virulent when it is domestic. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 11 September 1995 ---- Many years ago in Command and General Staff school at Quantico the class was treated to a super secret session on biological warfare. It was impressive, but it does not seem to have been followed up. Fifty years later the media are still talking about infection with known diseases such as anthrax. It was impressed upon us back at school that if the biological weapon is to be used in any serious fashion the agent will be an unknown disease for which, of course, there is no treatment nor cure. This disease will be created in a laboratory and given a code name, such as "Q12" or something of the sort, and all of our troops will be inoculated against it before it is employed. The doctors assured us that almost any desired symptoms could be caused. The afflicted could be knocked flat for two days, upon which they would recover. They could go blind for two weeks and then regain their sight. They could be either killed or totally incapacitated at the choice of the using power, but it was impressed upon us that in a sense the biological weapon might be considered more humane than conventional weapons because the victims do not have to die. (Of course, some might die from heart attacks or side effects, but not many.) So here we are closing in on the twenty-first century, and while people still talk about biological warfare no one seems to know anything about it. Perhaps that is just as well. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 11 September 1995 ---- In Northern Europe during the Middle Ages the tradition of wergeld was widely observed. This is, bluntly, payment for murder. If one could pay off the victim's family, the case was closed. See how we have progressed, now that the Justice Department, while "admitting no guilt," is either paying or preparing to pay the Weaver family several million dollars for the life of their wife and mother, Vicki Weaver, who was shot in the face by Lon Horiuchi while holding her baby. Wergeld was supposed to have been abandoned in principle a thousand years ago, but here we are reintroducing it at the close of the twentieth century. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 11 September 1995 ---- I am sure you know about Schumer by now, but just in case you have not, here he is portrayed by Linda Bowles, who is one of our favorite columnists: "Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) exposed himself as a radical, left-wing extremist who is phobic about guns and sees a camouflaged member of the National Rifle Association lurking behind every bush. He is a conspiracy theorist, outspokenly paranoid, who firmly believes that the Waco hearings were some kind of insidious NRA plot to prevent him from confiscating all the guns in America, except, of course, those in the hands of the government." Schumer constitutes a blot on the democratic process. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 10 August 1995 ---- We hear that the Russian ninja engaged in the suppression of the Chechens have now taken to wearing face masks. I guess this is a trick they learned from the American cossacks - a sort of cultural exchange. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 9 August 1995 ---- No doubt you have heard that Diane Feinstein, among others, is seeking to abolish the Office of Civilian Marksmanship, on the grounds that civilians ought not to know how to shoot. The leftist elite obviously fears an armed citizenry, which is, of course, the sole barrier to tyranny. From the opposite point of view, what ought to be abolished is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, a rogue organization that was never needed in the first place and which has now developed into an uncontrolled instrument of harassment recruited from the dregs of the federal employment establishment. Let us by all means economize, but let us get our priorities straight. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 8 21 June 1995 ---- Curious that in light of this so-called fertilizer bomb in Oklahoma City our Glorious Leader in Washington made a point of offering the hospitality of the White House to the leader of the Irish Republican Army, which is the world's leading specialist in fertilizer bombs. This guy has a real talent for ineptitude. Or should we put it more precisely, gaucherie. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 8 21 June 1995 ---- More than two thousand years ago Aristotle opined that most of the human race has essentially the soul of a slave. A recent Associated Press poll recorded that fifty-four percent of those questioned seemed willing to trade liberty for security. The sad fact is that one cannot trade the one for the other. You can surrender your liberty, but what you get in turn is never a significant increase in your security. There are those in Israel who feel that they would like to trade "land for peace." That will not work either. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 7 16 May 1995 ---- So much has been written about the Oklahoma bomb that there is little point in adding to it. I can, however, extract the following from a recent letter to a friend which covers my feelings on the matter: A planted bomb is a despicable instrument, as any decent human being will attest. One may reflect, however, that more children were killed at Waco than at Oklahoma City. No sympathy must be shown to the perpetrators of either atrocity. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 7 16 May 1995 ---- Have you noticed that this weird group calling itself "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals" (PETA) is now agitating for a ban on the use of baboon marrow transplants into people? Whether such transplants are successful or not I cannot say, but I have observed baboons at some length and I can assure all and sundry that ethics are not their strong point. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 6 May 1996 ---- In observing our political scene, it is necessary to remember that in any democracy the absolute goal of the politician is power. Not money, power. This means that the only thing of any consequence to a politician is re-election. He will walk on eyeballs to be re-elected, and the only time that principle means anything to him is when it happens to coincide with what appears to him the best course towards his own re-election. Now the only way to get power is to take it from someone who already has it. Under our system, the theory is that the people at large are sovereign and have the power, but the only way the politician can achieve power is to take it from the people who already have it - or should have it. This makes for a permanent conflict in principle between the voter and his representative. This is not cheerful, but it is nonetheless a fact. Of the three systems of government enunciated by Aristotle - monarchy (tyranny), aristocracy (oligarchy), and polity (democracy) - polity (democracy) is the best, not because of its inherent virtue, but because of its basic lack of efficiency. An inefficient government is best for the people, simply because it is inherently incapable of doing anything well, and the less it does the better. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 2 February 1997 ---- Despite the best efforts of the hoplophobes, the U.S. remains way ahead of most other jurisdictions in the matter of firearms freedom. Recently an English jeweler, whose shop had been raided twenty times in twenty years, repelled borders by seizing the firearm of one of the bandits who broke into his shop. With the captured firearm he shot both of the bandits, though not fatally. This was in England, and, of course, he was immediately in a great deal of trouble. He was fined 2,000 pounds for "illegal use of a firearm," 100 more for possession of ammunition which was related to another weapon, plus 1,050 more pounds for prosecution costs. This whole affair is costing the jeweler over $6,000 in American money, plus his attorney's fee. Just how this sort of idiocy is justified in the eyes of the British courts is unclear, but though we find a lot of domestic jurisprudence pretty bad, such things can get worse. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 12 October 1995 ---- Herewith wisdom of one John Markoff, reprinted in the New York Times: "The American people must be willing to give up a degree of personal privacy in exchange for safety and security, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said." Louis Freeh, meet Benjamin Franklin! Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 2 31 January 1995 ---- Remember when Kennesaw, Georgia, made it mandatory for all households to be armed, and the media viewed this with dismay? Well note further that in Kennesaw, Georgia, where there used to be very little armed violence, there now seems to be none. What was it that Heinlein said about an armed society? Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 1 13 January 1995 ---- For the FBI to investigate Horiuchi is somewhat like Hitler's investigating Himmler. But no matter what Reno and Freeh and Rogers and Horiuchi may say, that case is not closed. Whether Horiuchi committed a procedural error at Ruby Ridge is not important. What he committed was a mortal sin, and that sin will find him out. The only appropriate demise for this man now would seem to be the traditional route of sepukku, with which he should be familiar. If he needs a proper knife I have one, which I will provide to him upon request. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 16 20 December 1994 ---- I have been criticized by referring to our federal masked men as "ninja," when in the view of the critic the traditional role of the ninja in Japan was to fight against oppression and tyranny. Let us note that almost no one ever resorts to force and violence unless he is convinced that his cause is right, but without going into that let us reflect upon the fact that a man who covers his face shows reason to be ashamed of what he is doing. A man who takes it upon himself to shed blood while concealing his identity is a revolting perversion of the warrior ethic. It has long been my conviction that a masked man with a gun is a target. I see no reason to change that view. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 16 20 December 1994 ---- Reading in a copy of the Journal of the National Rifle Association of the United Kingdom, sent to us by a British correspondent, we discover that for quite a long time aimed fire on the part of soldiers was held to be "illegal, immoral, and probably fattening." In the day of the Brown Bess the infantryman's weapon was employed in mass with an effect rather like that of a giant shotgun. The weapons themselves were so inaccurate that it was almost pointless to fit them with sights at all, but they were not supposed to be fired individually, but rather on command by the entire infantry unit. Blasts of musketry of this sort were quite effective as long as there was a suitable target available, preferably a similar unit of massed infantry standing within range at close order. Victory, of course, would go to that side which got the blast off first. When rifles appeared the capacity of the rifleman to pick out an individual enemy and deck him became apparent. This was considered to be a VBT (Very Bad Thing) in many military circles. Among other things, it placed the lives of officers in particular danger, which was considered to be an antisocial development. During the Peninsular War, for example, the matter came to a head: During the Peninsular War the British employed sharpshooters where they were used to great effect. During one seven-day period these marksman killed 500 officers and eight generals. This resulted in the order that rifleman were to be given no quarter if captured on the grounds that their fire was aimed, a practice that was considered unfair. Thus it was that for a particular set of circumstances if you set about killing your enemy on purpose you were held to be a war criminal, at least by the French Revolutionary Army. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 14 10 November 1994 ---- Since we are informed that these black ninja helicopters do not in fact exist, we may infer that if you shoot one down it does not count. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 13 27 October 1994 ---- This from an FBI agent who must obviously remain anonymous: I wasn't surprised when I heard that Horiuchi had killed Mrs. Weaver. We were in the same class at Quantico. The man was a robot. He would do anything to please his superiors. Well, Horiuchi is still at large. One wonders how much he pleased his superiors. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 13 27 October 1994 ---- Family member and full-time California cop Gabriel Suarez, who is gradually working up to his Ace Rating in police actions, contributes the following: Gun control is a band-aid, feeling good approach to the nation's crime problem. It is easier for politicians to ban something than it is to condemn a murderer to death or a robber to life in prison. In essence, 'gun control' is the coward's way out. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 12 27 September 1994 ---- The media insist that crime is the major concern of the American public today. In this connection they generally push the point that a disarmed society would be a crime-free society. They will not accept the truth that if you take all the guns off the street you still will have a crime problem, whereas if you take the criminals off the street you cannot have a gun problem. In the larger sense, however, the personal ownership of firearms is only secondarily a matter of defense against the criminal. Note the following from Thomas Jefferson: The strongest reason for the people to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against the tyranny of government. That is why our masters in Washington are so anxious to disarm us. They are not afraid of criminals. They are afraid of a populace which cannot be subdued by tyrants. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 5 May 1994 ---- Note that the infamous traitor, Aldridge Ames, had donated five thousand dollars of his Russian payoff to the Democratic National Committee. No comment! Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 5 May 1994 ---- Now it happens that our elected government, after a fifteen year hiatus, has resumed the destruction of 1911 45s, M1 Garands, 03s, and Springfield 22 Trainers. Note that this has nothing whatever to do with crime. This is aimed directly at obviating the armed citizenry which is historically the only guarantee of human liberty. Act on this at once. If you have not got a 1911, get one. If you have not got an 03, get one. If you have not got an Ml, get one. (If you can possibly afford it, get two.) Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 5 May 1994 ---- With all due respect and full apology to Mr. Lincoln, the following: Now we are entering the opening engagements of a great civil war, testing whether this nation, or any nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that free men bear arms, can long endure. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 4 22 March 1994 ---- Rumor has it that Sarah Brady is being put forward by the Shooting Industry Magazine as "saleswoman of the decade." It is quite obvious that Sarah has done more to boost the sale of personal arms than any person in recent memory, and she should be appropriately honored. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 4 22 March 1994 ---- Amid all the dismal news that we acquire daily about the state of the nation and the world, some dim but promising lights appear. For the first time since the reign of Roosevelt II, people are beginning to notice the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Much as liberals may laugh, that Article is still on the books. It establishes beyond any question that powers not granted to the U.S. government by the U.S. Constitution are specifically unlawful and need not be obeyed. Note this from the Sixteenth American Jurisprudence, Second Edition, Section 177: The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having formed in nature of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void and ineffective for any purpose, since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment and not merely from the date of decision so branding it. An unconstitutional law in legal contemplation is as inoperative as if it had never been passed. Such a statute leaves the question that it purports to settle just as it would be had the statute not been enacted. Since an unconstitutional law is void, the general principles follow that it imposes no duties, confers no rights, creates no office, bestows no power or authority on anyone, affords no protection and justifies no acts performed under it. No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 4 22 March 1994 ---- We learn from our friends in law enforcement that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), which we frequently refer to as the "BATmen," is now commonly termed "F Troop," by other members of the federal service - presumably because of their astonishing predilection to foul things up. Could be. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 3 March 1997 ---- There is a good side to everything, it appears. The recent series of cold snaps in Washington pretty well shut down the operation of the government for several days at a time. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 3 1 March 1994 ---- That curious trial of the survivors of the Waco atrocity suggests trying the Christians for irritating the lions. ("Your honor, he just kept hitting me on the fist with his face!") -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 2 31 January 1994 ---- We hear of an unfortunate woman who, during an nighttime asthma attack, confused the small handgun she kept under her pillow with an asthma inhaler and proceeded to relieve her symptoms. It was not a fatal mistake, partly because she used a 25 ACP, which everyone knows is not sufficient to clear sinuses. From John B. Hubbard of Bangor, Maine -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 2 31 January 1994 ---- The Republic is in very bad shape - probably the worst since 1776 - but it does us all well to remember that the principles of the Founding Fathers stand as sound and irrefutable today as yesterday. We must bear in mind that "they" cannot disarm us. They do not have the legal power, of course, but neither do they have the physical power. An army may be defeated by another army, but the people of a nation cannot be, as long as they are aware of their principles and maintain their determination to observe them. We hope, of course, that "they" never presume to try, because "they" simply cannot do it. What the American people need is the viscera to tell "them" No! God grant that we still have the courage! -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 2 31 January 1994 ---- Now that the media are doing their best to cover up the Waco atrocity, they have been able to downrate the news with the forensic pornography surrounding the Bobbitt case. In response to this, Dan Dennehy, the renowned knife maker who has long been one of the stalwarts of Orange Gunsite, will now offer a special instrument to be known as the "Dan Dennehy Dick Docker," featuring a serrated edge and a pink plastic hilt. He will have it on special order for uppity feminists as soon as it is available. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 2 31 January 1994 ---- Of course not all pundits are our enemies. Joe Sobran is a strong warrior on our side. Consider the following, extracted from his column appearing on 12 December in the Washington Times. Because the state can no longer protect us from crime, it wants to take away from us the means of protecting ourselves. This is the logic of gun control. In short, we - or our rulers, at any rate - now make law lawlessly. Bill Clinton wants to license all handguns in the United States. He affects not to know that the Second Amendment forbids the federal government to infringe our right to keep and bear arms. He doesn't ask, because he doesn't care, where the federal government gets the lawful power to require the licensing of guns. He thinks it has the actual political power to do it, and for him that is all that counts. So law-abiding citizens are left at a disadvantage - caught between a criminal class that disdains the law and a ruling class that disdains the Constitution. That is beautifully put and, we hope, widely read. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 1 1 January 1994 ---- From family member Bob Budz the following: "Big Brother is now here - and look, he is retarded!" -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 1 1 January 1994 ---- From our enemies in the media we learn that the passage of the Brady Bill, while admittedly a totally ineffectual measure, was nonetheless a victory because it diminished the power of the National Rifle Association. From our standpoint, it is hard to believe that it did. It made Congress, not the NRA, look silly. But mostly it made these hoplophobic news commentators look even sillier. These people remind us of the spoiled child who threatens to hold his breath until he turns blue if he does not get his way, whether or not his way makes any sense - even to him. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 1 1 January 1994 ---- This Russian patriot Zhirinovsky now claims that Russia should reclaim Finland, Poland, the Baltic states, and Alaska. Much as our State Department enjoys giving in on all points suggested by European claimants, I do not think we should let Zhirinovsky have Alaska, which is our national game preserve. On the other hand, in the true spirit of negotiation, maybe we should make him an offer. Chick Hastings suggests that we offer him the District of Columbia, New York City, and San Francisco. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 1 1 January 1994 ---- Now is the time for all good men to stock up on ammunition and deck the halls with boughs of holly. Merry Christmas To All and To All a Good Sight! -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 11 10 December 1993 ---- It was amusing, in a grim sort of way, to watch the hoplophobes accelerate the business of their feared foes, the gun dealers. The message delivered by the Brady Bunch was evidently, "Citizens, arm yourselves, the Clintons are coming! -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 11 10 December 1993 ---- The passage of the Brady foolishness was a foregone conclusion in Washington - despite its blatant unconstitutionality - as soon as we lost the election of `92, thus it comes as no surprise. What is really awful is the unblushing profession that while the bill itself will do nothing at all, it is still necessary to "make a statement," as if the legislators meant that they were going to do something. You and I will not be inconvenienced by any five day waiting period, since we already have our guns, as all proper members of the United States Militia must have. The idea that our lawmakers-can profit from doing something silly, and admitting that it is silly, makes one more than ever doubtful about the merit of the democratic process. Alcibiades pointed out that it would never work, and that was some four-hundred years before Christ. Perhaps he was right after all. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 11 10 December 1993 ---- We certainly have slid into some sort of slough, politically and intellectually, when Winchester is coaxed into removing an expanding bullet from its line of products. Expanding bullets have been available since this time last century at least. Apparently, the term "Black Talon" was unnerving to the wimps, but why in the name of common sense must we give the time of day to the wimp establishment! -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 11 10 December 1993 ---- The Federal agent who shot Vicki Weaver in the face, deliberately, while she was unarmed and holding her child is named Lon Horiuchi. Remember that name. He is still walking around loose. That man must eventually pay for his crime, here or hereafter. Lon Horiuchi. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 11 10 December 1993 ---- Pearl Harbor Day slipped by without much notice. I daresay a huge number of our population has never heard of Pearl Harbor and has no idea of what it is like to live in a nation of unified purpose. Apparently the Nips are playing it smart by entreating us to give up our guns. That would indeed be a proper revenge for their defeat. They could not destroy us in battle so they are now doing their best to destroy us politically by abrogating our constitution. They cannot accomplish this by themselves, but they are getting a lot of help from our own wimp culture. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 11 10 December 1993 ---- We encountered what may be the ultimate in chutzpah. Down at Whittington, we were shown a BATF baseball cap crediting the wearer with attendance at "The Waco Siege." Though we cannot believe it, it appears that at least some people in the nefarious organization are actually proud of what took place in Waco. One wonders if the KGB ever issued uniforms commemorating the massacre of the Katyn Forest or if the guards at Dachau or Buchenwald were issued commemorative T-shirts -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 10 15 November 1993 ---- We pray that it will not come to shooting in South Africa, but if it does - God forbid - consider who is likely to win between a group armed primarily with AK47s and no skill in their use and another group armed with sporting rifles and considerable skill in their use. Numbers would not matter particularly in such a confrontation. Formal armies can defeat other formal armies, and they can put down mobs of agitators, as in China. They cannot defeat a population completely armed with simple old-fashioned rifles. What the disarmers never recognize is that episodes like Tiananmen Square can never occur if every citizen maintains his own rifle in his house, as in Switzerland. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 10 15 November 1993 ---- Following is a sentence passed by Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County, Ohio, via Mike Royko: When you slithered out of your hole that day, and you spewed your venom all over this defenseless 12-year-old girl, you made this court's top 10 hit list. In a way, the best sentence this court could give would be no sentence at all, because if you left this courtroom I don't think you would be alive 10 minutes. You are nothing but a weed, a weed among wheat... And when we have a weed, it's my job to eradicate the weed, because if you don't you will choke the wheat. Therefore, I'm going to take you off the streets for just as long as I possibly can. It means you aren't even eligible for parole until you're 92. That leaves only one more count, aggravated robbery... You stole this little girl's bra as a souvenir, probably to brag about it to your friends later on. Well, I'm going to give you a souvenir of Trumbull County justice. And that is, you will receive a maximum sentence of 10 to 25 on the aggravated robbery for the stealing of that bra. And I hope that if you last 25 years in prison that you remember that you remember that souvenir." Get this scum out of here! From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 9 October 1993 ---- The interview with Gordon Liddy, back in D.C., was most pleasurable. He is a man of the same stamp as Sir Thomas More and Solzhenytsin, among others. The motto of such people is, "Do your worst, I do not coerce!" The human race is honored by such. "One man with courage makes a majority" Andrew Jackson -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 9 October 1993 ---- It is interesting to hear certain kinds of people insist that the citizen cannot fight the government. This would have been news to the men of Lexington and Concord, as well as the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. The citizen most certainly can fight the government, and usually wins when he tries. Organized national armies are useful primarily for fighting against other organized national armies. When they try to fight against the people, they find themselves at a very serious disadvantage. If you will just look around at the state of the world today, you will see that the guerillero has the upper hand. Irregulars usually defeat regulars, providing they have the will. Such fighting is horrible to contemplate, but will continue to dominate brute strength. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 9 October 1993 ---- Can anyone reading this paper come up with anything - any single act - that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has done that needed doing? Even if it were not suspected of committing atrocious acts against the people of this country - as it is now - it is not apparent to me that any of its other activities are in any way contributing to the welfare of the Republic. And yet, even without atrocities, it is costing us money. Here, if there ever was one, is the right place to retrench. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 7 29 September 1993 ---- It would appear that the media are desperately attempting to sweep Waco under the rug. Let us hope this takes more sweeping than they can handle. The success or failure of the National Health Plan or of NAFTA are trivial considerations compared to the menace of the federal ninja making war upon American citizens on no stronger grounds than suspicion of bad behavior. We are thankful for the policies of Colonel Bob Brown, publisher of Soldier of Fortune, who is determined not to let the matter drop. We simply must do something about these fat men with face masks and MP5's who shoot down unarmed citizens. Personally, I would not think that the American people would stand for this, but then I am a member of an older generation which took the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution with more than a grain of salt. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 7 29 September 1993 ---- It was interesting to observe the Attorney General coming forth to "accept full responsibility" for the atrocity at Waco. One wonders what that means. When one accepts responsibility, one accepts appropriate punishment for one's transgression. The Japanese have a long tradition of the proper means of accepting responsibility. It is conducted by means of a short, sharp knife. I have such a piece in my armory and I would be glad to part with it in a good cause, such as appropriate use by the Attorney General. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 3 1 July 1993 ---- ... we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in which it was set forth unmistakably for posterity that human rights are not granted by man but rather by God, and that when any government or institution threatens those rights it is the duty of the people to abolish it. That is an idea especially pungent at this stage of America's political devolution. -Jeff Cooper- Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1, No. 3 1 July 1993 ---- It has been suggested to me that we are very fortunate that our adversaries have not discovered the combat efficiency of the scout rifle. I do not think we have a problem here, because a hoplophobe can never discover the good qualities of any firearm since he does not want to think about firearms at all. The hoplophobe worries about buzz words like "assault-rifle" and "automatic-weapon," and can never accept the fact that the weapon is the man and the firearm is just the instrument in his hands. With this in mind it is pertinent to observe that several recent army recruits have been told that the enemy they are preparing to fight is not the English, or the Spanish, or the Germans, or the Vietnamese, or the Chinese - but rather the good old boys in rural America who constitute an armed militia. The question arises, of course, as to how the unorganized militia, no matter what their politics or determination, can stand up for an instant against the United States Army. Well, let us hope it never comes to that, but if the army is teaching it, we had better realize that they are. The atrocities of the ninja are certainly beating us into an unpleasantly confrontational society, but if worse comes to worse, I think that we can assume that the private citizen who owns, cleans, loads and shoots his own personal weapon is a considerably more serious antagonist than the trooper who has to turn his weapon back in every time he uses it. This is probably the principle reason why socialists never cease their attempts to disarm the private citizen. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 3 March 1997 ---- We were recently treated to a bizarre exchange between a hapless Englishman and some BATchick in some front office in Washington. Our English friend was inquiring about bringing his arms into the United States, and was told that he could not import a Peacemaker (Colt Single-action Army) because it had no "legitimate sporting purpose!" Now, apart from the fact that "legitimate sporting purpose" is a blatantly unconstitutional interpretation of the Second Amendment, it is apparent that these poor souls who are confined to the District of Columbia cannot keep up with the times. Clearly the girl involved had not heard of the proliferation of "Cowboy Action Shooting." I stuck my oar in to tell her that this sort of bureaucratic behavior gives ignorance a bad name. I guess I can expect the black helicopters any night now. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 5 April 1997 ---- The new concealed carry program in the State of Arizona has called for a great deal of hastily improvised education, and that, of course, has resulted in the publication of a number of training pamphlets with the level of excellence one might expect under these somewhat emergent conditions. A friend was recently subjected to one of these training programs and was shown a text which insists, "Do not load your pistol until you are ready to shoot." And further, "Always unload your pistol when you have finished shooting." A little thought please, Professor! These injunctions are the equivalent of saying, "Never wear a life-jacket unless you are sure your boat is going to sink." Or, "Never put on your armored vest unless you are sure you are going to be shot." Or, "Never fill your tank with gas until you are ready to drive." Until the handgun is recognized properly as a life-saving instrument, we can expect more of this sort of administrative garbage. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 3 22 February 1995 ---- As we understand it, it was the aim of Karl Marx to achieve a classless society. What the Clintons have achieved, however, is a classless White House. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 5 April 1997 ---- A recent report from Africa informs us that a Bantu hunter of our acquaintance was recently set upon after dark by an armed robber. Our friend cut him down neatly and went on about his business. Naturally, I am not going to furnish any details about the nationality or locality of our friend. In cases like this, the less the authorities know, the better. Years ago in our Balsas expedition we were forcefully informed by our permit issuing authorities in Mexico City that if we had occasion to knock off a bandit, we were by no means to report the matter. Just get the body out of sight in the bushes and get on with your business. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 6, No. 4 April 1998 ---- I am by no means sure that legalizing drugs would be a good policy, though there are some very good thinkers in the country who hold just that view. However, in view of the fact that the so-called drug war is used to justify the excesses of the federal ninja, it might be proposed that if we abolish the drug war, we could abolish the ninja too. The thing that keeps the drug trade going is the enormous amount of money involved. We must remember that both narcotics and stimulants were readily available over the counter during the Victorian period. We had very few junkies, and as far as I can tell, we had no ninja. One cannot turn the clock back, but we might give serious thought to some feasible means of turning it forward. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries ---- We have discovered a proper use for this communication system newly termed "ebonics." We discovered that when we asked the question, "What is Windows 95?," it sounded wrong; and when we changed that to, "What are Windows 95?," that also sounded wrong. By using ebonics we can say, "What be Windows 95?," and now we are all right. (We asked someone who knows about such things just exactly, "What be Windows 95?," and his answer was, "Windows 95 be cooool.") Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 5 April 1997 ---- Tony Blair, the new Prime Minister of England, has announced officially that his government's grotesque gun laws are not expected to have any effect upon crime, but rather to eliminate what he calls "the gun culture." If he succeeds in eliminating the gun culture in Britain, he will presumably feel good. Isn't that sweet? Well, we ought not to jeer too loudly at the Brits. Just look at what we have elected! Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 9 August 1997 ---- Note that the state of Louisiana has opened the season on "car jackers" - under proper controls, of course. The consensus of the legislature was that if someone chooses to approach a driver, gun in hand, that is sufficient reason to assume that he is a legitimate target. One commentator wailed that this amounts to no less than "a license to kill." Well, sure. Car jackers are not yet an endangered species, but it is high time that we made them so. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 10 September 1997 ---- Way back when I was a student at Command and Staff School, the class was treated to an all day session by a group of white-coated biology professors who told us all about the limitations and capabilities of "biological warfare." This session was very secret - evidently to the point where no one learned anything from it. The professors in this case informed us that if biological weapons were to be used, no existing affliction would be involved - not anthrax or bubonic plague or typhus or anything else that anyone had seen before. The agent used would be a synthetic disease created in a laboratory and given a code name, such as "Q27." All members of the attacking population could be immunized against it, but the defenders would have no way of combating it since they would not know what it was. The professors further pointed out that the symptoms of the disease could be manufactured to order and need not be permanently serious. The affliction would have to last only long enough to allow ground victory by the attacking force. These professors pointed out to the class how humane that was. Well, maybe, but anybody who chooses to use anthrax as a weapon does not understand biological warfare. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 6, No. 3 March 1998 ---- We ran into a pleasant interlude up in Vermont which emphasized the wisdom and social utility of the Vermont firearms laws. It seems that some foreigner from down below was in a supermarket when he observed one of the customers wearing a pistol openly. He got all flustered and immediately called 911. In due course a cop showed up and located the complainer, who pointed out the "culprit." The cop agreed that the man really was carrying a pistol, and then he asked what the problem was. I suppose the poor fellow rushed off out the door and went back where he came from. Obviously the state of Vermont was too dangerous for him. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 6, No. 3 March 1998 ---- Further nasty news from the nasty United Nations Organization: One Eric Kibuka, who delights in the title of "Director of the United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders," has gone on record to the effect that "The international community (sic) has decided that firearms regulation is at the core of democracy and good government." The connection between firearms regulation and democracy is about as obvious as the connection between traffic regulation and quail hunting, but that is not likely to trouble a U.N. official. As we have all noticed, the cry of the modern left seems to be "To hell with the facts. It's the gut reaction that matters." Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 6, No. 1 January 1998 ---- ... Which puts me in mind of the old aphorism to the effect that "If you're not a socialist at 20, you have no heart. If you're still a socialist at 30, you have no head." To that I would like to add the following: "If you do not reach the age of 60 without becoming a card carrying curmudgeon, you have just not been paying attention." Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 6, No. 4 April 1998 ---- And now BATman McGaw proclaims that home schooling turns the home into a school, and therefore makes that home off-limits to personally owned firearms. I always thought that the BATmen were of a different species, and this discovery confirms my suspicion. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 6, No. 4 April 1998 ---- Taking a long view of history, we may say that anyone who lays down his arms deserves whatever he gets. Col. Jeff Cooper ---- Those who insist that the citizen has no chance against the army must be pondering the situation in Chechnya. Of course the Russians will win, if they have not done so already, but the Chechens are still there in the hills and their efforts so far have almost upset the Russian government. When it comes to pass that citizens must take up arms against their own government, the results are uniformly dreadful, but the outcome is not necessarily foregone. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 2 31 January 1995 ---- Note that Finland's five million people own four million personal firearms. Just wait till Congressman Schumer finds out about that! Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 2 31 January 1995 ---- No, Janet, the Waco case is not closed. We have passed judgement upon the defenders, but it now remains to bring their attackers to justice. Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 3 1 March 1994 ---- Bumper sticker: Only criminals, dictators and democrats fear armed citizens. From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, Vol. 1, No. 6, 2 September 1993 ---- The war on terrorism doesn't resemble other wars with fairly defined battlefields. Today's enemy could be as close as the person sitting next to you on an airplane. Michael Cousineau August 27, 2006 Union Leader http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Training+against+air+terror&articleId=ce8d6398-d917-47dd-8090-a7d2cc79be98 New Hampshire ---- The real cure for our environmental problems is to understand that our job is to salvage Mother Nature. We are facing a formidable enemy in this field. It is the hunters... and to convince them to leave their guns on the wall is going to be very difficult. Jacques Yves Cousteau ---- ...human society is too diverse, national passion too strong, human aggressiveness too deep-seated for the peaceful and the warlike atom to stay divorced for long. We cannot embrace one while abhorring the other; we must learn, if we want to live at all, to live without both. - Jacques-Yves Cousteau - ---- The gun control lobby has done a pretty good job of misleading people. They've been predicting doomsday since these laws started. For some, it took 46 states to approve it to see that it hasn't materialized. Chris Cox National Rifle Associations chief lobbyist Answering the question, "So what took Kansas so long to pass a concealed weapons law?" Kansas to allow hidden weapons, March 24, 2006 Kansas City Star http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/14172892.htm ---- I'm not surprised by this. They know that its bad politics to be on the wrong side of the gun issue. The political graveyard is full of gun control supporters and they are trying to avoid the same fate. Chris Cox April 13, 2008 The chief lobbyist of the NRA referring to Hillary Clinton claiming she supports the Second Amendment. http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/nra-lobbyist-de.html ---- The mayor's answer is an elitist national campaign on the backs of law-abiding gun owners. Believe me, the rest of the country does not want Mayor Bloomberg's elitist gun policies, because they don't work. Chris Cox NRA April 26, 2006 CBS News Big City Mayors Huddle On Gun Control http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/26/politics/main1546880.shtml ---- As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms. -- Tench Coxe ---- Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom? Congress shall have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American ....The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or the state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the People. Tench Coxe Pennsylvania Gazette Feb. 20, 1788. ---- Osama bin Laden and his fellow jihadis may well have figured out that the only way that they can continue to feel good about their place in the world is by reducing the West to the same level of desperate impoverishment as the Arab world. This also explains the left's alliance with bin Laden almost from the beginning--they also share this resentment that the West isn't desperately poor (but not enough to give up their private jets and Ferraris). Clayton Cramer September 3, 2006 A Dark Thought as We Approach The Fifth Anniversary of 9/11 http://www.claytoncramer.com/weblog/2006_09_03_archive.html#115734094221724991 ---- Professor Cornell is visiting us from a parallel universe, where Whig political thought never developed, and no one in the Revolutionary and early Republic periods ever feared governmental oppression. Clayton Cramer http://www.claytoncramer.com/weblog/2006_09_17_archive.html#115898623121452860"> Saul Cornell Is Suddenly No Longer a Partisan on Gun Control September 22, 2006 ---- If I could have one wish fulfilled right now, it would be for someone to get fusion electricity production operational. Cheap electricity would, in a decade or two, make oil irrelevant. The Arab nations would go back to being Bedouins--and we could turn that part of the world into a giant nature preserve, as a reminder of what happens when you get stuck in the twelfth century, and refuse to move forward. Clayton Cramer Middle Eastern Oil Dependence http://www.claytoncramer.com/weblog/2006_01_29_archive.html#113881293225114672 February 01, 2006 ---- This is a war of civilizations. There is no room for negotiation. Islamofascism needs to be completely and utterly destroyed, both in the death of its adherents, and in the humiliation of a political theory that asserts it has a moral superiority that justifies being in complete control of the entire world. Clayton Cramer May 11, 2006 United 93 ---- ...it does seem as though when you want corrupt politicians by the bushel, Democrats are a more reliable supplier. Clayton Cramer September 10, 2007 New Jersey Corruption http://www.claytoncramer.com/weblog/2007_09_09_archive.html#4353459433628063312 ---- Shooter groups, like the Sporting Shooters Association, who want to break our gun laws; take away gun registration; take away limits on hand guns; are in my opinion the most anti-social and dangerous type of groups that Australia has recently seen outside of course of certain criminal drug-related gangs. John Crook Gun Control Australia's president http://ssaasa.org.au/alerts2.htm ---- Guns and puberty are a dangerous mix. Targeting juniors increases the likelihood of gun addiction. John Crook Gun Control Australia's president Shooters turn recruiters to keep young guns firing http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/shooters-turn-recruiters-to-keep-young-guns-firing/2007/09/01/1188067438592.html ---- The goal of CSGV is the orderly elimination of the private sale of handguns and assault weapons in the United States. CSGV seeks to ban handguns and assault weapons from importation, manufacture, sale and transfer by the general American public, with reasonable exceptions made for police, military, security personnel, gun clubs where guns are secured on club premises, gun dealers trading in antique and collectable firearms kept and sold in inoperable condition. Hunting weapons, such as shotguns and rifles would be unaffected by these bans, because they do not pose a large threat to the American public the way handguns and assault weapons do. Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) 1000 16th Street, N.W. Suite 603 Washington, DC 20036 Phone: (202) 530-0340 From: http://www.gunfree.org/csgv/csgvsumm.htm (as of 1/6/99) ---- An individual would need intimate knowledge of firearms and microstamping, plus the appropriate tools, in order to render the technology ineffective. These tools are certainly not "household items," nor would the common street criminal be expected to have the knowledge necessary to defeat the technology. [...] One can also imagine the scene at a shooting range as criminals or gang members wander around and gather spent cartridge cases in bags. Conspicuous? One would certainly think so, and Americans should expect the owners of such ranges to engage in more responsible business practices. Coalition to Stop Gun Violence & the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence Microstamping Technology: Precise and Proven http://www.csgv.org/atf/cf/%7B23E96A35-4C75-41EE-BDDD-4BD3A3B59010%7D/CSGV%20Microstamping%20Memo%20Jan%202008.pdf ---- Americans may like guns because they were reminiscent of the smell of outdoors, military heroism, the intensity of the hunt or merely because they are fascinated by the finely machined metal parts. Maybe the origin of a gun speaks of history; maybe the gun makes a man's home seem to him less vulnerable; maybe these feelings are more justified in the country than in the city; but, above all, many of us believe that these feelings are a man's own business and need not be judged by the Department of the Treasury or the Department of Justice. Samuel Cummings ---- Self-interest has no place in society. Sandy Cuney Handgun Control Incorporated 5/6/94 ---- Those who believe that individual rights are more important than public safety often side with reduced gun control laws. On the other hand, those that think other individuals are unable to control their own behaviors, and therefore the law needs to influence the gun supply, would certainly side with increased government control of firearms. Dan Cunningham Strive For Balance In Gun Control http://media.www.dailycampus.com/media/storage/paper340/news/2007/11/30/Commentary/Strive.For.Balance.In.Gun.Control-3125225.sh tml ---- They are not on the side of the patriots. They are on the side of the criminals. Andrew M. Cuomo Housing Secretary July 27, 2000 Regarding gun manufactures advertisements claiming they were supporting American values by manufacturing and selling firearms. From: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/072800nra-guns.html ---- The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt. -John Philpot Curran- Literature The Right of Election of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, speech, 10 July 1790, Dublin. ---- ...the recent signs of violent times occasion an opportunity for broadening our collective sense of what ''rights'' should be in terms of our social consciousness. Our political and judicial discourse would benefit from moving beyond a purely libertarian view of rights, which emphasizes freedom from governmental coercion or constraint, to incorporate also a dignitarian view of rights, which promotes freedom for the good of each other and for society as a whole. Thomas F. Dailey May 11, 2008 Let's think carefully about gun 'rights,' society http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/all-bottom_col.6397592may11,0,977437.story ---- Every time we seize an illegal gun, we reduce the probability that someone will be killed, injured or unfortunately robbed at gunpoint. Mayor Richard Daley Daley: Democratic control could lead to stricter gun laws http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/01/04/news/state/doc459c961b9d327857796107.txt January 4, 2007 Northwest Herald ---- Later, I spent several years touring the world, often in places where atrocity had recently been, or still was being, committed. In Central America, I witnessed civil war fought between guerrilla groups intent on imposing totalitarian tyranny on their societies, opposed by armies that didn't scruple to resort to massacre. In Equatorial Guinea, the current dictator was the nephew and henchman of the last dictator, who had killed or driven into exile a third of the population, executing every last person who wore glasses or possessed a page of printed matter for being a disaffected or potentially disaffected intellectual. In Liberia, I visited a church in which more than 600 people had taken refuge and been slaughtered, possibly by the president himself (soon to be videotaped being tortured to death). The outlines of the bodies were still visible on the dried blood on the floor, and the long mound of the mass grave began only a few yards from the entrance. In North Korea I saw the acme of tyranny, millions of people in terrorized, abject obeisance to a personality cult whose object, the Great Leader Kim Il Sung, made the Sun King look like the personification of modesty. Theodore Dalrymple Autumn 2004 The Frivolity of Evil http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_4_oh_to_be.html ---- San Francisco voters are smart and believe in sensible gun control. Chris Daly San Fransisco Supervisor On Proposition H which passed 58% to 42% and makes it illegal to possess, buy, sell, distribute and manufacture firearms and ammunition in the city. November 9, 2005 From http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/09/BAG9RFKD1C82.DTL [Now you know what they mean when they talk about "sensible gun control." -- Joe] ---- I consider the ownership of arms not only a right, but the duty of a free people to themselves and future generations. "Dan" in Pennsylvania "Armed America" page 60. http://www.amazon.com/Armed-America-Portraits-Owners-Their/dp/0896895432/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-2965707-2788815?ie=UTF8&s=books&qi d=1187881102&sr=8-1 ---- When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it. -Clarence Darrow- E-mail ---- We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man, with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origins. - Charles Darwin - ---- False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutory pleasure in proving their falseness; and when this is done, one path towards error is closed and the path to truth is often at the same time opened. - Charles Darwin - ---- While I try to be up-front in all my dealings with people, I attempt to avoid being outright rude, so here's a translation for you smokers who light up in front of me: --If my eyebrows shoot up and I say, `What? You smoke?' Translation: `Wow, I really misjudged you. I had you pegged for an intelligent and responsible person.'... --If I don't say anything. Translation: `Well, that just confirms my suspicions. Idiot.' --CDR Cindy M. Davidson, Commanding Officer the U.S. Naval Support Activity La Maddalena, Sardegna, Italy, in the base newsletter La Rivista. ---- Democracy is that form of government where everyone gets what the majority deserves. James Dale Davidson ---- These are reasonable claims. They will involve a lot of work, and there may be some initial skepticism from some judges and jurors. But that's just the kind of skepticism you saw initially with tobacco. As [the cities] work on it, I think they'll find paydirt. Richard Daynard Tobacco litigation expert Referring to Boston Suit against gun manufactures. From http://www1.jointogether.org/gv/wire/news/reader.jtml?Object_ID=256370 (as of 12/17/98) ---- There was not one [abortion doctor] who, at some point in the questioning, did not say, "This is murder." -Magda Denes- Literature Abortion: the Silent Holecaust ---- ---- Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy. John Derbyshire National Review ---- Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of safety hazard don't see the danger of the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like. Alan Dershowitz Quoted in Dan Gifford The Conceptual Foundations of Anglo-American Jurisprudence in Religion and Reason 62 TENN. L. REV. 759 (1995) ---- Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. Denis Diderot ---- The Liberals are the flying saucers of politics. No one can make head nor tail of them and they never are seen twice in the same place. John G. Diefenbaker ---- If there ever comes a time when I have to defend my life, I wouldn't trust that to anybody else -- no matter what oath they took or what contract they signed. I came to America from Brazil. The Second Amendment, I think, is one of the best things about this country. Diego Pennsylvania Armed America--Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes Page 48 ---- Nobody, not even Hillary Clinton, can shoot a boomer at twenty paces and not grin like a rabid hyena afterwards. dipnut -at- isntapundit.com http://isntapundit.com/?date=20050505#dipnut_064447 May 05, 2005 ---- A billion here, and a billion there, and pretty soon it adds up to real money. -Senator Everett Dirksen- ---- When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken. Benjamin Disraeli British politician (1804 - 1881) ---- If a gun bill will pass because of the politics of a situation, you must see to it that its burdens are imposed upon a man because of a criminal background and not because he is an ordinary citizen and perhaps poor. Gen. James H. Doolittle ---- ...the Second Amendment is not for killing little ducks and leaving Huey and Dewey and Louie without an aunt and uncle. It is for hunting politicians, like [in] Grozny, [or back in] 1776, when they take your independence away! -Bob Dornan- E-mail Congressional Record, 25 January, 1995 1/25/95 ---- If you had to choose between saving The Lying Bastard of Pennsylvania Avenue from drowning in a vat of steaming bubbling pig shit and taking a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph... ...what f-stop would you use? Inquiring minds want to know -Ward Dorrity- Friday, December 04, 1998 2:49 PM SOC Constitutional Infringement Issues Microsoft Public Folder ---- My weapons acquisition doctrine is driven in part by what I'm likely to find when I when shopping at the Dead UN trooper/Gun Confiscation Police Sporting Goods store. That pretty much comes down to M14, M16, HK MP5 and what not. -Ward Dorrity- November 20, 1998 10:53 AM Microsoft Gun Club Public Folder ---- The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedoms. William O. Douglas ---- The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people. William O. Douglas ---- Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance. William O. Douglas ---- The American Government is premised on the theory that if the mind of man is to be free, his ideas, his beliefs, his ideology, his philosophy must be placed beyond the reach of government. -William O. Douglas- ---- The right to revolt has sources deep in our history. William O. Douglas ---- When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the exercise of a citizen's constitutional rights it acts lawlessly and the citizen can take matters into his own hands and proceed on the basis that such a law is no law at all. William O. Douglas ---- At the constitutional level where we work, 90 percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections. William O. Douglas ---- When viewed from a national perspective, the right to keep and bear arms is not an archaic right. The right to arms is deeply rooted in our nation's tradition and history. The Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791. The earliest guarantees to arms were adopted in 1776 by Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The most recent guarantee was adopted by Wisconsin in 1998. Since 1945, twenty one (21) states have adopted or readopted the right to bear arms in their state constitutions. Presently, forty-four (44) states have a guarantee to arms. The people have spoken in support of the right to arms. It is a mainstream right that is still valued in the 21st Century, and it is a vital part of the Constitution. Robert Dowlut February 2008 Brief for amicus curiae American Legislative Exchange Council in support of respondent. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07290bsasAmericanLegislative%20Exchange.pdf ---- Sadly enough, overthrowing the government is exactly what this country needs. [...] As George Orwell put it in 1984 - "If there was hope, it must lie in the proles..." dragonwolf September 1, 2007 The New Revolution http://www.progressiveu.org/204154-the-new-revolution ---- Science distinguishes a man of honor from one of those athletic brutes whom undeservedly we call heroes. - Dryden - ---- Americans have a very low tolerance for differentness, whether it's racial, ethnic, or sexual. Despite our rhetoric about individualism, we are a desperately conforming people. Martin Duberman ---- I do not believe in people owning guns. Guns should be owned only by the police and military. I am going to do everything I can to disarm this state. Michael Dukakis Then governor of Massachusetts, 1986 ---- Before gun control, about 800 Canadians were killed annually by firearms. After gun control, about 800 are killed annually by firearms. Simply put, gun control does not save lives. At the same time, about 2,500 die annually due to falls. Yes, the simple ladder kills more Canadians than firearms, but you don't see politicians clamouring to register ladders. This information was obtained from the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Ironically, this office in Ottawa is across the hall from the gun control bureau. If Ottawa's actions were based on a sincere desire to save human life, then the $2 billion could have been better spent on safety training and health care -- but unfortunately safety training and health care isn't as glamorous as gun control. Based on this, I must therefore conclude that politicians' support for gun control is not based on a desire to save human life, but instead a cynical platform to obtain votes to stay in office. Jay Dumas Prince George Thursday, 15 November 2007, 01:00 PST Gun control shot down http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104229&Itemid=264 ---- It says something, I think, that Muslims are trying to do what the Nazis refused to. Kim du Toit November 7, 2005 http://www.thenationofriflemen.com/nor/index.php/rant/single/translation/ Regarding the current unpleasantness in France--after a short history lesson on the Nazi occupation of and withdrawal from Paris. ---- The difficulty here has been to persuade the citizens to keep arms, not to prevent them from being employed for violent purposes. Dwight "Travels in New England" ---- Every minute, throughout the world, more than 1.3 million dollars are spent for military purposes. During the same minute, 70 children die in the poor countries, many of them as a result of hunger and malnutrition. - Luis Echeverria - ---- We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything. - Thomas Edison - ---- Our analysis of the current stalemate in the national debate over gun control has led the Ed Fund to believe that activists must challenge the idea that guns protect freedom and democracy. We have begun to fuel a debate among academics, journalists, progressive leaders, and the general public over the relationship between guns and the values that define us as Americans. By demonstrating how the ?insurrectionist? philosophy of the National Rifle Association has helped to build and sustain the conservative movement, the Ed Fund hopes to drive a wedge between the highly partisan and ideologically extreme leaders of gun rights organizations and moderate gun owners, as well as the non-gun owning public. We believe this strategy will give policy makers the best chance of enacting sound, progressive gun laws at the federal and state level that will ultimately save lives. Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence Objectives for Fiscal Year Beginning 01/01/2007 http://partners.guidestar.org/fidelity2/controller/searchResults.gs?action_gsReport=1&npoId=308210 ---- If you want to try and impose the Fairness Doctrine, then just admit you're not a big believer in capitalism and the free marketplace of ideas. Cam Edwards June 27, 2007 The Nanny Doctrine http://www.camedwards.com/2007/06/27/the-nanny-doctrine/ ---- This is an anti-gun report bought and paid for by an anti-gun foundation, assembled by anti-gunners from the Joyce Foundation, Harvard, and the Violence Policy Center. I've seen more serious studies written by Carrot Top and Larry the Cable Guy. [...] They're officially parodies of themselves. Cam Edwards September 19, 2007 What A Tangled Web They Weave http://www.camedwards.com/2007/09/19/what-a-tangled-web-they-weave/ ---- Hell is paved with the skulls of unbaptized children. . . [Damned infants are] young vipers and [to God] infinitely more hateful than vipers. -Jonathan Edwards- ---- Hundreds of millions of Kalashnikovs, M-16s and other automatic rifles were stored during the Cold War and these stores are leaking all over the world with disastrous consequences. It's not tanks or big weapons that kill, it's small arms. We cannot ban small arms such as revolvers, pistols and other light weapons that the police, security guards and hunters legally carry all over the world... We want to build a global network of like-minded NGOs and governments with the aim to create new standards to control small arms transfers which will be as effective as the regulations covering big arms. Jan Egeland, Head of the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers and former deputy foreign minister under Norway's former Labour government, interviewed by Reuters December 19, 1997. From: http://www.prepcom.org/low/pc7/index.html#5 as of 01/07/99 ---- Atomic energy has created a new world in which balance-of-power politics have become utterly meaningless. Mankind must give up war in the Atomic Era. What is at stake is the life or death of humanity. - Albert Einstein - ---- Force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels. - Albert Einstein - ---- The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift towards unparalled catastrophe. - Albert Einstein - ---- Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense-experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought... The sense experiences are the given subject matter. But the theory that shall interpret them is man-made... hypothetical, never completely final, subject to question and doubt. - Albert Einstein - ---- "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein ---- Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. -Albert Einstein- ---- Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom. Albert Einstein ---- The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the Determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are constitutional rights secure. -Albert Einstein- ---- The belief that it is possible to achieve security through armaments on a national scale is, in the present state of military technology, a disastrous illusion. - Albert Einstein - ---- As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable. - Albert Einstein - ---- I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth might be killed, but enough men capable of thinking, and enough books, would be left to start again, and civilization could be restored. - Albert Einstein - ---- Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thoughts in clear form. - Albert Einstein - ---- The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men... it is easier to denature plutonium that to denature the evil spirit in man... Man's skills have outstripped his morals... - Albert Einstein - ---- The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax. -- Albert Einstein ---- My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. - Albert Einstein - ---- I want to know how God created this world. I want to know his thoughts. The rest are details. - Albert Einstein - ---- If my theory of Relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German, and Germany will declare that I am a Jew. - Albert Einstein - ---- Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. - Albert Einstein - ---- Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in a final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed - those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone - it is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the houses of its children. - D. Eisenhower - ---- I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than are governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it. - D. Eisenhower - ---- If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom. Dwight Eisenhower ---- Public opinion wins wars. Dwight David Eisenhower 1809-1969 General 34th President of the United States ---- Every step we take towards making the State our Caretaker of our lives, by that much we move toward making the State our Master. Dwight Eisenhower ---- We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it. - Dwight D. Eisenhower - ---- After all the ingenuity displayed in the development of nuclear power, we would demonstrate unbelievable incompetence if we were suddenly to lose confidence in our ability to cope with the problem of proliferation. - S. Eklund - ---- ...and there the Church was silent when we talked about ... [unintelligible] ... the first 400 years black people had their freedom aborted, and the Church said nothing. The way of life for the Native American was aborted; the Church was silent. We attempted to eradicate a whole race of people through the Holocaust, and the Church was silent. Women had no right to vote for years. We ask why. Why do these things go on? ... [unintelligible] ... Any time when the right of choice is taken away from all of us and put into the hands of a few, these are the kinds of things that will happen, over and over again. Look at who's fighting the pro-choice movement; a celibate, male-dominated Church ... -Joycelyn Elders- Speech To pro-abortion rights rally, January 1992 ---- Abortion was the single most important factor in the significant decrease in neonatal mortality between 1964 and 1977. -Joycelyn Elders- Speech Testimony before the Senate Labor and Human Resource Committee May 23, 1990 ---- Poverty and ignorance and the Bible-Belt mentality are responsible for the rise in teen pregnancy in Arkansas. -Joycelyn Elders- Periodical NATIONAL REVIEW 4/26/93 ---- If Medicaid does not pay for abortions, does not pay for family planning, but pays for pre-natal care and delivery, that's saying: I'll pay for you to have another good, healthy slave. -Joycelyn Elders- Periodical WASHINGTON POST, February 16, 1993 2/16/93 ---- I would hope that we would provide them (prostitutes) Norplant so they could still use sex if they must buy their drugs. [NORPLANT IS THE UNDER-THE-SKIN CONTRACEPTIVE IMPLANT] -Joycelyn Elders- Television CNBC television program "Talk Live", June 19, 1992 ---- Abortion has had an important, and positive, public health benefit. -Joycelyn Elders- Speech Testimony before the Senate Labor and Human Resource Committee May 23, 1990 ---- Birth, Copulation, and Death. That's all the facts when you come to brass tacks. -T. S. Elliot - ---- What is a communist? One who has yearnings For equal division of unequal earnings. Idler or bungler, or both, he is willing To fork out his copper and pocket a shilling. -Ebenezer Elliott- ---- In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps. When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it. -Philip Elmer-Dewitt- Periodical Who Should Keep the Keys?, TIME, Mar. 14 1994 ---- Reno tells us that the weapon is totally safe, the finger was off the trigger. I now know I'll never need a trigger lock if I just keep my finger off the trigger. "Lee Enfield" Regarding the raid the took Elian from his relatives and back in the hands of his Cuban father. ---- Computers and the internet are a far bigger problem for the government than they are for the individual. Eric Engstrom October 2003 ---- War is delightful to those who have no experience in it. - Desiderius Erasmus - ---- To believe regulation of anything by government automatically extends free will is a delusion. Anthony Evans April 30, 1998 SOC Libertarian Discussion at Microsoft. ---- The government deficit is the difference between the amount of money the government spends and the amount it has the nerve to collect. -Sam Ewing- Periodical RDQQ ---- We won't copy you any more, making planes to catch up with your planes, missiles to catch up with your missiles. We'll take asymmetrical means with new scientific principles available to us. Genetic engineering could be a hypothetical example. Things can be done for which neither side could find defenses or countermeasures, with very dangerous results. If you develop something in space, we could develop something on Earth. These are not just words. I know what I am saying. - Valentin Falin - ---- The argument that making contraceptives available to young people would prevent teen pregnancies is ridiculious. That's like offering a cookbook as a cure to people who are trying to lose weight. -Rev. Jerry Falwell- ---- I listen to the feminists and all these radical gals -- most of them are failures. They've blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of these feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they're mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They're sexist. They hate men -- that's their problem. -Rev. Jerry Falwell- ---- Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein November 18, 1993 Associated Press ---- Of course, we also urge the Court to reject the invitation of Petitioners to read a fundamental Constitutional right stated in plain English in the text out of the Constitution altogether. The American people can read, and they can see that unlike some of the other rights found by the Court on the basis of complex reasoning, the Constitutional text forthrightly promises that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." No amount of artful linguistic acrobatics or fanciful historical tales can rub those plain words out of the text. We respectfully submit that the rights clearly stated in The Bill of Rights should be read broadly and vigorously enforced, rather than minimized to suit a particular ideology. Peter J. Ferrara February 2008 Amicus curiae brief of the American Civil Rights Union in support of respondents. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacAmerCvlRight.pdf ---- Miracle owes its origin to the negation of thought. -Ludwigh Feuerbach- ---- Wherever morality is based on theology, wherever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established. -Ludwigh Feuerbach- ---- Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against. W. C. Fields ---- I'd like to believe that the anti's are emotional, but I'm cynical enough to think that their ultimate leadership is driven by a cold desire for power and a grandiose need to alter the architecture of society. ... The emotionalism is their rhetorical voice, which they have selected as the best way to move the public to their attitudes and beliefs. -Sean Flynn- 5/14/98 ---- What typically gets lost, and lost deliberately, is the meaning of the word 'compromise'. In a compromise, both sides gain or lose bargaining points in a mutually acceptable, if not optimal fashion. In the gun control debate, the meaning of compromise is twisted to, "Okay, we'll only take half your guns, this time." The pro-RKBA folks are never even offered anything in return. This is a variation of the slippery slope that I call "Zeno's Paradox of Lost Rights". As with the paradox of motion, the remaining scope of the Second Amendment is progressively halved, and halved again. The illusion is that we never lose the right, because there is always the remaining half. The Theory of Limits suggests otherwise. -Sean Flynn- 6/15/98 ---- The author lives in a flatland where self-reliance is in an inaccessible direction called 'up'. Sean Flynn 3/30/98 In reference to a rabid anti-gunner. ---- Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper Larry Flynt ---- Politics is my hobby. Smut is my vocation. Larry Flynt ---- It is a historical constant that the strong rule the weak, and any shade of liberty enjoyed by the weak is nothing more than the benevolence of the strong. You need guns because the world is full of the strong, and not all of them are benevolent. John Fogh Insights Self Defense Instructor April 13, 1999 Microsoft Gun Club Email Folder ---- Nothing says, "Please don't rape me." like multiple jacketed hollowpoints. John Fogh Insights Self Defense Instructor February 23, 1999 Microsoft Gun Club Email Folder ---- The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. Anatole France ---- Registration may frighten me into buying a gun. Since lists will get into criminal hands, those of us who are armed will become targets of gun thieves, while the unarmed among us will become sitting ducks for all thieves. On balance, I'd rather have a gun." Diane Francis, June 5, 1995 issue of Maclean's ---- Modern totalitarianisms have been a stark reminder, but did not newly teach, that the kicked-in door is the symbol of a rule of fear and violence fatal to institutions founded on respect for the integrity of man. FRANKFURTER, J. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 365 U.S. 167 Monroe v. Pape CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 39 Argued: November 8, 1960 --- Decided: February 20, 1961 ---- 'Tis a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own. Benjamin Franklin ---- You can not legislate morality, but you must regulate behavior. -Benjamin Franklin- ---- Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power. -Benjamin Franklin- ---- ...a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles...is absolutely necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty and keep a government free. Ben Franklin ---- Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature. Ben Franklin ---- Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. Ben Franklin ---- When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. Ben Franklin ---- Where liberty dwells, there is my country. Ben Franklin ---- God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country. Ben Franklin ---- This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins. Ben Franklin ---- There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth: the first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors-- this is robbery; the second by commerce, which is generally cheating; the third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man received a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry. -Benjamin Franklin- ---- Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. Ben Franklin ---- Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. Ben Franklin Also attributed to a motto found amoung Thomas Jefferson's papers. ---- The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. Benjamin Franklin ---- Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. Benjamin Franklin ---- They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin ---- Never confuse motion with action. Ben Franklin ---- The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit. Milton Friedman ---- Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation. Milton Friedman ---- Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government. Milton Friedman ---- Governments never learn. Only people learn. Milton Friedman ---- Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence. Milton Friedman ---- Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it. Milton Friedman ---- Columbus did not seek a new route to the Indies in response to a majority directive. Milton Friedman ---- Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another. Milton Friedman ---- Inflation is taxation without legislation. Milton Friedman ---- Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government. Milton Friedman ---- Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. Milton Friedman ---- One man's opportunism is another man's statesmanship. Milton Friedman ---- Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless. Milton Friedman ---- The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling people. Milton Friedman ---- The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. Milton Friedman ---- The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy. Milton Friedman ---- The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government. Milton Friedman ---- History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition. Milton Friedman ---- The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience. Milton Friedman ---- The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom. Milton Friedman ---- The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system. Milton Friedman ---- Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes. Milton Friedman ---- We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork. Milton Friedman ---- The government official is supposed to be our servant. When you are sitting across the desk from a representative of the Internal Revenue Service who is auditing your tax return, which one of you is the master and which the servant? Milton and Rose Friedman Copyright 1979 Page 298, Free to Choose--A Personal Statement ---- There is only one place inflation is made in Canada, and that's Ottawa. Milton Friedman ---- Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned. Milton Friedman ---- I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it is possible. Milton Friedman ---- The most important ways in which I think the internet will affect the big issue is that it will make it more difficult for the government to collect taxes. Milton Friedman ---- There's no such thing as a free lunch. Milton Friedman ---- Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it does this task so well. It gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. Milton Friedman ---- If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand. Milton Friedman ---- I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal. Milton Friedman ---- The power to do good is also the power to do harm. Milton Friedman ---- Legislation like the Brady Bill ignores the fact that violence unfortunately has been a fact of life long before firearms were invented. Outlawing guns does not prevent violence, but it does prevent smaller, older, disabled or less powerful persons from effectively defending themselves against larger and stronger attackers. Sandy Froman July 12, 2007 The history of gun control, part 3 http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56619 ---- Once the anti-gun left has a cause or celebrity to rally around, rational thought goes out the window as they push their proposed legislation. Sandy Froman July 12, 2007 The history of gun control, part 3 http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56619 ---- Sarah Brady is still a leading figure in the anti-gun movement. Jim Brady is still an advertisement for gun control. Sandy Froman July 12, 2007 The history of gun control, part 3 http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56619 ---- They keep the truth from being taught in public schools, and they even write books laden with falsehoods in a dishonest attempt to rewrite history. Seven years ago, Emory University historian Michael Bellesiles published a book purportedly proving there were few guns and gun owners in early America. The book garnered Columbia University's coveted Bancroft Prize. Two years later, primarily due to the efforts of a brilliant young research historian, Clayton Cramer, who had studied that period in history extensively, the book was revealed to be a total fraud, full of lies and fabrications. Bellesiles was forced to resign from Emory University and, for the first time in history, Columbia University rescinded the Bancroft Prize. Every American who values his or her constitutional rights should know something about these frauds that gun control advocates perpetrate so we can be watchful and teach the truth to our young ones. Sandy Froman June 7, 2007 http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56047 ---- There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail. Erich Fromm ---- A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel. Robert Frost ---- My generation of Canadians grew up believing that, if we were very good or very smart, we would someday graduate from Canada. Robert Fulford ---- Real wealth can only increase. R BUCKMINSTER FULLER ---- The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun. BUCKMINSTER FULLER ---- Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under Communism, it's just the opposite. John Kenneth Galbraith ---- In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place. -Mohandas Gandhi- ---- You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. Mohandas Gandhi ---- Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right. Mahatma Gandhi ---- Truth never damages a cause that is just. -Mohandas K. Gandhi- (1869-1948), Indian political and spiritual leader. Non-Violence in Peace and War, vol. 2, ch. 162 (1949). ---- I do believe that where there is a choice only between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. Thus when my eldest son asked me what he should have done had he been present when I was almost fatally assaulted in 1908, whether he should have used his physical force which could and wanted to use, and defend me, I told him it was his duty to defend me even by using violence. -Mohandas K. Gandhi "Young India" Aug. 11, 1920, quoted in Louis Fischer(editor) _The_Essential_Gandhi_ pp. 156-57 ---- Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest. Mahatma Gandhi Autobiography, Translated from the Gujarati by Mahadev Desai. Public Affairs Press, Washington, D.C. 1948. (Republication by Unabridged Dover, 1983. page 403. ---- I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could. -Mohandas K. Gandhi- (1869-1948), Indian political and spiritual leader. Harijan (28 March 1936). ---- An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. -Mohandas K. Gandhi- (1869-1948), Indian political and spiritual leader. Non-Violence in Peace and War, vol. 2, ch. 150 (1949). ---- Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. -Mahatma Gandhi- ---- Whether one examines the District’s murder rates relative to other large US cities, the neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia, or relative to the US as a whole there is no evidence that the ban reduced the District’s relative murder rate. Indeed, if anything, the evidence points to the opposite conclusion. The District’s rising murder rate cannot be explained as a result of the crack cocaine epidemic during the late 1980s because this increase started occurring right after the ban was instituted, long before crack cocaine became an issue. Everyone wants to disarm criminals. However, the problem with bans is who is most likely to obey them. If the ban primarily disarms lawabiding citizens and not criminals, the ban can have the opposite effect of what was intended. Richard E Gardiner February 2007 BRIEF OF ACADEMICS AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENT http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07290bsacBriefofAcademics.pdf ---- With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but with tyrants, I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost. William Lloyd Garrison ---- Treaties are like roses and young girls -- they last while they last. -Charles De Gaulle- Literature Great Quotes From Great Leaders ---- Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him. -Charles De Gaulle- Literature Great Quotes From Great Leaders ---- I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. -Charles De Gaulle- Literature Great Quotes From Great Leaders ---- How can one conceive of a one party system in a country that has over two hundred varieties of cheese? -Charles De Gaulle- Literature Great Quotes From Great Leaders ---- The key sentence of the Second Amendment reads: "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." The meaning of this sentence has been debated furiously by constitutional lawyers for at least half a century, even as the evidence mounted that the US had the highest level of gun ownership in the developed world and that gun deaths in America were at epidemic levels. Gun control advocates argue that the sentence relates only to the right of the states and the federal government to establish armies. The NRA and most conservatives argue that it means every American has gun rights. Michael Gawenda March 19, 2007 Gun lobby scores a win in court http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/gun-lobby-scores-a-win-in-court/2007/03/18/1174152882910.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 ---- That which is not forbidden is mandatory. Murray Gell-Mann http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Murray_Gell-Mann ---- The associations of the nation revival, SA [Storm Troopers], SS [para-military adjunct of the Gestapo], and Stahlhelm [a non-Nazi lunatic fringe para-military organization], give every responsible citizen the opportunity of campaigning with them. Therefore anyone who does not belong to one of the above-named organization and who unjustifiably nevertheless keeps his weapon . . . must be regarded as an enemy of the national government and will be brought to account without compunction and with the utmost severity. SA OBERFUHRER OF BAD TOLZ, GERMANY Quoted in Richard Munday "The Monopoly of Power" (paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, 1991) ---- Citing Miller for a proposition for which Miller does not stand, Petitioners make Miller falsely appear to establish a rule that it in fact does not, rendering the Second Amendment peculiar by defining "the people" to mean governmental entities. It is therefore critical that Second Amendment precedent be analyzed in a reasoned and rightful manner, and applied accordingly without any preconceptions. Renee L. Giachino February 11, 2008 Center for Individual Freedom http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsaccntrindfreedom.pdf ---- A collective right view could logically include all variety of weapons currently within the federal arsenal, because the states would be empowered to arm themselves sufficiently to thwart those same federal forces. Pet. Br. 21. Given the fact that there is no Constitutional limitation upon the types of weapons that the federal government can possess, a collective states’ right position could logically require a similar freedom for the respective state militias. If the logic behind the Second Amendment is to preserve the right of states to maintain militias that constitute a counterweight to federal forces, as Petitioners contend, then states would logically be allowed to keep and bear even the most potent and destructive weapons of modern warfare. Renee L. Giachino February 11, 2008 Center for Individual Freedom http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsaccntrindfreedom.pdf ---- We have to realize that people who run the government can and do change. Our society and laws must assume that bad people - criminals even - will run the government, at least part of the time. John Gilmore A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, March 28,1991 https://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Gilmore/privacy_gilmore.speech ---- The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. John Gilmore ---- We also need real control of identification. We need the right to be anonymous while exercising all other rights. So that even with our photos, our fingerprints and our DNA profile, they can't link our communication and trade and financial activities to our person. Now I'm not talking about lack of accountability here, at all. We must be accountable to the people we communicate with. We must be accountable to the people we trade with. And the technology must be built to enforce that. But we must not be accountable to THE PUBLIC for who we talk to, or who we buy and sell from. John Gilmore A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, March 28,1991 https://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Gilmore/privacy_gilmore.speech ---- Importantly, we need real financial privacy because the goods and information cost money. When you buy or sell or communicate, money is going to change hands. If they can track the money, they can track the trade and the communication, and we lose the privacy involved. John Gilmore A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, March 28,1991 https://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Gilmore/privacy_gilmore.speech ---- What if we could build a society where the information was never collected? Where you could pay to rent a video without leaving a credit card number or a bank number? Where you could prove you're certified to drive without ever giving your name? Where you could send and receive messages without revealing your physical location, like an electronic post office box? That's the kind of society I want to build. I want a guarantee - with physics and mathematics, not with laws - that we can give ourselves things like real privacy of personal communications. Encryption strong enough that even the NSA can't break it. We already know how. But we're not applying it. We also need better protocols for mobile communication that can't be tracked. John Gilmore A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, March 28,1991 https://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Gilmore/privacy_gilmore.speech ---- The whole conference has spent a lot of time talking about ways to control uses of information and to protect peoples' privacy after the information was collected. But that only works if you assume a good government. If we get one seriously bad government, they'll have all the information they need to make an efficient police state and make it the last government. It's more than convenient for them - in fact, it's a temptation for people who want to do that, to try to get into power and do it. Because we are giving them the means. John Gilmore A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, March 28,1991 https://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Gilmore/privacy_gilmore.speech ---- In most of Europe, phone companies don't record the phone numbers when you call, and they don't show up on your bill. They only tick off the charges on a meter. Now, I was told that this is partly because the Nazis used the call records that they used to have, to track and identify the opposition after taking over those countries in World War II. They don't keep those records any more. John Gilmore A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, March 28,1991 https://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Gilmore/privacy_gilmore.speech ---- But it's no wonder we are concerned about privacy, because we are all "lawbreakers", We all break the law, but few of us are criminals. The problem is that simply attracting the attention of the police is enough to put the best of us at risk, because we break the law all the time and it's set up to make that happen! John Gilmore A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, March 28,1991 https://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Gilmore/privacy_gilmore.speech ---- America, how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood? - Allen Ginsberg - ---- As a private citizen, as a prosecutor, as a Mayoral candidate and as Mayor, I have advocated for more regulated and more uniform gun licensing regulations, similar to those for a drivers license. Rudy Giuliani ---- That propaganda is good which leads to success, and that is bad which fails to achieve the desired result. It is not propaganda's task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success. Joseph Goebbels Fest, The Face of the Third Reich, 90 ---- Guns will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat. Hermann Goering (1893-1946), German Nazi leader, air marshal. Alleged radio broadcast, Summer 1936, on the Four-Year Plan. ---- Our movement took a grip on cowardly Marxism and from it extracted the meaning of socialism. It also took from the cowardly middle-class parties their nationalism. Throwing both into the cauldron of our way of life there emerged, as clear as a crystal, the synthesis- German National Socialism. Hermann Goering (1893-1946), German Nazi leader, air marshal. Speech, 9 April 1933, Sports Palast, Berlin. ---- To rule is easy, to govern difficult. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ---- If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal. Emma Goldman ---- It is a mark of modern ignorance to think that we have become progressively smarter... - Thomas Goldstein - ---- A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away. Barry Goldwater ---- A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on. Samuel Goldwyn ---- >>>My bill will crack down on gun shows and illegal gun trafficking, ban violent juveniles from ever being able to buy a gun and close the loophole that lets juveniles own assault rifles.<<< From Clinton's weekly radio address, the transcript of which I encountered at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/Clintonradio_littleton99044.html Please note that apparently there is a loophole that lets juveniles own select-fire carbines. Seriously, though, this is an important step forward. If juveniles had not been allowed to own assault rifles (or even semi-automatic centerfire rifles with a black anodized coating), the two teens in Littleton would not have made pipe bombs or shot a bunch of people at their school with shotguns and pistols. Eugene Goodrich Sat 4/24/99 ---- Who you should really fear, hasn't visited you yet. James Gordon December 16, 1998 Referring to Microsoft Gun Club visiting Microsoft business competitors. ---- What publishers are looking for these days isn't radical feminism. It's corporate feminism -- a brand of feminism designed to sell books and magazines, three-piece suits, airline tickets, Scotch, cigarettes and, most important, corporate America's message, which runs: "Yes, women were discriminated against in the past, but that unfortunate mistake has been remedied; now every woman can attain wealth, prestige and power by dint of individual rather than collective effort." -- Susan Gordon ---- This will not be over quickly. It will be painful. You will not enjoy this. Queen Gorgo From the movie 300. ---- In short, he is a man begging for subjugation. He longs for its promise of equality in helplessness. Because only when that strange, independent alpha breed of male is helpless along with him will he feel adequate. Indeed, his freedom lies in this other man's containment. Julia Gorin Jewish World Review March 8, 2002 / 24 Adar, 5762 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/julia/gorin030802.asp ---- If anybody is an authority on lethal car crashes it would be Ted Kennedy. Alan Gottlieb Second Amendment Foundation Referring to a report from MSNBC that "more officers are being killed in traffic accidents" than by guns and Kennedy's desire for more gun control to protect the police. http://www.saf.org/viewpr.asp?id=157 ---- The city is earning the nickname 'Killadelphia' not because of state preemption but because the mayor and city council think punishing law-abiding gun owners will somehow cause criminals to stop killing one another. Does he seriously think limiting legal handgun sales to one a month will prevent drive-by shootings by recidivist gang bangers? Can he honestly believe that penalizing someone for not immediately reporting a stolen firearm will prevent the thief from selling that gun to someone else who uses it in a crime? Where does he get the notion that restricting the rights of honest citizens is going to fix the broken court system that repeatedly returns these thugs to the streets? None of these measures has worked anywhere else they've been tried. So what makes Nutter think he can perform a miracle now, especially in defiance of state law? Nutter is nuts, and so are the council members who copied these ideas out of the extremist gun control playbook for his rubber stamp signature. Alan Gottlieb Founder of the Second Amendment Foundation. April 11, 2008 SAF BLASTS ‘KILLADELPHIA’ MAYOR, COUNCIL OVER MEASURES DEFYING STATE LAW http://www.saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=263 ---- The right of citizens to be safe in their homes and communities can never be subject to a popular vote. It is astonishing that in a city where the leaders preach how open they are to diversity, they encouraged voters to blindly march to the polls last November to practice a blatant, egregious and despicable form of social bigotry against their neighbors and fellow citizens. Working to deprive others of their property and their right to self-defense just because you don't like firearms is morally repugnant, and with today's ruling, the people who pushed Proposition H last fall should feel ashamed of themselves. Alan Gottlieb June 13, 2006 Judge Rejects San Francisco's Handgun Ban http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200606/NAT20060613b.html Second Amendment Foundation ---- Expect perennial gun haters like Paul Helmke to ramp up the rhetoric against sensible concealed carry laws that are proving their effectiveness in some 40 states. With violent crime on the upswing, and experts predicting it will keep rising, this is no time to advocate victim disarmament laws. May as well put wolves in the sheep pasture and bid them "bon appetit!" Alan Gottlieb January 12, 2007 Another view: Violent crime rise proves need for personal protection capability (http://www.sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070112/SHE06/701120527/1109/SHEopinion) Alan Gottlieb is founder of the Second Amendment Foundation and chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Bellevue, Wash. Paul Helmke is president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. ---- This trial is supposed to be held in a federal court, not a kangaroo court. What’s next, a request that Judge Weinstein not allow defense witnesses or rebuttal? Why not just dispense with the trial altogether and lynch Mr. Wallace from the limb of a tree out in Central Park? ... Apparently, in Mikey’s world, a fair trial is one in which a defense attorney is muzzled, and the defendant is already guilty until proven innocent. Bloomberg missed his calling. Instead of being mayor of an American city, he should have been the administrator of a gulag. Alan Gottlieb May 9, 2008 Bloomberg outrage: Asks judge to ban 2nd Amendment references! http://www.saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=265 ---- Some people say that I have no heart. I am here tonight to tell you that I do have a heart. I have the heart of a liberal.... It's in a jar on my desk. Sen. Phil Gramm 1992 Lincoln Dinner at the Middlesex Club in Waltham, Massachusetts ---- This has exposed the abusive, arbitrary and autocratic nature of Chavez's Government, a government that fears free thought, that fears opinion and fears criticism. Marcel Granier Chief of RCTV, the country's oldest broadcaster May 28, 2007 Venezuelan TV channel shut down http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1935483.htm ---- Gun control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I'm a bad guy, I'm always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You will pull the trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger. We'll see who wins. Sammy "The Bull" Gravano Washington Times, 9/3/99 ---- Three goblins gain entry to house and ask maid, at pistol point, where child is. Maid says that she doesn't know. Mother walks into room. Goblins ask mother. Mother tells them same. Second maid sees goblins and screams. Crowd gathers to see what's happening. Goblins fire to scare crowd away. Big mistake - most neighbors are military or security types. Goblins retreat into house and attempt escape across roof and out into street. First goblin is shot in leg and promptly beaten to death. Second goblin is shot in leg, beaten, and left for dead. (Made it alive to hospital; unknown if he lived.) Third goblin manages to make it to police where he falls on knees and begs officers to arrest him. Neighbors unhappy about arrest since it ruined their scores on goblin catching. Big difference in reactions between Americans and Guatemalans." Thomas K. Graziano, April 18, 1994, Guatemala City, Guatemala From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 2, No. 7 3 June 1994 ---- She hates testicles, thus limiting the men she can admire to Democratic candidates for president. -- John Greenway ["The American Tradition", on feminist Elizabeth Gould Davis] ---- The number of firearms required to satisfy the crime market is small, and these are supplied no matter what controls are instituted. Controls have had serious effects on legitimate users of firearms, but there is no case, either in the history of this country or in the experience of other countries in which controls can be shown to have restricted the flow of weapons to criminals, or in any way reduced crime. Chief Inspector Colin Greenwood West Yorkshire Constabulary writing in Police Review, Britain. Following a 6 month investigation into the real, as opposed to theoretical, effects of gun control. ---- "Free trade" is actually a misnomer, Grieshaber-Otto contends; the new global rules are actually aimed primarily at restricting government regulations, which is bad news for advocates. Jim Grieshaber-Otto, Ph.D. An international trade expert with the government of British Columbia. From: http://www.jointogether.org/gv/default.jtml?O=264057 August 12, 2000 ---- All our objectives are predicated on the belief that the interests of public safety demand a reduction in the availability and attractiveness of guns of all kinds. 1. Minimum age of 18 for the ownership, use and possession of all guns. 2. Ban on the sale, manufacture and import of imitation guns and their possession in a public place. 3. Certification of all deactivated weapons. 4. Inclusion of airguns in certification system. 5. One certification system for all legal weapons i.e. rifles, shotguns, airguns. 6. Multi-shot rifles and shotguns to be banned. 7. Practical or Combat shooting or any other shooting practice which involves the simulation of real life situations and/or the use of human shaped targets to be banned. 8. Abolition or radical reconstitution of the Firearms Consultative Committee. We recognise the existence of a significant minority interest in shooting for sport, and our proposals are aimed at striking an appropriate balance between the sport-shooting interest and the overriding interest in public safety. Gun Control Network Our Objectives As of February 19, 2005 http://www.gun-control-network.org/GCN10.htm ---- This Website will outline our aims, which are simple, and the ways you can help, which are many. The job of this network is not to convince people that guns, especially handguns, are dangerous. Everyone knows that already. The vast majority want to see handguns prohibited completely and much tighter controls on all other weapons. Our job is to convince the law-makers that they must listen to the majority, and not be swayed by the selfish minority. Gun Control Network (U.K.) From http://www.gun-control-network.org/gcnhome.htm As of March 3, 1999 ---- Giving a friend or neighbor a firearm doesn't help them it puts them in danger. And re-releasing a firearm into the community instead of destroying it is, as Shaw rightly realizes, asking for trouble. 'Mike' at GunGuys.com September 29, 2006 http://www.gunguys.com/?p=1528 Gun Owner Can't Get Rid of an Unwanted Gun ---- But this is the reality of the idea that firearms in "good" hands can somehow protect us from firearms in "bad" hands. They can't, and even if they help in one lucky situation, the balance of all the pain and suffering they make possible in every other just is not worth it. Guy Guys May 23, 2007 Referring to the fact that Peter Husmann was wounded while attempting to stop the shooting in Moscow last weekend. Idaho Gunman Had Mental Illness History, CCW Owner Shot at Scene http://www.gunguys.com/?p=2177 ---- A gun range exposes kids to a lot more than just lead dust. It also exposes them to the fascination of shooting guns. Shooting ranges and rifle clubs have plummeted over the last several decades which used to be a "gateway" for youngsters into target shooting. From there, gun marketers hoped teens would grow into adults and become gun owners and hunters. But now the gun industry and lobby have taken more extreme measures. To rescue its declining gun market the gun lobby is desperately trying to lower the hunting age in several states to lure children into the industry's "gun and hunting culture". The Gun Guys October 18, 2007 Gun Range in Middle School Should Close Now, Not Wait Until 2010 http://www.gunguys.com/?p=2574 ---- They haul out the tired mantra of "government intrusion on their rights." But those are just code words for being selfish and lacking empathy. Gun Guys November 8, 2007 Another Child Shot Accidentally as the Gun Lobby Selfishly Refuses to Help Protect Our Kids http://www.gunguys.com/?p=2634 ---- If we could reverse history and engage the gun lobby back when they started their cynical campaign to convince Americans they have a "right to own guns" then our politics would certainly be in a different place. But it's too late now and the gun lobby's well-armed genie is out of the bottle. Mike of Gun Guys February 29, 2008 In-Depth Commentary: Candidates Quiet On Gun Issues http://www.gunguys.com/?p=2863 ---- We believe that this domestic violence prevention strategy "should" be implemented. However, we recognize that it would be difficult to implement all these measures due to the clout of the gun lobby and subsequent lack of political will and resources. In lieu of this, GunGuys.com has considered launching a new "cultural change" campaign with a simple message to young women: "I Don't Date Boys Who Own Guns." Mike of Gun Guys April 4, 2008 With So Many Men Owning Guns, Domestic Violence Is Difficult to Prevent for Justice System http://www.gunguys.com/?p=2933 ---- Congress surely has the power to regulate firearms in Washington; but if Congress felt that disarming Americans at home were necessary for its security, it might have attempted to do so in the first 177 years of the city’s service as the seat of government. As recent history demonstrates, those who would attack our capital are hardly deterred by 66 Petitioners’ ban on handguns and functional firearms in the home. Alan Gura Robert A. Levy Clark M. Neily III February 4, 2008 RESPONDENT’S BRIEF On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit ---- As Petitioners note, preambles are examined only "[i]f words happen to still be dubious." Pet. Br. 17 (quotation and citation omitted). "[B]ut when the words of the enacting clause are clear and positive, recourse must not be had to the preamble." James Kent, 1 COMMENTARIES ON AMERICAN LAW 516 (9th ed. 1858). "The preamble can neither limit nor extend the meaning of a statute which is clear. Similarly, it cannot be used to create doubt or uncertainty." Norman Singer, 2A SUTHERLAND ON STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION § 47.04, at 295 (7th ed. 2007). Alan Gura Robert A. Levy Clark M. Neily III February 4, 2008 RESPONDENT’S BRIEF On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit ---- That the colonists cared little about the prospect of having their guns seized is not the only ahistorical concept underlying Petitioners’ repudiation of the Second Amendment. Redcoats and Patriots alike would have puzzled at Petitioners’ notion that the Revolution produced an exclusive governmental right to operate an organized militia. The "well regulated militia" of the American Revolution operated not merely beyond the control of, but in direct challenge to, the King’s governors Alan Gura Robert A. Levy Clark M. Neily III February 4, 2008 RESPONDENT’S BRIEF On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit ---- Cooley agreed, explaining that the Second Amendment "is significant as having been reserved by the people as a possible and necessary resort for the protection of self-government against usurpation, and against any attempt on the part of those who may for the time be in possession of State authority or resources to set aside the constitution and substitute their own rule for that of the people." Thomas Cooley, The Abnegation of Self-Government, 12 PRINCETON REV. 209, 213-14 (1883). The individual use of Second-Amendment-protected arms to check despotism, "far from being revolutionary, would be in strict accord with popular right and duty." Id. 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 reelection 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. Alan Gura Robert A. Levy Clark M. Neily III February 4, 2008 RESPONDENT’S BRIEF On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit ---- The Bill of Rights was never thought necessary by the Federalists, other than as a tool to placate Anti- Federalist resistance to the new constitution. While rejection of militia-powers amendments demonstrates that the Bill of Rights did not address each and every Anti-Federalist concern, the Second Amendment did at least address a different concern: the individual right to arms. Demands for a bill of rights prevailed in five of seven constitutional ratifying conventions. The only provisions common to all were freedom of religion and the right to arms. New Hampshire’s convention demanded recognition that "Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion." 1 Elliot, DEBATES at 326. Alan Gura Robert A. Levy Clark M. Neily III February 4, 2008 RESPONDENT’S BRIEF On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit ---- Nor may the government justify a ban on a particular firearm simply by claiming to allow the possession of others. While it is a dubious proposition that Petitioners allow individuals any firearms for private home use, the government’s compliance with the Constitution by allowing rifles would not permit the government to violate the Constitution by banning handguns--any more than the government could prohibit books because it permits newspapers and considers them an "adequate substitute." Alan Gura Robert A. Levy Clark M. Neily III February 4, 2008 RESPONDENT’S BRIEF On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit ---- Demoting the Second Amendment to some lower tier of enumerated rights is unwarranted. The Second Amendment has the distinction of securing the most fundamental rights of all—enabling the preservation of one’s life and guaranteeing our liberty. These are not second-class concerns. Yet preservation of human life is also the government’s chief regulatory interest in arms. Constitutional review of gun laws thus finds both individual and governmental interests at their zenith. Alan Gura Robert A. Levy Clark M. Neily III February 4, 2008 RESPONDENT’S BRIEF On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit ---- Certainly Petitioners would not dispute Americans’ justification for revolting against Great Britain, an event that would not have been possible without the private ownership of firearms. And should our Nation someday suffer tyranny again, preservation of the right to keep and bear arms would enhance the people’s ability to act as militia in the manner practiced by the Framers. Alan Gura Robert A. Levy Clark M. Neily III February 4, 2008 RESPONDENT’S BRIEF On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit ---- Guns don't stop criminals any more than they stop crime. All gun owners have a fantasy in their head that whenever they're threatened with their firearm, they'll heroically pull it out, shoot at exactly the right time, and save the day. But reality just doesn't follow that idea-- firearms are much more of a threat to everyone around them then some kind of mythical protection against evil. Gun Guy Guns Don't Stop Crime-- They Attract It Email March 5, 2007 ---- The idea that the only way we think we can make a safer, better society is for everyone to carry a gun is incredibly sad. It's also individualistic--the answer to racism, rape, and gay bashing is to carry a gun, not have any form of social organizing. Gwen http://gwennieutah.blogspot.com/ January 10, 2008 10:48 PM Comment in Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership http://sociologicalimages.blogspot.com/2008/01/guns-dont-kill-people-gays-feminists.html ---- I was the first or second tank in the column that liberated a major concentration camp, Magdeburg.... There was a horror beyond the horror of all the dying I had seen. I learned a lesson that day. There are worse events than battle. When they come to take you off to the camp, fight. And people who tell you that you will be better off in the camps than resisting are not your friends. Arthur T. Hadley The Straw Giant, 1971 ---- For some shooters, the event is all about marksmanship. Others say they're driven by politics--how the combination of guns and explosives is the ultimate expression of their constitutional rights as well as a gentle show of force for anybody watching in the federal government. James Hagengruber May 1, 2006 SpokesmanReview: Boom with a view ---- I have over the past thirty years been one hundred percent in favor of Gun Control - achieved through proper stance, controlled breathing, and smooth trigger squeeze; applied repeatedly until the threat is neutralized. -Fred D. Haggard- Kansas City From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1 July 1993 ---- "The warning message we sent the Russians was a calculated ambiguity that would be clearly understood." -- Alexander Haig ---- While there is room for optimism, one presents a Second Amendment case before the Supreme Court with great risk. New rights are discovered with extra-legal phraseology like "liberty of the person both in its spatial and more transcendent dimensions," and explicit rights - to include core political speech - are swept away. The first case the Supreme Court takes on the merits of the individual-collective rights issue will be critical. This area of the law is no exception to the precept that the Court's door should be knocked only with the utmost seriousness and preparation. Stephen P. Halbrook The Second Amendment in the Supreme Court: Where It's Been and Where It's Going 29 Hamline Law Review, No. 3, 449-59 (Summer 2006) http://stephenhalbrook.com/law_review_articles/2nd.amendment.supremecourt.pdf ---- Just because you are tolerated doesn't mean we're glad you came. Bill Hall Lewiston Morning Tribune February 4, 1998 In reference to the neo-Nazi's and other 'hate-groups' that have moved to Idaho. ---- I could vote for Hillary, despite her awfulness, for the simple reason that while she’s vile, she’s perfectly willing to throw aside any and all principles. That is usually a bad thing, but if America were attacked while she was President, she’d be so personally offended that whoever it was had the gall to attack while she was President that she’d toss aside all the touchy-feely “it takes a village” crap and nuke them back to the stone age. Ian Hamet May 14, 2008 Cynicism (not especially upbeat) http://ianhamet.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/cynicism-not-especially-upbeat/ ---- If you get killed in a fight either: your training sucked, you suck, or you got fucked. If you go to jail, either: your training sucked, you suck, or you got fucked. IMO most of the time it's because you suck. Greg Hamilton 19:57 PM, March 22, 2007 From the Yahoo group InSights Training Center List ---- ---- They want to return the world to a pre-age-of-reason/age-of-enlightenment world. That is where the split took place that put the muslim world as second rate to ours. They believe that their world, following the will of God, must be able to express that as also being the best world in all aspects. If not they must in the eyes of God being doing something wrong. Since they cannot compete with us in this world, they must destroy it to return it to a state when they were the best (their enlightnment during our dark ages). Greg Hamilton August 8, 2006 6:58 PM From the email list: insightstraining @ yahoogroups.com ---- The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed. -- Alexander Hamilton ---- The WA/BC border is one of the most significant entry pts for terrorist that our country has, as well as for illegal materials. Canada is a significant staging ground for terrosists of all brands. Besides building their own networks, all type of terrorists will use smuggling routes and the in-place smugglers themselves, to move people and materials. [...] As the masses sleep, we and our allies have prevented quite a few attacks bigger than Sept11. and probably hundreds of small ones. We CAN't talk about them because doing so means the "journalists" and lawyers, etc will know HOW we stopped the attacks and that tool will no longer be available. The only way to keep the evolutionary cycle in our favor is Operational Security of our techniques. Greg Hamilton March 24, 2008 2:48 PM Insights Training Discussion Group http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/insightstraining/ ---- Both political parties want to enslave the people. The difference is that one is working toward the Nazi model and the other is working towards the Chinese model. Greg Hamilton 10/27/00 At his Halloween party. ---- The District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has failed to provide adequate police services to the District of Columbia’s citizens. The District is consistently a national leader in various crime categories while simultaneously demonstrating inability to adapt or change under the crippling bureaucracy endemic to the District. Compounding this deadly combination of high crime and inflexibility are constant examples of corruption, incompetence and outright misfeasance in the operation of the department. [...] Unfortunately, this is not a mere phase or temporary problem for the District. Since the 30-plus year old implementation of what amounts to a complete ban on owning, carrying or using firearms for self-defense, the MPD has cycled through new chiefs and precinct commanders with depressing frequency. The only constant within the department has been the incompetence, corruption, cronyism and failure to perform the most basic duty of a police department-- to protect and serve. L. Kenneth Hanson III Brief of Buckeye Firearms Foundation LLC, National Council for Investigation and Security Services, Ohio Association of Private Detective Agencies, Inc., dba Ohio Association of Security and Investigation services (oasis), Michigan Council of Private Investigators, Indiana Association of Professional Investigators, and Kentucky Professional Investigators Association, as amici curiae supporting respondent. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacBuckeyeFirearmsFoundation.pdf ---- Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent - Salvor Hardin ---- Gold: A soft malleable metal relatively scarce in distribution. It is mined deep in the earth by poor men who then give it to rich men who immediately bury it back in the earth in great prisons, although gold hasn't done anything to them. -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac" ---- ...there's no doubt that the buyers broke the Gun Control Act, and that those who set them to it were liable as aiders and abettors, not to mention on a conspiracy theory. I'd assume that Bloomberg and company (1) figured it was worth it for the publicity and (2) figured that the laws don't apply to the rich and powerful. They may just have been right on both. David Hardy February 8, 2007 US Attorneys slap down Bloomberg http://armsandthelaw.com/archives/2007/02/us_attorneys_sl_1.php ---- The Second Amendment did not erupt in a philosophical vacuum. The Amendment, like the remainder of the Bill of Rights, arose from widely shared judgments regarding citizenry, government, and the distribution of power. Three of these judgments are particularly relevant here. Private possession of arms is not merely acceptable, but virtuous. [...] There is a natural right to arms, linked to that of self-defense. [...] A militia composed of all freeholders and voters is the only safe and effective defense of a republic. David T. Hardy Brief of amicus curiae, Academics for the Second Amendment http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacAcademicsforSecondAmendment.pdf ---- Madison’s very organization shows the right to arms was seen as an individual right and not as militia-related. Madison’s draft did not take the format with which we are today familiar, that of a numbered list of amendments following the Constitution. Rather, his draft designated where, within the Constitution, each provision was to be inserted. For example, his provisions relating to the House of Representatives were to be inserted in Article I, Section 2. An unsuccessful proposal to forbid States to infringe the rights of conscience was to be inserted in Article I, Section 10, alongside its other "Restrictions Upon Powers of States." Provisions relating to jury trial, grand juries, and appeals were to be placed in Article III. Thus, if Madison had seen the future Second Amendment as militia-related, he would have designated its place next to the Militia Clauses in Article I, Section 8. Instead Madison grouped it with freedom of speech, press, assembly and other individual rights, and designated their place in Article I, Section 9, right after "No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed." Madison’s arrangement is compelling evidence that he did not view the right to arms as a guarantee relating to States and militias; its militia reference was explanation, not an operative part of its guarantee. David T. Hardy Brief of amicus curiae, Academics for the Second Amendment http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacAcademicsforSecondAmendment.pdf ---- There is no "scourge of illegal guns" in New York City. Being a police officer is inherently dangerous, and it is wrong to pretend that infringing on the constitutional rights of citizens will eliminate all the dangers associated with the job. This is nothing more than a disgraceful attempt by Bloomberg to use the tragic deaths of two police officers to advance his irrational political agenda. If he really wants to help the city, he can start by ending the scourge of eminent-domain abuse. James Harlacher Brooklyn New York Post January 4, 2006 http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/60896.htm ---- The powers that be took a good run at deep-sixing this report. There's such a strongly held consensus among industry and DHS that RFID is the way to go that getting people off of that and getting them to examine the technology is very hard to do. Jim Harper Cato Institute fellow October 30, 2006 From Feds Leapfrog RFID Privacy Study http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72019-0.html?tw=wn_index_13 ---- It's like dealing with a pack of five-year-olds who are so developmentally stunted that they will never be able to learn anything every day it's a repeat of the same old simple lessons: wipe your bottom before you pull your underpants up, not after! Andrea Harris November 26th, 2006 at 10:12 pm http://spleenville.com/2006/?p=632 Regarding dealing with advocates of "global warming". ---- Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be. Sydney J. Harris ---- Six years for possession of a cigarette? ...I got six months for possession of a deadly weapon. - Cartoon by S. Harris - ---- Anti-gun-ownership politicians are very dangerous to a free society. Liberty and freedom can only be preserved by an armed citizenry. I see creeping fascism in America, just as in Germany, a drip at a time; a law here, a law there, all supposedly passed to protect the public. Soon you have total enslavement. Too many Americans have forgotten that tyranny often masquerades as doing good. -Theodore Hass- Former prisoner of the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp ---- What the subcommittee on the Constitution uncovered was clear -- and long lost -- proof that the Second Amendment to our Constitution was intended as an individual right of the American citizen to keep and carry arms in a peaceful manner, for protection of himself, his family, and his freedoms. Senator Orrin Hatch Chairman, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Preface, The Right to Keep and Bear Arms. ---- People who falsify history don't rescue freedom, they jeopardize it. Vaclav Havel, President of Czechoslovakia ---- Basically, I figure guns are like gays: They seem a lot more sinister and threatening until you get to know a few; and once you have one in the house, you can get downright defensive about them. Teresa Neilson Hayden ---- Now, it is somewhat difficult to think of Germany and Italy, or of Russia, not as different worlds but as products of a development of thought in which we have shared; it is, at least so far as our enemies are concerned, easier and more comforting t think that they are entirely different from us and that what happened there cannot happen here. Yet the history of those countries in the years before the rise of the totalitarian system showed few features with which we are not familar. A.F. Hayek The Road to Serfdom ---- It is our duty to protect the citizens of Fayette County, even those that don't want to be protected. --Comment by a member of the Fayette County (Ga.) Board of Health During a meeting on a proposed smoking ban. ---- The large brain, like large government, may not be able to do simple things in a simple way. - Donald O. Hebb - ---- The Arithmetic of Cooperation: When you're adding up committees There's a useful rule of thumb: That talents make a difference, And follies make a sum. - Piet Hein - ---- Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings. -Heinrich Heine- (1797-1886) "Almansor: A Tragedy" (1823). ---- Political tags--such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, conservative, and so forth--are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort. Lazarus Long A character in Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein From Page 47 in The Notebooks of Lazarus Long http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Notebooks_of_Lazarus_Long ---- Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing--with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for second and third place. -Robert Heinlein- ---- Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny. -Robert Heinlein- ---- Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors--and miss. -Robert Heinlein- The character Lazarus Long, in "Time Enough for Love" ---- Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded--here and there, now and then--are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck." -Robert Heinlein- ---- A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain. -Robert Heinlein- ---- One man's theology is another man's belly laugh. -Robert Heinlein- ---- Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something. -Robert Heinlein- ---- Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides? -Robert Heinlein- ---- When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere. -Robert Heinlein- ---- Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay--and claims a halo for his dishonesty. Robert A. Heinlein Double Star ---- Anyone who clings to the historically untrue--and thoroughly immoral-- doctrine that 'violence never solves anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The Ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more disputes in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms. Robert Heinlein ---- History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion -- i.e., none to speak of. -Robert Heinlein- The character Lazarus Long, in "Time Enough for Love" ---- I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions. Letter to the House Un-American Activities Committee, May 19, 1952. -Lillian Hellman- ---- The colleges and universities are the ones who should be making the decision on how to keep people safe. Paul Helmke President of the Brady Campaign http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080122/NEWS0101/801220381 ---- Now, I think this goes to the heart of the matter, because the gun-control advocates--it isn't so much that they are against guns; they're just against the idea of killing. Guns kill people. And there is simply no way the two sides are ever going to be able to come to terms. But I think the idea of gun control is going to die with this decision. Dan Henninger Wall Street Journal columnist and deputy editor March 24, 2008 The Journal Editorial Report http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120629112223057903.html ---- You may in vain mention to them the duties upon tea, etc. These things, they will say, do not affect them. But tell them of the robbery of the magazine, and that the next step will be to disarm them, and they will be ready to fly to arms to defend themselves. Patrick Henry Henry, William Wirt, I Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence, and Speeches (Sprinkle Publications, Harrisonburg, Va. 1993), p. 279. ---- They tell us we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall be we stronger? Will it be next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies have bound us hand and foot? We are not weak if we make a proper use of the means which the God of Nature has placed in our power. Millions of peple armed in the holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible. Besides, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinines of nations, who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Many cry 'Peace, peace' -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! Why stand we here idle? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. Forbig it Almighty God! I know not what course other may take; But as for me, give me Liberty or give me death! -Patrick Henry- ---- The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun. -- Patrick Henry ---- I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. -- Patrick Henry Speech, March 23, 1775 ---- Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined. Patrick Henry Speech of June 5 1788 ---- Your vote isn't a bet on who's going to win the election. It's a statement of who you are. Karl Hess, Fundraising Letter written on behalf of the Libertarian Party, 11/90. ---- It is evil, and we must defeat it. Charlton Heston 1997 This quote was used in the "No on I-676" campaign. Initiative 676 was a gun registration and mandated training scheme. ---- It's a gun. It's an instrument of death. It's the most violent, the most vile instrument of death you could have in your house. [...] I'd love to be able to take your hand gun. Tim Heyne August 16, 2007 TIM HEYNE TURNS TRAGEDY TO TRIUMPH http://www.vcreporter.com/article.php?id=5038&IssueNum=137 ---- Opinions are like assholes -- everyone's got one, but nobody wants to look at the other guy's. -- Hal Hickman ---- The people of the various provinces are forbidden to have in their possession any swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other types of arms. The possession of these elements makes difficult the collection of taxes and dues, and tends to permit uprising. Therefore, the heads of provinces, official agents and deputies are ordered to collect all the weapons mentioned above and turn them over to the government. Toyotomi Hideyoshit Shogun August 29, 1558 Japan ---- Our laws can be friendly to those who obey them, and too often useful to those who don't. - Cullen Hightower ---- Talk is cheap - except when Congress does it. Cullen Hightower ---- The mistakes made by Congress wouldn't be so bad if the next Congress didn't keep trying to correct them. Cullen Hightower ---- People die every day. I'm used to it. I live in D.C. Wanda Hill 17 years old Tackling Gun Violence And the Scars It Leaves http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/10/AR2008021002394.html ---- Charlton Heston was a good and decent man, as well as a fine actor and a brave one, who did his own stunts. Some people can't work out how the same person courageously went on civil rights demonstrations long before it was fashionable, and equally courageously opposed the authoritarian, futile silliness of 'gun control' when that cause wasn't fashionable either. The two things are completely linked. Both are causes of liberty and justice, and both got him into trouble with received opinion. Gun control, much imposed by dictatorships, restricts gun ownership to the State, to criminals and (in this country) certain officially approved terrorists. It bans law-abiding people from defending themselves, even where the State is not doing its job. Peter Hitchens April 12, 2008 The week they sowed the seeds of a British secret police http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/mailonsunday.html?in_article_id=559223 ---- 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. Adolph Hitler One attribution has it as: 'Berlin Daily' (Loose English Translation) April 15th, 1935 Page 3 Article 2 by Einleitung Von Eberhard Beckmann - "Abschied vom Hessenland!" Probably a hoax. See: http://www.rkba.org/research/rkba.faq and http://www.urbanlegends.com/politics/hitler_gun_control.html ---- There is no such thing as truth either in the moral or in the scientific sense. The needs of the State are the sole determining factor. What may be necessary today need not be so tomorrow. This is not a question of theoretical suppositions, but of practical decision dictated by existing circumstances. Therefore, I may - nay - must - change or repudiate under changed conditions tomorrow what I consider correct today. -Adolph Hitler- Rauschning The Voice of Destruction, pp. 223 ---- The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so. Adolph Hitler ---- Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless. -Adolf Hitler- ---- If any citizen wants to possess arms, let him join the Party. Adolf Hitler ---- Everyone in Germany is a National Socialist - the few outside the party are either lunatics or idiots. - Adolf Hitler - ---- Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise. -Adolf Hitler- ---- All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it. Therefore, the intellectual level of the propaganda must be lower the larger the number of people who are to be influenced by it. -Adolf Hitler- ---- The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one. -Adolf Hitler- ---- I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work. -Adolf Hitler- ---- The pistol ban was one of those knee-jerk things. I think people realize now that the pistol ban hasn't done anything to reduce gun crime. Kate Hoey Labor Party lawmaker London From UK Competitive Shooters Can't Train at Home http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1392734.html ---- What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else? Eric Hoffer- (1902-83), U.S. philosopher. The Passionate State of Mind, aph. 111 (1955). ---- Scratch an intellectual and you find a would-be aristocrat who loathes the sight, the sound and the smell of common folk. Eric Hoffer First Things, Last Things 1970 ---- Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movem ent offers them unlimited opportunities for both. Eric Hoffer Section 75, The True Believer ---- The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it. -- Abbie Hoffman ---- I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they kill, there would be no more war. - Abbie Hoffman ---- It would appear that socialism really works under some circumstances. Karl Marx just had the wrong species. -Hollander & Wilson- Journey to the Ants (1994) ---- "Legal" doesn't necessarily mean "good" -- or "right" -- or "reasonable". Do you really just base your actions on what is and isn't _legal_? Do you really just hand over all your decision-making power to the government?" - Diane Holt - ---- Those who say that life is worth living at any cost have already written for themselves an epitaph of infamy, for there is no cause and no person that they will not betray to stay alive. - Sidney Hook - American Philosopher ---- Kyoto was about hobbling America's economy to give socialist Europe a fighting chance. When considers Europeans cries about Kyoto it's critical to remember the dream of the environmentalists is global governance. Christopher Horner The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism) ---- And one of the things I don't admire about America is their ... slavish love of guns. They're evil. John Howard Prime Minister of Australia March 01, 2006 The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18311205%255E1702,00.html ---- The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home; and these are ignorance, superstition, and incompetence. - Elbert Hubbard - ---- Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science. - Edwin Powell Hubble - ---- The Founding Fathers weren't worried about our being able to bag a duck or a deer, they were worried about our keeping our fundamental freedoms. Mike Huckabee ---- Huffman's rule of firearms law: Firearms law are so complex, victimless, and nonsensical that almost every firearms owner breaks multiple laws without knowing it. A general rule to compute the earned prison time for crimes committed is to multiply the number of years of activity in the shooting sports by five. -Joe Huffman- (Who, if caught and convicted, would spend the rest of his life in prison) 12/16/97 ---- IPSC And Using Firearms For Self Defense To me IPSC is about shooting 'bad guys'. It is about using a gun to defend self, family, and country. If someone were to ask me if IPSC was training people to shoot other people I would reply with an enthusiastic "YES!". There are some people that need to be shot. And if the time comes that they need to be shot and I'm the one that must do the shooting my speed, accuracy, and power will be some of the critical items in deciding who walks away from the encounter and who leaves on a stretcher. For some government, or some naive group of people with political clout, to claim a moral high ground and demand that I stop practicing shooting at people is ludicrous. Self defense is a right all species on this planet have claimed for all time. For someone to deny me the opportunity to practice it is as alien to me as anything I can imagine. It causes an internal reaction of outrage in me that I find difficult to express accurately. If the world IPSC organization wants to add another target to achieve political advantage in some country or to gain entrance to the Olympics, fine. If necessary, as a first step, shoot with single shot air guns. Do what you have to in those areas where shooting real guns at (somewhat) realistic targets is not viable. But don't take away the fundamental principles of this 'game' from everyone -- shooting 'bad guys', fast, accurately, and with 'stopping power'. -Joe Huffman- March 12, 1998 ---- Banning guns to prevent crime is like banning cosmetics to prevent prostitution. -Joe Huffman- May 9, 1997 ---- Crime "prevention" is a very hot button for me. There is no limit to the evil that can be justified and/or enabled once you accept the premise that it is acceptable to prevent crime by restricting liberty. -Joe Huffman- December 3, 1998 6:53 PM Microsoft Gun Club Public Folder ---- What hope can you have for the fighting spirit and love of liberty of the American patriot when he/she is worrying about the cosmetics of their gun stock and whether or not the firearm has a bayonet lug? Without any bayonet no less! -Joe Huffman- Dec 12, 1995 ---- Basically, IPSC is, and rightly so, about shooting people. Some people need to be shot. Get over it. Joe Huffman Fri January 15, 1999 12:52 PM Unofficial IPSC email Discussion List ---- Man is constantly struggling with moral issues. Those who claim to know the most about these issues are nearly always the ones who know the least. -Doug Huffman- ---- One of the more serious problems with our modern society is that the evolution of man has changed directions. The lesser intelligent people multiply much faster than the more intelligent people. -Doug Huffman- ---- In the beginning Mother Nature created the heavens, the earth and all life. Man realizing this, created God in his image and likeness. Then killed Mother Nature's animals for sport and plumes for his hats, plundered the land for fuel and metals for his machines of destruction, fouled the rivers with sewage and toxic wastes till they became fire hazards. And even this was not enough, so man cut down the majestic trees to make paper and wipe the shit from his ass. -Doug Huffman- ---- Inalienable rights are not asked or pleaded for. They are demanded and taken, by force if necessary. Stop this unjustified attack on our unalienable rights. Joe Huffman February 2, 2000 Regarding gun control laws. ---- The only reason the American people will ever really NEED the number of firearms they have is if the American government tries to take those firearms away. -Joe Huffman- December 1, 1995 ---- We have a legal system, not a "justice" system. Doug Huffman September 8, 2005 9:27 PM ---- Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizen to keep and bear arms... The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in American but which historically has proven to be always possible. -Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey- (1960) ---- If there is anything in the theory of survival of the fittest, a lot of the people we know must have been overlooked. Col. William C. Hunter ---- Gun control: Being able to hit a moving target at 500 yards with one shot, one kill, henceforth conserving your ammunition for further skirmishes and engagements. -Howard Hutchinson- Direct ---- There is, of course, no reason why the new totalitarianisms should resemble the old. Government by clubs and firing squads, by artificial famine, mass imprisonment and mass deportation, is not merely inhumane (nobody cares much about that nowadays); it is demonstrably inefficient and, in an age of advanced technology, inefficiency is the sin against the Holy Ghost. A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors, and school teachers. ....[such propagandists] accomplish their greatest triumphs, not by doing something, but by refraining from doing. Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have done by the most eloquent denunciations, the most compelling of logical rebuttals. -Aldous Huxley- Literature Brave New World, 1946 revised foreword ---- In this sense strict anarchy may be the highest conceivable grade of perfection of social existence; for, if all men spontaneously did justice and loved mercy, it is plain that all swords might advantageously be turned into plowshares, and that the occupation of judges and police would be gone. - Thomas H. Huxley - ---- You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and liberty. -- Henrick Ibson ---- I object to the term "born" for any of those slimeballs. "Hatched" is probably closer although most are turds so would more appropriately have been "shat". Kevin Imel Tuesday, January 23, 2007 2:47 PM In an email to: LewistonPistol@googlegroups.com [In response to an urban legend kind of email that mistakenly claimed the birth month and year for the following politicians we re all the same: Albert Arnold Gore Jr., Hillary Rodham John F. Kerry William Jefferson Clinton Howard Dean Nancy Pelosi Dianne Feinstein Charles E. Schumer Barbara Boxer] ---- The Deacons forced the Klan to re-evaluate their actions and often change their undergarments. Roy Innis http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/KenBlackwell/2007/02/06/second_amendment_freedoms_aided_the_civil_rights_movement?page=full& comments=true ---- If an organization carries the word United in its title, it means it isn't. Charles I. Issawi ---- I think people have the right to bear arms at a hunting reserve. But you're not hunting deer with semi-automatic weapons. We're going to keep protesting until America becomes more conscious of the domestic terrorism allowed by guns. Rev. Jesse Jackson Arrest motivates Jackson to fight for gun control http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-jackson_25jun25,1,7093078.story?coll=chi-newslocalwest-hed ---- 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. -- Justice Robert H. Jackson ---- What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation that accepts the abortion of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? What kind of a person, and what kind of a society, will we have in 20 years hence if life can be taken so casually? -Jesse Jackson- E-mail 1977 ---- The fact that it is legal does not make it moral. Jim Crow was legal, but it was not moral. Denying women the right to vote was legal, but it was not moral. Denying workers the right to organize was legal, but not moral. Rev. Jesse Jackson President of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition July 12, 2007 http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_3694.shtml ---- Bolt Actions speak louder than words. Jayson AKA SAVOIE 6 From http://www.snipersparadise.com/quotes1.htm ---- I read a great many of the responses to Douglas Weil's spiel on CCW and his attack on John Lott. Perhaps some might find it interesting, that first of all, Douglas Weil's degree ScD (doctorate of science) is only an honorary degree, and not earned. In my case, i earned my degree, in a field I pioneered: Analytical Investigative Science. I know Doug Weil, I know what he is and I know how he does things. If he can't get the numbers he wants, he takes somebody elses numbers and plays with them, to make them say what he wants. If numbers aren't available, he invents them. Doug Weil is 100% committed to Hand Gun Control, Inc. and the disarming of America. To characterize him as anything less than totally Socialist minded, would be to honor him. The numbers he used in this article were twisted and misused. JBD, ScD. (Initials used @ employers request) 3/30/98 From http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/98/0326/iccon.asp ---- He has erected a multitude of New Offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. -Thomas Jefferson- The Declaration of Independence Listing the abuses of King George III ---- No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms. --Thomas Jefferson ---- Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations. - Thomas Jefferson - ---- A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on Earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference. Thomas Jefferson Letter to James Madison Dec. 20, 1787 ---- Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them... Thomas Jefferson 1816 Letter to Van der Kemp ---- It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Thomas Jefferson Notes on the State of Virginia 1781 [Although this is widely attributed to Jefferson and this particular set of documents I have been unable to find it here: http://oll.libertyfund.org/ToC/0054-03.php ---- A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt...If the game runs sometime against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake. 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 ---- That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. Thomas Jefferson ---- The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Thomas Jefferson ---- The tree of liberty from time to time must be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants; it is its natural manure. -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- Thomas Jefferson Papers 334 (C.J.Boyd, Ed., 1950) ---- No man can bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it. -Thomas Jefferson- ---- The policy of the American Government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining them, nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson- ---- Laws against the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither disposed nor inclined toward violence. --Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesaro Beccari ---- If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy. -- Thomas Jefferson ---- What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. -Thomas Jefferson- Letter Nov. 13, 1787 referring to Shay's rebellion ---- I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. Thomas Jefferson ---- Advertisement: The most truthful part of a newspaper. -- Thomas Jefferson ---- I sincerely believe . . . that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. -Thomas Jefferson- Letter May 28, 1816 to senator John Taylor ---- Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. Motto found among the papers of Thomas Jefferson. Also attributed to Ben Franklin. ---- The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. -Thomas Jefferson- ---- "Seeing Al Gore trying to talk sense to Ross Perot was like watching Meathead spar with Archie Bunker. The debate I'd pay $19.95 to watch on pay-per-view would be Hillary Clinton vs. Rush Limbaugh on health care (or anything else)." -- Tom Jicha, Sun-Sentinel ---- You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered. Lyndon Johnson ---- The four great powers of man: law, money, thought and violence were thus divided among the people and not reserved exclusively to the connected, the rich, the approved, and the enlisted. That's the basis of our Republic. That's America. And that is, apparently, a total surprise to liberals. Mac Johnson Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found March 15, 2007 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19810 ---- Forgive me if I'm wrong, but didn't we have this discussion with you folks about 223 years ago? I'd have thought that having the road between Lexington and Concord fertilized with dead Redcoats answered that question back then. "...If my ancestors would have been armed, they wouldn't have been slaves..." -JJ Johnson- Black American gun-owner Answering the poll question "Should America ban the handgun?" on BBC News -- March 1998 ---- But the deeper reason behind the hysteria over the decision is that for decades the left has been able to make the Constitution into whatever it wanted. The actual words did not matter. When words -- even just 27 words -- mean exactly what they say, then the power to dictate law from a "living" Constitution disappears and liberals are reduced to trying to persuade people that they are right -- a daunting task. When a court can decide that the 2nd Amendment must be respected, the left is on a slippery slope indeed. Who knows what amendment might be rediscovered next? Personally, I vote for the 10th. Regardless, if the trend is allowed to continue, it will be a disaster for the dictatorial left. Thus, I predict the decision will be appealed. Mac Johnson Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found March 15, 2007 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19810 ---- The Founding Fathers systematically democratized the powers of society through the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They democratized the power of law through the right to vote. They democratized the power of wealth through the right to private property (since repealed by environmentalists and courts). They democratized the power of ideas through the right to free speech (since repealed by McCain/Feingold). And they democratized the power of violence (or the capability to commit it) through the right to bear arms (since repealed by "gun control"). Mac Johnson Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found March 15, 2007 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19810 ---- A number of sources on the left held up for praise in the decision the one dissenting judge, Karen LeCraft Henderson, whose opinion that the gun ban was constitutionally permissible was based on at least two stellar deductions. The first was that since the District of Columbia is not a state (as in "necessary to the security of a free State…"), then the 2nd Amendment did not apply in that part of America. This is a wonderful precedent, not only for the District, but also for America's other territories such a Puerto Rico. According to this same logic, Amendments 14, 15, 19, 24 and 26 (among others) do not apply in the District either, which means the District is free to a) deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, b) deny the vote to blacks, c) deny the vote to women, d) institute a poll tax, and e) deny the vote based on age. Clearly, Henderson deserves her new status as a liberal hero. Mac Johnson Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found March 15, 2007 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19810 ---- What the left does not get about the 2nd Amendment is that it is not about the National Guard, or sporting firearms or gun collections. It does not guarantee the government an army, nor does it guarantee civilians the right to hunt and shoot skeet. It's about the right of the people to maintain some portion of the ultimate power of government -- violence -- to themselves. Mac Johnson Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found March 15, 2007 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19810 ---- Henderson's second insight was that despite the right belonging to "the people" in the amendment, it actually belonged only to the militia as an organized military force. To believe this, you have to believe that the United States is the only nation on Earth that felt a need to guarantee its government, in writing, the right to have an army -- which is possible, I suppose, if Jefferson foresaw the attitude of the modern Democrat party towards the military. Mac Johnson Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found March 15, 2007 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19810 ---- According to the Washington Post, which upon hearing of the decision had a small editorial seizure it called "A Dangerous Ruling," the court's plain reading of the Bill of Rights has given "a new and dangerous meaning to the 2nd Amendment." Apparently, when the Post reads the amendment according to the ancient and safe interpretation (which goes all the way back to the 1970s) all it sees is: The Population of the nanny State, being composed of irresponsible rednecks, rejects, and retards, must not be allowed to have Arms. Mac Johnson Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found March 15, 2007 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19810 ---- It's hard to argue with the mayor when one looks at the cold hard facts: today's murder rate is just 26% higher than it was when the gun ban was put in place in 1978, down from a peak of just 128% higher in 1991 before a nationwide decline in crime driven by demographics took hold. With results like that, I'm not sure D.C. can afford to have its gun violence "decreased" any further. Mac Johnson Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found March 15, 2007 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19810 ---- "[T]his radical ruling will inevitably mean more people killed and wounded as keeping guns out of the city becomes harder," the Post continued, sagely foreseeing a day in the near future when the district might not be the safe gunfree enclave of sanity that it now is. One wonders if D.C. might someday even become the murder capital of the United States without its protective cloak of gun control disarming its law-abiding citizens. Mac Johnson Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found March 15, 2007 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19810 ---- ARE YOU A MENACE TO CRIMINALS? If householders were required by law to own and know how to use revolvers, burglary would cease. It is an act of good citizenship to make crime dangerous -- an encouragement of crime to remain defenseless. -- from an Iver Johnson revolver ad, circa 1904 ---- Very few men are wise by their own council; or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself, had a fool for a master. - Ben Jonson - ---- They call being a doctor practicing because when you get it right you can quit. D. Wylie Jordan, M.D. ---- ...this is something we've got over the Europeans: the ability to organize a friendly outing of shooting rifles at targets packed with home-made explosives out in rural Idaho is our birthright. On the other hand, in Cambodia, for the right fee, you can shoot an RPG at a live cow. So there's that to consider. Outlandish Josh March 13, 2006 In his blog posting AMERICA! http://www.outlandishjosh.com/wordpress/?p=1447 ---- In the fight between you and the world, back the world. Franz Kafka ---- Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy. - Franz Kafka - ---- Nobody who supports the Second Amendment has anything to fear from me. Tim Kaine Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Former Richmond Mayor who used city funds to help bus Richmond activists to the "Million Mom March" in Washington, D.C., in 2000. From the Roanke Times May 15, 2005 http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke%5C23652.html [A reminder of how far we have come in the past few years.] ---- Unfortunately, an almost perfect inverse correlation exists between those who are affected by gun laws, particularly bans, and those whom enforcement should affect. Those easiest to disarm are the responsible and law abiding citizens whose guns represent no meaningful social problem. Irresponsible and criminal owners, whose gun possession creates or exacerbates so many social ills, are the ones most difficult to disarm. Don Kates http://www.guncite.com/journals/tennmed.html ---- The burden of proof rests on the proponents of the more guns equal more death and fewer guns equal less death mantra, especially since they argue public policy ought to be based on that mantra. To bear that burden would be at the very least require showing that a large number of nations with more guns have more death and that nations that have imposed stringent gun controls have achieved substantial reductions in criminal violence (or suicide). But those correlations are not observed when a large number of nations are compared across the world. Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International and Some Domestic Evidence Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Volume 30, Number 2, Spring 2007. http://www.garymauser.net/pdf/KatesMauserHJPP.pdf ---- The gun control debate is not really about criminology but rather about bigotry. Don Kates Constitutional lawyer and criminologist July 2, 1994 http://www.hoboes.com/pub/Firearms/Essays/Don%20Kates/Don%20Kates%20at%20Sacramento%20Rally ---- Where there are grazers there will be predators. They said that on Discovery last night in a documentary on undersea micro environments. I think it applies to human society as well. Lyle Keeney November 26, 2007 ---- Did you ever notice the things we do and consider worthless we call "academic"? Lyle Keeney December 29, 2006 ---- The power of Liberty is often called depravity by those who do not possess it. Lyle Keeney Comment on The View From North Central Idaho February 27, 2006 ---- It makes little difference how a bigot thinks, when it is plain that they are bigots. Bigots must only be defeated. Understanding what makes them tick is of purely academic interest. Lyle Keeney March 20, 2007 Comment on the blog "The View From North Central Idaho". ---- I feel confident that, if evolution had succeeded in tracing man from a fallen angel and not from a risen ape, . . .antagonism to evolution would have gone by the board. - Sir Arthur Keith - ---- Gun confiscation won't happen in my lifetime. Pat Kelly IPSC Grandmaster Wily Coyote Three Gun Shoot Whitebird, Idaho August 1998 ---- If you wants to get elected president, you'se got to think up some memoraboble homily so's school kids can be pestered into memorizin' it, even if they don't know what it means. -- Walt Kelly, "The Pogo Party" ---- I do not believe that a lasting peace is achieved by armed force but I pay tribute to their courage and thank those who played a part in my rescue. Norman Kember British hostage held in Iraq for almost four months. March 25, 2006 http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&click_id=2813&art_id=qw1143299160284I621&set_id=6 After being rescued by British, Canadian, and U.S. military forces. [Mr. Kember apparently thinks we are still at war with German, Italy, and Japan.--Joe] ---- The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission. John F. Kennedy ---- If you make peaceful dissent difficult, you make violent dissent inevitable. -John F. Kennedy- E-mail ---- And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy ---- I hear it said that West Berlin is militarily untenable - and so was Bastogne, and so, in fact, was Stalingrad. Any danger spot is tenable if men - brave men - will make it so. John F. Kennedy ---- Israel was not created in order to disappear - Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom. John F. Kennedy ---- Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce. John F. Kennedy ---- Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. John F. Kennedy ---- Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quickly building new structures. And however undramatic the pursuit of peace, that pursuit must go on. - John F. Kennedy - ---- There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction. John F. Kennedy ---- We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. John F. Kennedy ---- The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963) ---- Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. -- John F. Kennedy ---- Washington [D.C.] is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm. -- John F. Kennedy ---- The mere absence of war is not peace. - John F. Kennedy - ---- I like having a very direct and very powerful impact on worker safety and health. If you put out a reg, it matters. I think that's really where the thrill comes from. And it is a thrill; it's a high... I love it; I absolutely love it. I was born to regulate. I don't know why, but that's very true. So as long as I'm regulating, I'm happy. Marthe Kent OSHA director of safety standards program. National Review's Internet Update June 26, 2000 ---- At some point you have to decide whether you're going to be a politician or an engineer. You cannot be both. To be a politician is to champion perception over reality. To be an engineer is to make perception subservient to reality. They are opposites. You can't do both simultaneously. H. W. Kenton ---- For once I'd really like to see a 'women's' self defense book or whatever saying (show picture of IPSC target): "Here's a pressure point. Apply 124 grains of pressure." Buji Kern March 17, 1999 ---- I know the business community considers us a bunch of vultures who just got done with one corpse and are looking for another, but the truth is that tobacco had to pay in no small measure because of what we did. Robert Kerrigan Referring to plans concerning legal action against gun makers. From http://www1.jointogether.org/gv/wire/news/reader.jtml?Object_ID=256867 as of 1/5/98 ---- We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. - Martin Luther King, Jr. ---- A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. - Martin Luther King - ---- I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what selfcentered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up. I still believe that we shall overcome. - Martin Luther King - ---- Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. -Martin Luther King, Jr.- Literature Strength To Love ---- Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. - Martin Luther King, Jr ---- Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Martin Luther King, Jr. ---- The question is no longer between violence and non-violence; it is between non-violence and non-existence. - Martin Luther King, Jr ---- Rarely do we find men who willingly to engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think. - Martin Luther King, Jr ---- Personally I dread the weighty taxes, grinding inconveniences, and petty indignities of the leviathan state more than I dread violent confrontation with its enforcers. -Paul Kirchner- From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 1 13 January 1995 ---- Watching the unfolding political debate, it occurs to me that liberals feel the same way about truth that Dracula feels about sunlight. -Paul Kirchner- From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 5 31 March 1995 ---- Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad name. -Henry Kissinger- 1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar ---- The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself. -- Henry Kissinger ---- THE STORY that amused me most in 1998 came out of the Christopher Hitchens' column in The Nation: "At a glamorous book launch given by Vogue for Katharine Graham, a Nation colleague of mine was introduced to Henry Kissinger. On hearing the name of the magazine, the doctor drew back. "The Nation? So I suppose you think I am a war criminal?" Yielding to that fatal instinct that sometimes urges people to be laid-back and unpredictable, my comrade attempted a pleasantry and observed that in these post-Cold War days, the old mag was just as likely to describe - who knows? - Bill Clinton as a war criminal. Kissinger stared into his cocktail and said slowly and distinctly, `Mr. Clinton does not have the strength of character to be a war criminal.'" From Paul Smith January 13, 1999 ---- The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a bit longer. -- Henry Kissinger ---- If I knew then what I know now I never would have helped to develop the bomb. - George Kistiakowsky - ---- So however much some people might yearn for gun control, it seems unlikely that it would have prevented Cho from achieving his ends. He had substitutes available, he had more than one means available to achieve his ends, and he plotted long enough to hit upon other means -- especially since those other means are described in detail on TV, in the newspapers, and on the internet every day. Scott A. Kjar May 2, 2007 Why Economists Tend to Oppose Gun Control Laws http://www.mises.org/story/2562 ---- There has never been a serious study to determine what - if any - impact the multi-Billion dollar NICS program has had on violent crime and criminal misuse of firearms. Instead, every evaluation of NICS has been based on the number of transactions and denials the system processes and how quickly they do their job. Stopping sales does not necessarily equate to reducing crime and it is well past time for the Government Accounting Office and the Justice Department to examine the true value of this expensive intrusion on civil rights. Jeff Knox Director of Operations The Firearms Coalition fcalerts-list -- News from The Firearms Coalition June 13, 2007 ---- Without freedom there will be no firearms among the people; without firearms among the people there will not long be freedom. Certainly there are examples of countries where the people remain relatively free after the people have been disarmed, but there are no examples of a totalitarian state being created or existing where the people have personal arms. -Neal Knox- From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 4, No. 7 June 1996 ---- The media figured out long ago that it's a bad idea to show streakers and unruly fans at football and baseball games. When some idiot runs out onto the field in his birthday suit the cameras cut away and the announcers just comment that there’s an idiot screwing up the game. They never publicize the moron’s name or discuss his actions because they know that the publicity will just encourage some other moron to play copy-cat. For some reason they can’t maintain that kind of standard when mass murder is involved. They seek out the murderer’s family and friends, they publish their rants and photo’s and they give the bastards exactly what they want -- fame. I’m just a little-bitty corner of the media; a small voice crying out in the wilderness, but I will never again name a murderer or play a role in keeping his memory alive. I hope that others in the media will grow a conscience and do likewise. I don’t expect it, but I will continue to hope. Jeff Knox February 15, 2008 Copy Cats The Firearms Coalition http://www.firearmscoalition.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=202&Itemid=29 ---- I can't endorse the bill because it is wasteful and supports an unconstitutional program, but I won't oppose it because it contains provisions that I consider critically important -- things I've been writing about for years -- correcting the injustices of permanently denying Second Amendment rights, without recourse, to tens of thousands of people. Maybe I'm missing something and maybe I'm wrong, but at this point, I think our energy can be expended in much more productive ways -- making sure Tiahrt passes comes to mind. Jeff Knox Hard Corps Report May - June 2007 Volume 4, Issue 3 ---- It is the large brain capacity which allows man to live as a human being, enjoying taxes, canned salmon, television, and the atomic bomb. - G. H. R. von Koenigswald - ---- Americans run an idea up the flagpole to see if it gets any salutes, but the British let an idea get broody to see if anything will hatch. - Paul A. Kolers - ---- The political, economic and social consequences of the anarchic proliferation of light weapons are well known. They are the millions of victims, most of them civilians, the displaced populations with their tears and suffering, the phenomena of child soldiers, terrorism and wide-scale banditry in urban areas. This belief in disarmament does not proceed from idealism, or from naivete. The best strategy for prevention of armed conflict is to eliminate the means of violence. Alphan Oumar Konare President of Mali Oslo, April 1998 From http://www.prepcom.org/low/index.html ---- I would have launched the same assault on obesity that I did on smoking. --Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, commenting on what he would have done if he had been in office longer. ---- I believe the Supreme Court's review should not be limited to the construction of the Second Amendment. The court also should consider whether its enunciated constitutional right of privacy extends to an individual's right to possess a handgun in his home. [...] The Supreme Court has held that the zone of privacy applies only to "fundamental" personal rights. Also, the privacy of one's home has been particularly important to the court: thus, in Payton v. New York the court described the zone of privacy as unambiguously applying to an individual's home. Therefore, the Supreme Court should consider not only whether an individual's right to possess a handgun in his home is expressly protected by the Second Amendment; but, in addition, whether the possession of a handgun within one's home is a fundamental right protected under the court's recognition of a zone of privacy. Don Kornreich The Second Amendment, gun control and the right of privacy Originally published January 27, 2008 http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_columnist.htm?StoryID=70474 ---- anti-gun lobbyists think that anyone, at any time, can turn into a raving lunatic and, if armed, start effectively killing people. laura is an example, having said something pretty much to this effect in this folder at one time or other. under this operating idea, firearms bans would be a pretty good idea. they also tend to think that collections of people act more rationally than individuals, and that therefore, governments which represent collections of people (rather than, say, parasitic elites) are not to be taken as concerns. pro-gun lobbyists think that most people will not turn into raving lunatics, under pretty much any circumstances; those that do are the fairly rare exceptions that the rest of us sane folk need to be able to protect ourselves against. under this paradeigm, firearms bans make no sense whatsoever, as the lunatics and criminals won't care about them anyway. they also tend to think that collections of people are more likely to get Real Bad Ideas than individuals (the mob effect, or as put in Men in Black, "A person is smart. People are weird, panicky and stupid.") and have more power to exercise those Real Bad Ideas. Therefore, power groups (such as governments) are to be monitored carefully and not allowed to accumulate too much power. both, fundamentally, have fear issues. the question is, whose fears ring true with you? From: Dar Korra'ti Posted At: Friday, August 14, 1998 11:23 AM Posted To: Right vs Left Discussion (Microsoft public folder) ---- Access taxes and proficiency tests for exercising your rights are very much alive for black Americans, and all Americans, if you wish to exercise your right to keep and bear arms. Alan Korwin August 04, 2006 http://pagenine.typepad.com/page_nine/2006/08/bush_acts_polit.html ---- The level of intensity in that courtroom defies description. The brain power those nine people brought to bear, on top of the months of prep from the litigants, was exhausting. Any more time than we spent would have been overwhelming. It’s a good thing it’s kept to an hour (and this case ran 38 minutes long, quite rare). You just fit everything in, then declare an ending. Alan Korwin March 20, 2008 D.C. v. Heller Eyewitness Report -- Analysis 1 http://pagenine.typepad.com/page_nine/2008/03/dc-v-heller-e-2.html ---- The AP's apparent love, and frequent use of the word "czar," is an affront to the entire American public. A czar is a merciless dictator, not subject to the will of the people, operating ruthlessly in pre-Communist Russia. The suggestion by the AP and their hopelessly anti-freedom unthinking lapdog followers in the lamestream media, that the U.S. has a drug "czar," and education "czar," a fiscal policy "czar," and numerous other czars has gotten the public and officials to accept the word, without realizing just how brainwashed they have become. Even if some twisted politician somewhere was the first to apply the word in some unknown circumstance, a proper reporter would say, in effect, "Although politician X called the new bureaucrat a 'czar,' the salaried government worker is actually only a mere employee, subject to reprimand, dismissal and the rule of law." Alan Korwin May 18, 2007 Czars Overrunning America http://pagenine.typepad.com/page_nine/2007/05/czars_overrunni.html ---- Our nation and much of the developed world, thanks to digital technologies, is moving quickly toward a universal background database. Eventually, experts say, you'll need your thumbprint (or similar) to ride an elevator, board transit, buy groceries (or anything), open accounts, get fuel or use your computer online. The most free places on earth will be the most primitive, like Africa, where human activity will remain largely untrackable. Alan Korwin New Gun Control Law to Monitor Entire Population in Central Database ---- Popularity isn't the basis for war. The struggle for human freedom is. War is ugly by design, and instigated by tyrants, oppressors, fascists, religious fanatics bent on world domination, and other enemies of freedom. Alan Korwin April 2, 2007 Genocidal Peace Supporters http://pagenine.typepad.com/page_nine/2007/04/index.html ---- There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking. - Alfred Korzybski - ---- You know, of course, that the current head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is Louis Freeh. In noting our comments recently concerning Mr. Freeh and Benjamin Franklin, correspondent Jordan Kossack of Stafford, Texas, has sent us a card paraphrasing the motto emblazoned upon the Alamo, to wit: "Freedom isn't Freeh." Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 5 31 March 1995 ---- In the future, if nuclear weapons are unleashed, there will be no front and no rear. - Nakita S. Krushcler - ---- We care more for our liberties than to meekly hand over to the federal government the potential to ennumerate, track, identify and eventually control. It's not going to promote national security. It's not going to help us prevent illegal immigration. It's just going to help the government keep tabs on ordinary citizens. Neal Kurk State Representative, New Hampshire April 25, 2006 N.H. leads a rebellion against driver's license regulations http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2006/04/25/nh_leads_a_rebellion_against_drivers_license_regulations/ ---- Obama’s eight years on the board of the Joyce Foundation, which paid him more than $70,000 in directors fees, do not in any way conflict with his campaign-trail support for the rights of gun owners. Ben LaBolt April 2008 Obama linked to gun control efforts Spokesman for Obama's presidential campaign in a statement issued to Politico this week. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9722.html ---- Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it. Richard Lamm ---- No one has the right to destroy another person's belief by demanding empirical evidence. - Ann Landers, nationally syndicated advice columnist and Director of Handgun Control, Inc. ---- If more gun control doesn't mitigate crime, then what does it do? Look no further than any authoritarian state or society in history. Look no further than our own Southern backyard under the Jim Crow laws — laws that in many states still had a significant presence only 50 years ago. What was one of the first things these laws did to Southern blacks? They took their guns away. In a society where even the authorities were complacent with lynching and other hate crimes, whom else could a law-abiding citizen turn to for defense against a frequently racist government and society than himself? As in many other instances of the past, gun control was used to oppress people, to remove checks and balances on despicable government policies and, in short, to do what it implies: control. David Lapidus April 24, 2007 Gun control unfair to law-abiding citizens http://badgerherald.com/oped/2007/04/24/gun_control_unfair_t.php The Badger Herald ---- It's an ominous day: The enemy has occupied headquarters, control has fallen into their hands, and freedom is once again calling for her defenders. Wayne LaPierre November 9, 2006 http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=61 ---- New Orleans was the first place in American history to disarm peaceable citizens, house-by-house, at gunpoint. And I promise you this standing here today: We at the NRA are going to make sure it's the last place it ever happens. Never again can Michael Bloomberg or Rebecca Peters or Mike Wallace, or the United Nations, or the Brady Center, or anywhere else say that honest citizens don't need firearms because what happened in New Orleans proves beyond a shadow of a doubt what we've said all along. The next time some arrogant politician looks at you and says, 'Why does anyone need to own a gun?' I want you to look them straight in the face and say this: 'Remember New Orleans!'" 'Why do you need to own a gun?' Remember New Orleans! 'Aren't you just being kind of paranoid?' Remember New Orleans! 'Why does anyone need right to carry?' Remember New Orleans! 'What makes you think our government would ever try to confiscate your guns?' Remember New Orleans! 'Is the Second Amendment really relevant in the 21st Century?' Remember New Orleans! Wayne LaPierre Executive Vice President National Rifle Association ---- Senator McCain is the only one in the race that has a pro-gun record of any kind. I think the mouthing of a pro-Second Amendment stance by Senators Clinton and Obama and pandering to gun owners is an embarrassment and I don't believe it will work. Wayne LaPierre May 13, 2008 Q & A with the NRA's executive vice president--Gun-rights lobby to meet in Louisville this week http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080513/NEWS01/80513050 ---- Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. Doug Larson ---- So I sit and write and ponder, while the house is deaf and dumb, Seeing visions "over yonder" of the war I know must come. In the corner - not a vision - but a sign for coming days Stand a box of ammunition and a rifle in green baize. And in this, the living present, let the word go through the land, Every tradesman, clerk and peasant should have these two things at hand. No - no ranting song is needed, and no meeting, flag or fuss - In the future, still unheeded, shall the spirit come to us! Without feathers, drum or riot on the day that is to be, We shall march down, very quiet, to our stations by the sea. While the bitter parties stifle every voice that warns of war, Every man should own a rifle and have cartridges in store! Henry Lawson http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Henry_Lawson Every Man Should have a Rifle http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Henry_Lawson/19094 ---- ...the only solution is to try to drive knives from society. Already, stop-and-search squads have been put on the streets of London in a version of the contentious old "sus" laws. This, at least, is something practical that can be attempted: there is no good reason to carry blades. Mark Lawson May 16 2008 Weapons we can't handle http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/16/ukcrime.ukguns ---- Just a few short months ago, I was still caught between the walls of the positive-thought-is-all-we-need-to follow box; Now I am a gun owner, and I am positively far more capable of making sure no uninvited violence enters my home. Without the freedom to reach for a weapon of my choice, I play a less-than-active part against violence; with that freedom, I get to participate in my own life, and in those of those I love. Colleen Lawson June 24, 2007 Don't Call Me a Gun Lover http://www.gunownersagainstviolence.org/2007/06/dont_call_me_a_gun_lover.html ---- To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them. -Richard Henry Lee- Literature ---- I prefer a small government which may permit some evil to a large government that promotes evil at my expense. -Michael Lee- E-mail ---- Grain grows best in shit. U. K. LeGuin ---- The Army has carried the American ... ideal to its logical conclusion. Not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed and color, but also on ability. -- T. Lehrer ---- It would be the greatest mistake, certainly, to think that concessions mean peace. Nothing of the kind. Concessions are nothing but a new form of war. -V. I. Lenin- ---- Fans are clearly split as to whether a handgun can ever be tolerated on a superhero long regarded as a symbol of untainted righteousness. Tom Leonard Gun-toting Captain America comes back to life http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/28/wcomic128.xml January 29, 2008 ---- The 1928 Law on Firearms and Ammunition accelerated the Nazis' achievement of an iron grip on Germany: registration lists enabled the Nazis quickly to revoke firearms permits from anyone they deemed unreliable; Permitting procedures under this "gun control" law doubtless had deterred many "reliable" persons from making the application. Moreover, as the Nazis' political clout grew - and as their violence grew - some of those who might have wanted to get a firearm may not have been able to do so. Those who felt threatened by the Nazis were the ones least likely to be deemed "reliable" by a police chief sensitive to the Nazis' growing power. Lethal Laws--"Gun Control" is the Key to Genocide Page 153 By: Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman, and Alan M. Rice http://www.lethallaws.com/ ---- I think that it is very unlikely that five justices on the Supreme Court are going to say that the Second Amendment means nothing. That's what they would have to say to uphold the total ban on handguns that exists in Washington D.C. It is also especially unlikely during the heat of the 2008 election--and that is when it is going to happen--because it would be a rallying cry for the whole pro-gun committee. Just like an abortion decision that overturned Roe v. Wade would animate the pro-choice folks. That kind of political turmoil is something the court is sensitive to. Dr. Robert Levy April 19, 2007 Interview: The Way of the Gun http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2007/02/robert_levy.html Mother Jones ---- Two non-partisan, respected federal government agencies recently examined gun controls and found no statistically significant evidence to support their effectiveness. In 2004, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed 253 journal articles, 99 books, and 43 government publications evaluating 80 gun-control measures. The researchers could not identify a single gun-control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide, or accidents. A year earlier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on an independent evaluation of firearms and ammunition bans, restrictions on acquisition, waiting periods, registration, licensing, child access prevention laws, and zero tolerance laws. Conclusion: none of the laws had a meaningful impact on gun violence. Robert A. Levy September 27, 2007 The D.C. Gun Ban: Supreme Court Preview ---- They can have my opinions on the day they pry this keyboard from my cold, stiff fingers. - Roger Lewis ---- Liberty is always unfinished business. -American Civil Liberties Union- ---- No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. Abraham Lincoln ---- Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. -- Abraham Lincoln ---- Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just god, cannot long retain it. -Abraham Lincoln- ---- The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves. John Locke ---- Whoever uses force without Right... puts himself into a state of War with those, against whom he uses it, and in that state all former Ties are canceled, all other Rights cease, and every one has a Right to defend himself, and to resist the Aggressor. -John Locke- ---- From the position of the federal government, we would acknowledge that there are limits to what we can do. But there certainly should be no limits to what we try to do. Joe Lockhart White House spokesman April 22, 1999 Regarding Federal role in stopping school violence (Two days after Littleton CO school shooting.) ---- Use of spy cameras in modern-day Britain is now a chilling mirror image of Orwell's fictional world, created in the post-war Forties in a fourth-floor flat overlooking Canonbury Square in Islington, North London. On the wall outside his former residence - flat number 27B - where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move. Orwell's view of the tree-filled gardens outside the flat is under 24-hour surveillance from two cameras perched on traffic lights. The flat's rear windows are constantly viewed from two more security cameras outside a conference centre in Canonbury Place. In a lane, just off the square, close to Orwell's favourite pub, the Compton Arms, a camera at the rear of a car dealership records every person entering or leaving the pub. Within a 200-yard radius of the flat, there are another 28 CCTV cameras, together with hundreds of private, remote-controlled security cameras used to scrutinise visitors to homes, shops and offices. The message is reminiscent of a 1949 poster to mark the launch of Orwell's 1984: 'Big Brother is Watching You'. This Is London George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house March 31, 2007 http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23391081-details/George+Orwell%2C+Big+Brother+is+watching+your+house/article.do ---- Tax reform means "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree." -- Russell Long ---- Anti-gun people are anti-liberty people. There is no such thing as a righteous, good faith anti-gun position. Good people cannot endorse gun control. John Longenecker July 4, 2006 Repeal All Gun Laws, Part IV: Motivation Influences Perception http://americandaily.com/article/14395 ---- The Second Amendment isn't about guns or hunting anymore than the First Amendment is about typewriters, Mr. Mayor. It's about concepts of liberty residing in the authority of the people since the inception of the nation and written to remain that way. The First Amendment is watchdog of government in various ways and is not absolute, and the Second Amendment backs our sovereignty by force and is absolute, which authority cannot legally be taken away. Taking weapons is breaking the law because it challenges our sovereignty with abuse of process, itself backed by force. This is not leadership or governance: this is an illegal challenge to sovereign authority. Candidates who oppose personal carrying of handguns lack the understanding to serve and have only the lust to rule. The first step is, of course, to outlaw the honest. It keeps the issue of violent crime alive while people die at the hands of it. Gun control never reduces crime, but endures as an immortal, evergreen issue. Listening, 2008 Candidates? They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters - with force, if necessary. It's how 22,000 gun laws profoundly affect the non-gun owners in America: it challenges their sovereign authority, too. Repeal gun laws and stop challenging the sovereign authority of the people: protect it and serve it. John Longenecker February 13, 2007 2008: Gun Control Candidates Need Not Apply http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/02/13/56281/ ---- ---- Doug Weil is wrong to assert that there is a positive relationship between a country's level of gun ownership and murder or other crimes. Such results are only possible when a very selective set of comparison countries is used. In many countries, such as Finland, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Israel, citizens own guns as frequently as Americans, yet in 1995 Switzerland's murder rate was 40 percent lower than Germany's, and New Zealand's was lower than Australia's. Finland and Sweden have very similar murder rates but very different gun ownership rates. Israel, with one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world, has a murder rate 40 percent lower than Canada's. When one studies all countries rather than just a select few, there is no relationship between gun ownership and murder. The televised debate that Weil refers to was sponsored by Handgun Control, they picked the participants, and they insisted that I be the only academic allowed to defend my study at that forum. He apparently forgets about the independent academics who flew to Washington at their own expense to support the integrity of my research. My data set has been made available to academics at 36 universities. No one has had any trouble replicating my results. Anyone who would like to see what Black and Nagin did (e.g., selectively throwing away 86 percent of the sample) should look at the January 1998 Journal of Legal Studies or see my soon to be published book (More Guns, Less Crime). John R. Lott, Jr. john_lott@law.uchicago.edu 3/27/98 Referring to an article entitled: Carrying Concealed Guns is Not the Solution by Douglas Weil, Sc.D. March 26, 1998 From http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/98/0326/iccon.asp ---- Jay Loveless Dogs wear collars, wolves do not. I am a wolf. You can shoot me, trap me, poison me - even set my brother the dog on me. But you can not pat my damn head unless I say so. Jay Loveless 1995 ---- When the history of the nuclear controversy comes to be written, those who killed nuclear technology will be seen to have been its most avid promoters, who systematically mistook hopes for facts, advocacy for analysis, commercial zeal for national interest, expertise for infallibility, engineering for politics, public relations for truth, and the people for fools. - A. B. Lovins - ---- Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. James Russell Lowell ---- What shall we Christians do now with this depraved and damned people of the Jews? . . . I will give my faithful advice: First, that one should set fire to their synagogues. . . . Then that one should also break down and destroy their houses. . . . That one should drive them out the country. -Martin Luther- ---- Growing up in eastern Kentucky like I did, I'm used to having a few guns around to protect me. Loretta Lynn ---- Cryptography is an enormously powerful tool that needs to be controlled, just as we control bombs and rockets. -David A. Lytel- Co-founder and managing partner Democrats.com ---- Appeasement but begets new and bloodier wars. Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964 American general Address to Congress April 19, 1951 ---- I think this is a train wreck waiting to happen. Mike Machado California State Senator Talking about "Real ID" which is expected by most to be a real mess. http://www.modbee.com/opinion/state/weintraub/story/14203611p-15029802c.html ---- It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to enslave a people that wants to remain free. Niccolo Machiavelli ---- An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens than a republic armed by foreign forces. Rome and Sparta were for many centuries well-armed and free. The Swiss are well-armed and enjoy great freedom. Among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible. It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain safe among armed servants. Machiavelli The Prince; Chapter 17 ---- The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms . . . you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow. -Niccol Machiavelli- (1469-1527) Italian political philosopher and statesman The Prince, ch. 12 (1514) ---- Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women. But when it is necessary for him to proceed against the life of someone, he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause, but above all things he must keep his hands off the property of others, because men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. Besides, pretexts for taking away the property are never wanting; for he who has once begun to live by robbery will always find pretexts for seizing what belongs to others; but reasons for taking life, on the contrary, are more difficult to find and sooner lapse. ... It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain. And when neither their property nor honour is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways. Nicolo Machiavelli The Prince ---- Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense. -James Madison- Literature ---- If men were angels, no government would be necessary. James Madison ---- Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. James Madison ---- Gun control serves violence, oppression, genocide, and other evil purposes. Opposing it serves peace, freedom, human dignity, and the triumph of intellect over brute force. Choose your side. Do you want the side that was supported by the KKK, racists, Nazis, rapists, gay-bashers, and other scum, or do you want the side that is supported by fine folks like the brave Jews who fought back against the Nazis, and men of peace like Ghandi? The choice is yours, and history will remember you by it... maineshark April 3, 2008 5:37 AM Comment in Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership http://sociologicalimages.blogspot.com/2008/01/guns-dont-kill-people-gays-feminists.html ---- but this is good news, not bad. now we have even more of an excuse to act like third-world citizens and start shooting. -Michael Maio- Tuesday, December 01, 1998 11:58 AM SOC Libertarian Discussion Microsoft Public Folder In response to a press release from the Libertarian Party that: "Congress is acting like a third-world dictator: Canceling an election because the results may not be to its liking," charged Steve Dasbach, the Libertarian Party's national director. "This isn't democracy -- it's an arrogant abuse of federal power." ---- Sounds like it's time to put 'em up against the wall. without the right to vote, there's nothing left but direct force. Michael Maio Sun 11/22/98 9:37 PM SOC Libertarian Discussion Microsoft Public Folder In response to a report that the Federal Government concealed the results of an election to make marijuana legal for medical uses. ---- Rivers in the United States are so polluted that acid rain makes them cleaner. - Andrew Malcolm - ---- The U.S. has two major parties: The EVIL Party and the STUPID Party. The EVIL Party is actively trying to institute socialism and the STUPID Party is trying to fine tune it. -Yuri Maltsev- ---- I've always liked the kind of guys who'll get me shot. Marilyn the Patriot Matchmaker From http://www.westword.com/1996/112896/news1.html as of January 22, 1999 Currently this link is valid: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.PrintableArticle?article_id=2988 ---- Don't worry (or get elated) until the Supreme Court grants cert - and I put the odds of that at 99:1 against. They've been ducking directly addressing the meaning of the 2nd for 70 years. In the last case where they did look at it, they sent the case back to a lower court for factfinding on whether Miller's sawed off shotgun was a "militia weapon" - implying that Miller had an individual RKBA for anything that fit that description. (Except Miller was dead and his lawyer was unpaid, so the lower court hearing was never held.) Following that logic, when the army started widely issuing full-auto individual weapons, they became covered under the individual right protected by the 2nd, and the SC would rather refuse to hear cases forever than acknowledge that... markm Comment to The Parker Case gets some WaPo Time at Say Uncle http://www.saysuncle.com/archives/2006/12/07/the_parker_case_gets_some_wapo_time/#comment-153352 ---- I believe that forced charity is no charity at all, and forced virtue cannot claim credit for itself anymore than a eunuch can claim credit for chastity. Marko November 21, 2007 http://munchkinwrangler.blogspot.com/2007/11/this-i-believe.html ---- If the 1st Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch. Thurgood Marshall ---- Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process. Thurgood Marshall ---- Jurors who are opposed to capital punishment are more likely to believe that a defendant's failure to testify is indicative of his guilt, more hostile to the insanity defense, more mistrustful of defense attorneys and less concerned about the danger of erroneous convictions. Thurgood Marshall ---- Amici therefore set out below the right to have and use arms in English law by the time of the Founding. Amici then show how early American authorities claimed and extended that right, including in interpreting the Second Amendment. The English right was a right of individuals, not conditioned on militia service; individuals might exercise the right collectively, but the unquestioned core was a broadly applicable and robust right to "keep" firearms in one’s home for self-defense. Even the "well recognized exceptions" confirmed this core right, by focusing on the carrying, not the keeping, of weapons. That core right is what the District of Columbia tramples. It bans keeping a handgun in one’s home (including use there in self-defense) and keeping any functional firearm in one’s home. C. Kevin Marshall February 8, 2008 Brief of the Cato Institute and history professor Joyce Lee Malcolm as amici curiae in support of respondent. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacCatoInstituteandHistoryProfessorJoyceLeeMalcolm.pdf ---- Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds. Thurgood Marshall ---- No one needs a realistic imitation gun - except perhaps a re-enactment society. Gill Marshall-Andrews Gun Control Network Chairman http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1549814,00.html August 16, 2005 ---- I believe that Ronald Reagan will someday make this country what it once was ... an arctic wilderness. -- Steve Martin ---- The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to repres ent and repress them. Karl Marx ---- If Karl, instead of writing a lot about capital, had made a lot of it ... it would have been much better. KARL MARX'S MOTHER ---- Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms. - Groucho Marx - ---- Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and then applying the wrong remedies. -- G. Marx ---- The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs. KARL MARX ---- My position is that anybody who's in favor gun control is a fucking moron. Jackie Mason From Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Gun Control http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8490506794163083426 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Mason#Quotes ---- George Mason, one of our unsung framers, responding to the question, "I ask, sir, what is a militia?" Mason answered, "It is the whole people, except for a few public officials." -George Mason- Literature ---- They [Clinton's "good job rating" poll results] would probably be higher if he had made a video. Amanda Matlosz 12/21/98 ---- The religion of Islam is one of tolerance, therefore, if he recants his Christian faith, he will not be executed. Ansarullah Mawlazezadah Trial judge in the case of Abdul Rahman an Afghani former medical aid worker and Christian convert from Islam. March 24, 2006 LifeSite http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06032406.html ---- When the government controls your paycheck, your housing, and your ration card, it doesn't need to put you in jail; you are in jail. Megan McArdle February 25, 2008 HOPELESS IN HAVANA http://instapundit.com/archives2/015770.php ---- There are some men who get more satisfaction out of their ignorance than most learned men get out of their knowledge. - Peter McArthur - ---- A few years ago, Congress passed a law to make sure people undergo a simple background check before buying a gun... Problem is, there's a dangerous loophole because right now the law doesn't cover most of America's gun shows. John McCain ---- It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember. Eugene McCarthy ---- 19 April 1993 was the first time since the Spanish Inquisition that people have been burned alive for their religious beliefs. -Alec McCol- In Soldier of Fortune --Remember Waco-- ---- "I am not an Economist. I am an honest man!" -- Paul McCracken ---- Our neighbours are so snobby - they call us the 'Shameless' family and say that we ought to go out to work. But how can we work when we have all these children to look after? Sue McFadden March 2008 Grandmother in a family where no one has not worked in three generations Raised on welfare, the 'Why Bother?' generation that doesn't want to work http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=560939&in_page_id=1770 ---- During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, not a single American political theorist or legal commentator on the Constitution ever suggested a collective rights interpretation of the Second Amendment. Joel Barlow, for example, writing in 1792, argued that in a democracy "the people will be universally armed: they will assume these weapons for security, which the art of war has invented for destruction". Only tyrants, he wrote, "disarmed their people"; "[a] republican society", he argued, "needed armed citizens". Jack Brian McGee Brief of the Alaska Outdoor Council, Alaska Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fund, Sitka Sportsman’s Assoc., Juneau Rifle and Pistol Club, Juneau Gun Club, and Alaska Territorial Sportsmen, inc. as amici curiae. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacAlaskaOutdoorCouncil.pdf ---- I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. -- George McGovern ---- Let's ban handguns in Ontario. Let's ban handguns across the country. Let's declare war against handguns. Dalton McGuinty Ontario Liberal Leader September 12, 2007 Gun ban needed, not school metal detectors: McGuinty http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070912.wstab0912/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20070912.wstab0912 Responding to concerns after a student had been stabbed to death at a Toronto High School. ---- In the last five months of World War II, American bombing raids claimed the lives of more than 900,000 Japanese civilians -- not counting the casualties from the atomic strikes against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is more than twice the total number of combat deaths that the United States has suffered in all its foreign wars combined. On one night, that of March 9-10, 1945, 234 Superfortresses dropped 1,167 tons of incendiary bombs over downtown Tokyo; 83,793 Japanese bodies were found in the charred remains--a number greater than the 80,942 combat fatalities that the United States sustained i n the Korean and Vietnam Wars combined. Walter Russell Mead The Jacksonian Tradition and American Foreign Policy http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2751/is_1999_Winter/ai_58381618/print ---- Gun control is for sissies. Tommi Avicolli Mecca Beyond Chron April 24, 2007 http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Gun_Control_is_for_Sissies_by_Tommi_Avicolli_Mecca_4440.html ---- The USA is so enormous, and so numerous are its schools, colleges and religious seminaries, many devoted to special religious beliefs ranging from the unorthodox to the dotty, that we can hardly wonder at its yielding a more bounteous harvest of gobbledegook than the rest of the world put together. -- Sir Peter Medawar ---- You couldn't even prove the White House staff sane beyond a reasonable doubt. -- Ed Meese, on the Hinckley verdict ---- The G8 must take responsibility for weapons that are produced in their countries. We need the G8 to agree to comprehensive controls over all aspects of small arms proliferation -- both the legal and illegal supply... 84 percent of those killed in wars since 1990 have been civilians. Dianna Melrose of the Oxfam speaking at a press conference on the G-8 summit. From an article, "UK Aid Agencies Call on G8 to Control Arms Trade," Reuters, 13 May 1998. From: http://www.prepcom.org/low/pc7/index.html#oxfam as of 01/07/99 ---- Since the Second World War many more people have been killed as victims of domestic massacres and partial or total genocides than by international war.  State-perpetrated massacres are a greater danger to the world community than war itself. Professor Robert F. Melson University of Chicago Revolution and Genocide ---- A man of true science uses but a few hard words... whereas the smatterer in science... thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things. - Herman Melville - ---- Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. H. L. Mencken ---- Why should democracy rise against bribery? It is itself a form of wholesale bribery. In place of a government with a fixed purpose and a visible goal, it sets up a government that is a mere function of the mob's vagaries. Its security depends wholly upon providing satisfactory bribes for the prehensile minorities that constitute the mob . . . the very head of the state, having no title to his office save that which lies in the popular will, is forced to haggle and bargain like the lowliest office seeker. -H.L. Mencken- E-mail ---- An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup. H. L. Mencken ---- Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses. -- H. L. Mencken ---- Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration. -H.L. Mencken- Periodical MicroNews ---- In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. -H.L. Mencken- 1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar ---- The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. -- H. L. Mencken ---- Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages. -- H. L. Mencken ---- Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sure sign he expects to be paid for it. - H. L. Mencken - ---- Ultimately, people will have to be controlled directly. The only open question is whether it will be the "jackboot" model (1984) or the "soma" model (Brave New World). Soma's ahead by just a nose as they round the turn... Scott Meredith Upon hearing that there is a push to register air guns in the UK. May 10, 2000 9:23 AM ---- Liberal gun-grabbing legislation is going to go down here... . And I'm going to continue to stand with some of my colleagues and reference those hundreds of thousands of Second Amendment supporters that want the gun-grabbing legislation to go down. Daryl Metcalfe Pennsylvania State Representative September 27, 2006 http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/15624884.htm?source=rss&channel=inquirer_local "Mostly, a miss on gun control" The Philadelphia Enquirer September 28, 2006 ---- No, we're not looking at how to control criminals... we're talking about banning the AK-47 and semi-automatic guns. Howard Metzenbaum ---- If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. -John Stuart Mill ---- A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. -- John Stuart Mill, "The Contest in America," Dissertations and Discussions, vol. 1, p. 26 (1868) ---- But, first, a little background - for those of you who have more to do with your time than memorize old, obsolete and unused Constitutional dicta - the 2nd Amendment reads: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. As I said, Ho Hum. How seriously must I (or anyone, for that matter) take a sentence so overwhelmingly categorical, yet which has never been used to overturn any gun regulation, ordinance or law in the 200-plus years since it was adopted? Bryan Miller November 29, 2007 Supremes take on 2nd Amendment - Yawn http://blog.nj.com/njv_bryan_miller/2007/11/supremes_take_on_2nd_amendment.html See also: http://blog.joehuffman.org/2007/11/29/QuoteOfTheDayBryanMiller.aspx ---- Our data do not show whether guns at college confer a net benefit, impose a net cost, or have an indifferent effect on college communities or on individual gun owners. Matthew Miller, MD, ScD David Hemenway, PhD Henry Wechsler, PhD Guns and Gun Threats at College Journal of American College Health, Vol. 51, No. 2 http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/cas/Documents/Gunthreats2/gunspdf.pdf ---- These high-sounding lectures from you and your colleagues in the so-called "gun rights" crowd are not even slightly impressive (they are amusing, though). As I've written above, society has a duty to mediate between individual privilege (that's right - privilege - neither you nor any other American has an unfettered "right" to own any weapon he or she wants) and public safety. In this case, the choice is clear. The public safety demands that massively destructive weapons like the Big 50 be prohibited from public purchase. And, you are in a tiny minority if you think Americans, and especially New Jerseyans (who suffered so from 9/11), would rather face the issue AFTER some terrorist knocks over a chlorine plant or similar disaster and hundreds die. Nuff said. Bryan Miller July 27, 2007 Put down the ducky -- I mean, gun http://blog.nj.com/njv_bryan_miller/2007/07/elmo_put_down_the_duckyer_gun.html ---- You also have to figure it's probably frustrating as hell for them to not have a single legislative achievement at the federal level in 14 years. They try to push a bill, after the worst mass shooting in our nation's history, that makes so many concessions to gun owners that the NRA doesn't have any problem with it, and they still can't get it through Congress because the Brady name and cause have become so politically poisonous that even a whiff of their involvement is enough to send Congress running. Keith Milligan December 17, 2007 Can You Smell the Desperation? http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/?p=2179 Regarding Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke's blog post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-helmke/message-to-candidates-for_b_77173.html ---- What do people even need handguns for? Protection, right? However, if no one could buy or carry a handgun legally, no one would need a handgun to protect themselves. The Minnesota Daily Editorial April 25, 2006 http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/04/25/68195 ---- The view that the right of armed self defense was a first law of nature both preceded enactment of the Constitution, and continued to prevail in the decades following its enactment. Shortly before the Revolutionary war commenced, Blackstone confirmed that every Englishman had the right of "arms for their defence," which stemmed from "the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression." Michael B. Minton Brief of Pink Pistols and gays and lesbians for individual liberty as amici curiae in support of respondent. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacPinkPistols.pdf ---- Even in their homes, LGBT individuals are at risk of murder, aggravated assault and other forms of hate violence because of their sexual orientation. In fact, the home is the most common site of anti-gay violence. Thus, for certain LGBT individuals, the possession of firearms in the home is essential for a sense of personal security -- a fact generally lost in the majoritarian debate about restricting individual’s access to, and use of, firearms. As shown below, not only do members of the LGBT community have a heightened need to possess firearms for self-protection in their homes, the Second Amendment clearly guarantees this most basic right. This Court should not permit the democratic majority to deprive LGBT individuals of their essential and constitutional right to keep and bear arms for self-defense in their own homes. Michael B. Minton Brief of Pink Pistols and gays and lesbians for individual liberty as amici curiae in support of respondent. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacPinkPistols.pdf ---- War hath no fury like a non-combatant. -- Charles Edward Montague ---- Of course I do not regret the Bond days, I regret that sadly heroes in general are depicted with guns in their hands, and to tell the truth I have always hated guns and what they represent. Roger Moore ---- John Birch Society: That pathetic manifestation of organized apoplexy. Edward P. Morgan ---- For every attacker shot and killed in self-defense, 130 Americans are killed by guns for other reasons. http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1996/03/kill.html (as of 11/9/2006) The MoJo Wire and MOTHER JONES are projects of the Foundation for National Progress. A nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. Founded in 1975 to educate and empower people to work toward progressive change. ---- With a 10,000% tax we could tax them out of existence. U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan November 4, 1993 Washington Post Refering to a tax on ammunition. ---- The worshipper of the cross you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion or the sword. Mujahedeen Shura Council An umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq Iraq al-Qaida says pope, West are doomed http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4194921.html ---- The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion. Lewis Mumford ---- We are at the point in time and terror where nothing short of a strong uniform policy of domestic disarmament will alleviate the danger which is crystal clear and perilously present. Let us take the guns away from the people. Exemptions should be limited to the military, the police, and those licensed for good and sufficient reasons. -- Patrick V. Murphy, former NYC Police Commissioner, HCI spokesman ---- The Army needs leaders the way a foot needs a big toe. -- Bill Murray ---- Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions. -- Edward R. Murrow ---- Representative Democracy??? Why, that's already been tried, and found to be a miserable failure based on our experience in the U.S., wouldn't you say? Sure. So, in preference to a Biblically-based civil government, let's just continue down the road to socialism, because we all know that humanistic socialism has been such an unrivaled success around the world! -Paul Nanson- E-mail CONCHR-L - Mon, 24 Apr 1995 4/24/95 ---- I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall I'll never see a tree at all. -- Ogden Nash ---- Don't carry a weapon. You lose, whether you use it or it's used on you. National Crime Prevention Council 10 things you can do. Tip number 8. From: http://www.weprevent.org/your10.htm (as of March 10, 1999) ---- Professor Fox's maundering is based upon the unproven assumption that more gun control will lead to less violence. He believes that being a university professor entitles him to dictate public policy, and our request for supporting statistics is irrelevant because we are not part of his Ivory Tower clique. He uses his command of the English language to create subtle innuendos to label us gun-fetishists and paranoids, and to imply that we have taken the government hostage like so many terrorists. It's easy to lose touch with reality when one gets to live life in a protected enclave with a tenured position from which one can espouse fanciful ideologies without impacting job security. Regardless of the damage inflicted on regular people for implementing his recommendations, by nature of his gentrified position it's unlikely the Dean of Death will be suffering the consequences of his beliefs. Howard Nemerov September 2, 2006 - 10:41 http://newsbusters.org/node/7347 Gun Control: Rebuttal to James Alan Fox ---- History proves that when government holds both the sword and the purse, as Britain's government does, it makes law serve its interests, not those of individual members of society. By following the links of cause and effect, we thereby see that Brady, whether its actions are intentional or not, favors the rights of the criminal over those of the law-abiding. Howard Nemerov May 11, 2006 Gun Control: Do Brady Policies Support Criminal Behavior? [Based partly on the policies of Britain that now lets many crimes such as burglary, arson, vandalism, and sex with underage girls be "punished" with a "caution" which does not result in a court appearance, a fine, community service or jail time.--Joe] ---- Crime does not pay ... as well as politics. -- A. E. Newman ---- An unarmed person is a slave, or is subject to becoming a slave at any time. -- Huey Newton ---- The 50-caliber weapon is one of the most dangerous weapons in the U.S. military's arsenal. New York State Assembly http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A02772 ---- The argument for gun control has always been based more on utopian visions than empirical facts. That, and the left simply does not trust an armed citizenry. The media's incessant attacks on the Second Amendment demonstrate clearly their liberal bias against gun ownership. David Niedrauer The Media Assault on the Second Amendment http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/eoc/2007/pdf/eoc-20070827.pdf Culture and Media Institute http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/ Eye on Culture, Volume 1, Issue 11 ---- During the first seven months of 2007, the media waged an intermittent war against the Second Amendment, using a variety of fallacious arguments to make the pitch for gun control David Niedrauer The Media Assault on the Second Amendment http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/eoc/2007/pdf/eoc-20070827.pdf Culture and Media Institute http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/ Eye on Culture, Volume 1, Issue 11 ---- In Germany they came first for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, but I did not speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade-unionists, but I did not speak up because I was not a trade-unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did not speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time there was no one left to speak up." -Rev. Martin Niemoller- ---- Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. - Nietzsche - ---- Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too. - Richard M. Nixon - ---- It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody. - Richard M. Nixon - ---- If you think the United States has stood still, who built the largest shopping center in the world? - Richard M. Nixon - ---- You can't underestimate the power of fear. TRICIA NIXON ---- "When I grow up, I want to be an honest lawyer so things like that can't happen." -- Richard Nixon as a boy (on the Teapot Dome scandal) ---- The American people aren't interested in details. Lyn Nofziger ---- As Illinois is one of the last two states to prohibit the carrying of concealed guns, it should be the first to proudly enact the law prohibiting the ownership and carrying of concealed knives. Knife owners who are allowed to own them, must be required to carry KOID (Knife Owner Identification) licenses. To ensure knives are being sold to responsible owners, there should be a five-day waiting period for background checks. Knife owners must attend mandatory knife training classes to ensure the proper use of knives and understand the potential harm caused by the unknowledgeable knife owner. When transporting knives, owners must secure them in a secure case in the vehicle's trunk. John K. Nolan April 5, 2008 A cutting satire on gun control http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=166865&src= ---- There are hundreds of millions of gun owners in this country, and not one of them will have an accident today. The only misuse of guns comes in environments where there are drugs, alcohol, bad parents, and undisciplined children. Period. Ted Nugent ---- I believe that a persons moral compass can be determined by how he references free men the right to defend themselves. The Seco nd Amendment is so obvious to me it's insane that there's an argument. Ted Nugent From a video found at Say Uncle http://www.saysuncle.com/archives/2007/05/26/another_gun_rights_video/ ---- I believe a self-righteous liberal Democrat with a cause is more dangerous than a Hell's Angel with an attitude. Ted Nugent ---- You should be able to put the second bullet in the same hole as the first bullet. That's gun control. Ted Nugent July 2005 http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/statesman/2005/07/11nugent.html ---- We cannot have freedom, we cannot have safety as long as these types of weapons are on our streets. Michael Nutter Philadelphia Mayor May 27, 2008 Mayor Nutter takes gun control fight to Harrisburg http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6167877 ---- It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of the speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag. Father D. E. O'Brien ---- Robert F. Williams, Jr., . . . . had become head of the NAACP chapter in Monroe, North Carolina, in 1957. When threatened by the local Ku Klux Klan he organized a rifle club of sixty members and got it chartered by the National Rifle Association. This was partly to get the free ammunition provided NRA members by a grateful government, partly also, no doubt, a tribute to both groups' joint faith in self-defense. When the Klan organized a motorcade against one NAACP member's house, the club drove them off with gunfire. . . He had deeply embarrassed the NAACP. It was bad enough that he rejected the nonviolent ethic, worse still that he did so with such success. His was the only armed NAACP chapter and, for its size, the most effective. William L. O'Neill, Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960's 160-61 (1971) ---- The Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock? P. J. O'Rourke ---- For the people in government, rather than the people who pester it, Washington is an early-rising, hard-working city. It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money. P. J. O'Rourke (b. 1947), U.S. journalist. Parliament of Whores, "The Winners Go to Washington, D.C." (1991). ---- Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us. P.J. O'Rourke ---- America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damn well pleased. - P.J. O'Rourke - ---- Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947), U.S. journalist. Parliament of Whores, Preface, "Why God is a Republican and Santa Claus Is a Democrat" (1991). ---- We've got to tighten up our gun laws. I've said before we should have a much tougher background check system, one that's much more effective and make sure there aren't loopholes out there like the gun show loophole. Barack Obama April 25, 2008 Laws alone can't stop violence: Obama Chicago Sun-Times http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/914970,CST-NWS-obama25.article ---- If God forbid, they should hurt the soldier, our operations will be far, far worse. The sky will fall on their heads if they dare to harm Gilad Shalit. Ehud Olmert Israeli Prime Minister July 3, 2006 Gaza Militants Deadline Expires http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/5143526.stm Mr Olmert has given the green light to the Israeli military to do everything possible to secure the safe return of Cpl Gilad Shalit, captured in a cross-border raid nine days ago. The militants had given Israel until 0300 GMT to comply with their demand or face unspecified "consequences". Hours before the deadline expired, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Israel will respond severely if Cpl Shalit was harmed. ---- There is no cease-fire, there will be no cease-fire. We are determined to succeed in this struggle. We will not give up on our goal to live a life free of terror. Ehud Olmert Israeli Prime Minister July 31, 2006 Israel Approves 'Full Force' Strikes http://wcbstv.com/topstories/topstories_story_212190723.html On the attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon. ---- Washington is a place where politicians don't know which way is up and taxes don't know which way is down. Robert Orben ---- Though I have no doubt exceptions can be brought forward, I think the following rule would be found to be generally true: That in ages in which the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people will have a chance... -George Orwell- Essays, Volume IV ---- Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice. -Thomas Paine- ---- The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some WILL NOT (original emphasis), others DARE NOT (original emphasis) lay them aside... Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world depraved the use of them;... the weak will become a prey to the strong. -Thomas Paine- Literature Thoughts on Defensive War (1775) ---- Those who would expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it. -Thomas Paine- ---- The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security. Thomas Paine ---- Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. Thomas Paine ---- For years liberals have misrepresented the danger of legal gun ownership and suppressed or ignored data proving legal gun ownership does not pose a danger to the public. Much to the disappointment of liberals, study after study has found that more guns do not mean more crime nor does more gun control mean less crime. Gary Palmer Alabama Policy Institute Gun rights issue about to be resurrected in Congress http://www.southalabamian.com/news/2007/0301/Editorials/016.html ---- I think that being trained and being armed for most individuals brings about a different state of being. Jack L. Patterson Baltimore, MD From: insightstraining@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 4:04 PM Subject: Re: [insights] Altercations at Gun matches ---- I share our Founders' belief that in a free society each citizen must have the right to keep and bear arms. They ratified the Second Amendment knowing that this right is the guardian of every other right, and they all would be horrified by the proliferation of unconstitutional legislation that prevents law-abiding Americans from exercising this right. Ron Paul ---- Assuming that either the left wing or the right wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles. - Pat Paulsen - ---- The problem is that private firearms ownership in Australia has fallen victim to a narrow, authoritarian mentality which substitutes the lowest common denominator, irrational fear, for sensible debate. The fundamental freedom to protect one's life and property has been replaced by a policy which ignores the fact that no matter how well resourced a police service may be it cannot prevent violent home invasions. Ultimately, individuals must be given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own safety. -Paul Peake- Self Defence (November 1998) From http://www.ssaa.org.au/ilanov98.html (as of December 1, 1998) ---- By focusing on the non-issue of gun shops, Suffredin is conveniently ignoring the factor that has the greatest impact on violent crime rates. According to the Chicago Police Department, 88% of murderers and 76% of murder victims have previous criminal records. A reasonable person would likely ask why criminals are so likely to be either a perpetrator or a victim in a murder case. The answer is quite simple - the justice system is either unwilling or unable to rehabilitate these dangerous people. Federally-licensed gun shops are not the problem, the revolving door justice system is clearly at fault. Suffredin's long standing hatred of guns and the people who own them has clouded his ability to address the issues important to the citizens of Cook County. Thus, he is unqualified to serve as the State's Attorney for Cook County. Richard Pearson December 3, 2007 Proposed Cook County Gun Control Ordinance a Case Study in Politically Motivated Deceit http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-03-2007/0004715562&EDATE= ---- Let the people think they govern and they will be governed. William Penn ---- The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river. Ross Perot ---- Each time we changed our environment, our environment changed our behaviour, and our new behaviour demanded a new environment. - Laurence J. Peter - ---- These ads are unfair and deceptive because they suggest to the consumer that the purchase of a handgun is an effective means of providing for self- and family-protection without warning the consumer that the introduction of a handgun into the home actually places the home's occupants at an increased risk of death by gun. Petition on Deceptive Gun Advertising Filed with FTC by Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association, American Association of Suicidology, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions http://www.gunlawsuits.org/reform/advertising.php ---- Slavery was legal, it wasn’t moral. Apartheid was legal, it wasn’t moral. We have to have the understanding that laws have to be changed if they are wrong. Father Michael Pfleger July 12, 2007 Pastor of the Faith Community of Saint Sabina Church http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_3694.shtml ---- If you -- my servant -- are going to pass a law -- and enforce that law using guns -- and that law makes me and my fellow permit-holding constituents (who as I mentioned are more law abiding than the average person) so pissed off that we decide to shoot you dead over it -- don't you think that maybe, just maybe, you should rethink your position on that law? That is the whole point of the Second Amendment, Duhrlene. When you are given the privilege of exercising the state's privilege of force, you should do so with an armed populace at your back. It's the American Way, and the more literal it is, the better. The Everlasting Phelps June 24, 2004 Shooting Up the Capital http://phelps.donotremove.net/?p=614 ---- To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places. Wendell Phillips ---- PSR believes that the only way to reduce the number of women killed by guns, is to educate people on the true relationship between females and firearms. Physicians must work to educate people that guns do not offer protection, but actually put them at greater risk of injury or death. Physicians for Social Responsibility From: http://www.psr.org/women.htm (as of 02/19/99) ---- PSR believes that the only way to lower the number of unnecessary gun deaths is to get guns out of the home. Due to the combination of a fear of violent crime and the mistaken impression that guns offer a measure of security, more and more people choose to own guns. In order to stop the perpetuation of the myth that guns in the home offer protection, PSR is waging a campaign to educate the public about the true dangers caused by guns in the home. http://www.psr.org/home.htm (as of 11/13/98) Physicians for Social Responsibility 1101 14th Street Northwest, Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20005 Telephone: (202) 898-0150 Fax: (202) 898-0172 mailto:psrnatl@psr.org ---- Disperse, you rebels -- Damn you, throw down your arms and disperse!" Maj. John Pitcairn Lexington, Massachusetts April 19, 1775 ---- POLITICIAN: From the Greek `poly' ("many") and the French `tete' ("head" or "face," as in `tete-a-tete': head to head or face to face). Hence `polytetien', a person of two or more faces. -- Martin Pitt ---- Access to power must be confined to those who are not in love with it. Plato ---- A liberal is a person whose interests aren't at stake at the moment. -Willis Player- E-mail ---- If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago. - Sir George Porter - ---- President Thieu says he'll quit if he doesn't get more than 50% of the vote. In a democracy, that's not called quitting. -- The Washington Post ---- The wages of sin are death... but after they take the taxes out, it's more like a tired feeling, really. -- Paula Poundstone ---- Jews tend to think if terrible things happened to their ancestors in 15th century Spain and 19th century Russia and 20th century Nazi Germany, it can and will happen here. It's a form of paranoia. But it's a very strange form. For as we all know, this is a nation of 300 million. So, wouldn't you think a minority numbering a mere five million, and in constant fear of pogroms, would spend as much time as possible on the firing range? Burt Prelutsky May 4, 2007 What is it with Jews and guns? http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BurtPrelutsky/2007/05/04/what_is_it_with_jews_and_guns ---- Prep Com is an Internet community of NGOs and individuals dedicated to preparing for a global campaign to alleviate the problems associated with the proliferation, accumulation and misuse of small arms and light weapons. http://www.prepcom.org/low/index.html ---- To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assesed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harrased, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice, that is its morality. Pierre J. Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century ---- This is a unanimous decision by all imams of Islam that whoever insults the prophet deserves to be killed and whoever will take this insulting man to his end, will get this prize. Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi Peshawar, Pakistan February 17, 2006 Cleric announcing rewards of $1 million dollars, one million rupees, 500,000 rupees, and a car for the killing of the cartoonist who drew the prophet. ---- Remember that rights are moral principles which define and protect a mans freedom of action, but impose no obligations on other men. Private citizens are not a threat to one anothers rights or freedom. A private citizen who resorts to physical force and violates the rights of others is a criminal and men have legal protection against him. Criminals are a small minority in any age or country. And the harm they have done to mankind is infinitesimal when compared to the horrors the bloodshed, the wars, the persecutions, the confiscations, the famines, the enslavements, the wholesale destructions perpetrated by mankinds governments. Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to mans rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. When unlimited and unrestricted by individual rights, a government is mans deadliest enemy. It is not as protection against private actions, but against government actions that the Bill of Rights was written. Ayn Rand: Mans Rights - 1967 ---- If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor. Any alleged right of one man, which necessitates the violation if the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right. Ayn Rand: Mans Rights - 1967 ---- To violate mans rights means to compel him to act against his own judgment, or to expropriate his values. Basically, there is only one way to do it: by the use of physical force. There are two potential violators of mans rights: the criminal and the government. The great achievement of the United States was to draw a distinction between these two by forbidding to the second the legalized version of the activities of the first. Ayn Rand: Mans Rights - 1967 ---- If one wishes to advocate a free society that is, capitalism one must realize that its indispensable foundation is the principle of individual rights. If one wishes to uphold individual rights, one must realize that capitalism is the only system that can uphold and protect them. And if one wishes to gauge the relationship of freedom to the goals of todays intellectuals, one may gauge it by the fact that the concept of individual rights is evaded, distorted, perverted and seldom discussed, most conspicuously seldom by the so-called conservatives. Rights are a moral concept the concept that provides a logical transition from the principles guiding an individuals actions to the principals guiding his relationship with others the concept that preserves and protects individual morality in a social concept the link between the moral code of a man and the legal code of a society, between ethics and politics. Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law. Ayn Rand: Mans Rights - 1967 ---- When evil wins in the world, it is only by the default of the good. That is why one man of reason and moral stature is more important, actually and potentially, than a million fools. Ayn Rand ---- This study shows that the District's ban on handguns and assault weapons works to prevent youth suicide by keeping guns out of D.C. homes. The findings highlight the sheer lunacy of Congressional efforts to repeal D.C.'s tough laws. Congress would virtually be writing a death sentence for some young people by repealing District laws that are working to prevent youth suicide. Kristen Rand Violence Policy Center Legislative Director From the July 12, 2005 Press Release: http://www.vpc.org/press/0507dc.htm New Study Shows District of Columbia's Tough Gun Laws Work to Prevent Youth Suicide ---- I can see no ethical standard by which to measure the whole unethical concept of a State, except in the amount of time, of money, of effort and obedience, which a society extorts from its every member. Its value and its civilization, then, are in inverse proportion to that extortion. -Ayn Rand- From "The Fountainhead" ---- A Right is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a mans freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all others are its consequences or corollaries): A mans right to his own life. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action; the right to life means the right to engage in self-sustaining and self generated action which means: the freedom to take all the actions required by nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life. Such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Ayn Rand: Mans Rights - 1967 ---- Every political system is based on some code of ethics. The dominant ethics of mankinds history were variants of the altruist-collectivist doctrine which subordinated the individual to some higher authority, either mystical or social. Consequently, most political systems were variants of the same statist tyranny, differing only in degree, not in basic principle, limited only by the accidents of tradition, of chaos, of bloody strife and periodic collapse. Under all such systems, morality was a code applicable to the individual, but not to society. Society was placed outside the moral law, as its embodiment or source or exclusive interpreter and the inclusion of self-sacrificial devotion to social duty was regarded as the main purpose of ethics in mans earthly existence. Since there is no such entity as society, since society is only a number of individual men, this meant, in practice, that the rulers of society were exempt from moral law; subject only to traditional rituals, they held total power and exacted blind obedience on the implicit principle of: The good of that which is good for society (or for the tribe, the race, the nation), and the rulers edicts are its voice on earth. Ayn Rand: Mans Rights - 1967 ---- The necessary consequence of man's right to life is his right to self-defense. In a civilized society, force may be used only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. All the reasons which make the initiation of force an evil, make the retaliatory use of force a moral imperative. Ayn Rand 1962, from The Virtue of Selfishness ---- America must face the fact that we have a love affair with guns that exacts a tremendous and unacceptable cost in human lives lost. Mass shootings like that at Red Lake High School are the future for America's children until policymakers decide it's time to enact real gun control. Other countries have found the solution to mass shootings, and it consists of severe restrictions on the availability of specific classes of firearms, such as handguns and assault weapons. Kristen Rand Legislative director for the Violence Policy Center News release March 22, 2005 [Note: The guns used were stolen from the shooters grandfather-- a police officer killed by the shooter. The school guard, also killed, was unarmed.] ---- The concept of individual rights is so new in human history that most men have not grasped it fully to this day. In accordance with the two theories of ethics, the mystical or the social, some men assert that rights are the gift of god others that rights are a gift of society. But, in fact, the source of rights is in mans nature. The Declaration of Independence stated that men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Whether one believes that man is the product of a creator or of nature, the issue of mans origin does not alter the fact that he is an entity of a specific kind a rational being that he cannot function successfully under coercion, and that rights are a necessary condition of his particular mode of survival. Ayn Rand: Mans Rights - 1967 ---- The concept of a right pertains only to action specifically, to freedom of action. It means freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by other men. Thus, for every individual, a right is the moral sanction of a positive of his freedom to act on his own judgment, for his own goals, by his own voluntary, uncoerced choice. As to his neighbors, his rights impose no obligations on them except of a negative kind: to abstain from violating his rights. The right to life is the source of all rights and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave. Bear in mind that the right to property is a right to action, like all the other: it is not the right to an object, but to the action and the consequences of producing or earning that object. It is not a guarantee that a man will earn any property, but only a guarantee that he will if he earns it. It is the right to gain, to keep, to use and to dispose of material values. Ayn Rand: Mans Rights - 1967 ---- 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. -Ayn Rand- Literature Atlas Shrugged ---- The truly and deliberately evil men are in a very small minority; it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind; it is the appeaser's intellectual abdication that invites them to take over. When a culture's dominant trend is geared to irrationality, the thugs win over the appeasers. When intellectual leaders fail to foster the best in the mixed, uninformed, vacillating characters of people at large, the thugs are sure to bring out the worst. When the ablest men turn into cowards, the average men turn into brutes. Altruism as Appeasement Ayn Rand TO, 1-66, 6. ---- As an example of the principle that the rational is the moral, observe that the anti-conceptual is the profoundly anti-moral. The basic commandment of all such groups, which take precedence over any other rules, is: loyalty to the group--not to ideas, but to people; not to the group's beliefs, which are minimal and chiefly ritualistic, but to the group's members and leaders. Whether a given member is right or wrong, the others must protect him from outsiders; whether he is innocent or guilty, the others must stand by him against all outsiders; whether he is competent or not, the others must employ him or trade with him in preference to outsiders. Thus a physical qualification--the accident of birth in a given village or tribe--takes precedence over morality and justice. (But the physical is only the most frequent apparent and superficial qualification, since such groups reject the nonconforming children of their own members. The actual qualification is psycho-epistemological: men bound by the same concretes.) Ayn Rand Philosophy: Who Needs It, page 41 ---- Those who seek to destroy this country, seek to disarm it--intellectually and physically. But it is not a mere political issue; politics is not the cause, but the last consequence of philosophical ideas. It is not a communist conspiracy, though some communists may be involved--as maggots cashing in on a disaster they had no power to originate. The motive of the destroyers is not love for communism, but the hatred for America. Why hated? Because America is the living refutation of Kantian universe. Today's mawkish concern with and compassion for the feeble, the flawed, the suffering, the guilty, is a cover for the profoundly Kantian hatred of the innocent, the strong, the able, the successful, the virtuous, the confident, the happy. A philosophy out to destroy man's mind is necessarily a philosophy of hatred for man, for man's life, and for every human value. Hatred of the good for being good, is the hallmark of the twentieth century. This is the enemy you are facing. Ayn Rand Philosophy: Who Needs It, page 9 ---- The most profoundly revolutionary achievement of the United States of America was the subordination of society to moral law. The principle of mans individual rights represented the extension of morality into the social system as a limitation on the power of the state, as mans protection against the brute force of the collective, as the subordination of might to right. The United States was the first moral society in history. All previous systems had regarded man as a sacrificial means to the ends of others, and society as an end in itself. The United States regarded man as an end in himself, and society as a means to the peaceful, orderly, voluntary coexistence of individuals. All previous systems had held that mans life belongs to society, that society can dispose of him in any way it pleases, and that any freedom he enjoys is his only by favor, by the permission of society, which may be revoked at any time. The United States held that mans life is his by right (which means: by moral principle and by his nature), that a right is the property of an individual, that society as such has no rights, and that the only moral purpose of a government is the protection of individual rights. Ayn Rand: Mans Rights - 1967 ---- A perceptual consciousness is unable to believe that ideas can be of personal importance to anyone; it regards ideas as matter of arbitrary choice, as means to some immediate ends. On this view, a man does not seek to be elected to a public office in order to carry out certain policies--he advocates certain policies in order to be elected. Ayn Rand Philosophy: Who Needs It, page 49 ---- Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die. Abdul Raoulf Islamic cleric, who is considered a moderate. http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06032406.html ---- The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by rule of construction be conceived to give the Congress the power to disarm the people. William Rawle 1825; He was offered the position of the first U.S. Attorney General, by President Washington. ---- ...the Noam Chomskys and Michael Moores and Robert Fisks of the world (and their thousands of lesser imitators in faculty lounges everywhere) are not brave transgressive forward-thinkers but pathetic memebots running the program of a dead tyrant. Eric Steven Raymond (ESR) Gramscian damage http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=260# ---- The U.S., fortunately, is still on a demographic expansion wave and will be till at least 2050. But if the Islamists achieve their dream of nuking “crusader” cities, they’ll make crusaders out of the U.S., too. And this time, a West with a chauvinized America at its head would smite the Saracen with weapons that would destroy entire populations and fuse Mecca into glass. The horror of our victory would echo for a thousand years. I remain more optimistic than this. I think there is still an excellent chance that the West can recover from suicidalism without going through a fevered fascist episode and waging a genocidal war. But to do so, we have to do more than recognize Stalin’s memes; we have to reject them. We have to eject postmodern leftism from our universities, transnational progressivism from our politics, and volk-Marxism from our media. Eric Steven Raymond February 11th, 2006 Gramscian damage http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=260# ---- Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders. -Ronald Reagan- Guardian (London, 14 June 1989) ---- The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away. Ronald Reagan ---- The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away. Ronald Reagan ---- 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) ---- You know, I turn back to your ancient prophets, in the Old Testament and the signs foretelling Armageddon, and I find myself wondering if we're the generation that is going to see it come about. - Ronald Reagan - ---- The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary. Wilhelm Reich ---- We have reached an age in which entrepreneurial capitalism is no longer relevant. It's an end to the myth that the little guy who works hard and believes in himself can succeed in America. We have entered an age of collective entrepreneurialism. Where resources and investment must be directed for the good of society. -Robert B. Reich- Speech quoted by Jack Kemp at the CPAC, 2/12/94 ---- The alteration of those rules ... constitutes a gross deviation from constitutional principles and a wholly unwarranted return to a lawless and arbitrary wild West school of law enforcement. Any reasonable law enforcement officer should have known the rules were illegal. -Judge Stephen Reinhardt- September 26, 1997 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals On the rules of engagement that lead to the shooting of Kevin Harris and the death of Vickie Weaver. ---- Cause public proclamation to be made, that everyone strong in body at leisure time on holidays use in his recreation the bow and arrow and learn and exercise the art of shooting - forbidding all and singular on our behalf that they do not after any manner apply themselves to the throwing of stones, wood, iron, handball, football, bandyball, cambuck, or cock fighting; nor to other such like vain plays which have no profit in them, under pain of imprisonment. -Edward Rex- Westminster 12th day of June 1369 ---- The Second Amendment is as important as the First Amendment. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice May 11, 2005 In an interview on CNN's Larry King Live, recalling how her father took up arms to defend fellow blacks from racist whites in the segregated South. She said her father, a black minister, and his friends armed themselves to defended the black community in Birmingham, Ala., against the White Knight Riders in 1962 and 1963. She said if local authorities had had lists of registered weapons, she did not think her father and other blacks would have been able to defend themselves. ---- Remember there are no rules in war. The side which imposes the most rules on itself loses. We lost in Vietnam because of self-imposed rules. -Curt Rich- ---- If everybody contemplates the infinite instead of fixing the drains many of us will die of cholera. - John Rich - ---- In setting our military goals we need first of all to recognize that most of the world's most basic woes do not lend themselves to purely military solutions. Matthew B. Ridgway The Korean War 1967 ---- If banning guns in the inner cities is not keeping guns out of the hands of 12, 13, and 14 year old children, then we need to think of another way. Robyn Ringler June 11, 2007 http://blogs.timesunion.com/underfire/?p=51 ---- The fifty caliber sniper rifle, for example. What purpose did it have besides killing people? The notorious Washington, D.C. sniper-killers used the fifty caliber sniper rifle to kill their victims. Robyn Ringler http://blogs.timesunion.com/underfire/?p=31 ---- The streets are safe in Philadelphia, it's only the people who make them unsafe. Philadelphia Mayor, Frank Rizzo ---- Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics, in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such, and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future; the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit. -- Tom Robbins ---- What's the difference between the person who hits you and the person who ties your hands so that someone else can hit you? Whoever takes away your ability to defend yourself needs to be defended against. RICHARD ROBERTS ---- When a Banker jumps out of a window, jump after him -- that's where the money is. -- Robespierre ---- Most of America's assault rifles are in the attics, basements, and closets of patriotic Americans who never fire them and to whom war against their own government would be an unthinkable nightmare. The problem is that millions of such weapons are now being stored in the homes of ordinary Americans, especially in the Western United States. Assault rifles have a military appearance and contribute in a subtle, psychological way to growing resistance to government oppression. Most farmers, ranchers, and loggers who see their lives and families entirely destroyed by Babbitt and retainers will never fire a shot. The existence of these weapons, however, makes resistance, even legal resistance, more thinkable to these victims. The bureaucrats and politicians do not fear armed criminals or armed political zealots so much as they fear peaceful Americans who will probably never use their assault rifles - but whose mental toughness may be enhanced by possession of military weapons. The gun controllers are not deterred by the facts about guns and crime, because their primary fear is not of criminals. They fear ordinary Americans whose lives and freedom their policies are destroying. In this fear and in their world, they are on target. -Arthur B. Robinson- Ph.D. Access to Energy July 1994, Vol. 21, no. 11 ---- Never go to clubs with metal detectors. Sure it feels safe inside. But what about all those niggas waiting outside with guns? They know you ain't got one. Chris Rock ---- Gun control? We need bullet control! I think every bullet should cost 5,000 dollars. Because if a bullet cost five thousand dollar, we wouldn't have any innocent bystander. Chris Rock ---- The messed up thing about taxes is you don’t ‘pay’ taxes. The government TAKES them. You get your check and money is GONE! It was not an option! That ain’t a payment, that’s a JACK! I been TAX JACKED!...[The] worst part about it, we pay taxes for [stuff] we don’t even use....Why are black people paying Social Security? I won’t get the money till I’m 65....Meanwhile, the average black man dies at 54. Hypertension, high blood pressure, police....I used to work at McDonald’s making minimum wage....I would get $200 a week and they would take out $50 in taxes. That’s a lot of money if you only making $200....What do you get with that $50? All the free street light in the world. As far as I am concerned, give everybody a candle. Just give me back my $50. Chris Rock ---- You don't pay taxes - they take taxes. Chris Rock ---- Much like rock 'n' roll, school shootings were invented by the black man and stolen by the whites. Chris Rock ---- This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. Will Rogers ---- It's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for. -Will Rogers- ---- The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. -Will Rogers- E-mail ---- Our constitution protects aliens, drunks, and U.S. senators. -Will Rogers- 1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar ---- Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate; now what's going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House? -Will Rogers- 1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar ---- Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggy' until you get a sight picture. -Anonymous adaptation of a Will Rogers quote- ---- Diplomacy: The art of saying "nice doggie" until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers ---- You can't say that civilization don't advance, for in every war they kill you a new way. - Will Rogers - ---- Budget: A mythical beanbag. Congress votes mythical beans into it, and then tries to reach in and pull beans out. - Will Rogers ---- I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat. -- Will Rogers ---- We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts. I support them. I won't chip away at them. I believe they protect us and provide for our safety. Mitt Romney ---- A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who has never learned to walk. Franklin D. Roosevelt ---- Today we are faced with the pre-eminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together and work together in the same world at peace. F. D. Roosevelt - ---- The great body of our citizens shoot less as time goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world...The first step -- in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come -- is to teach men to shoot! President Theodore Roosevelt's last message to Congress ---- MAN: A biodegradable but nonrecyclable animal blessed with opposable thumbs capable of grasping at straws. - Bernard Rosenberg - ---- One of the biggest mistakes that freedom advocates make is we often fail to take the moral high ground on freedom issues, and we let our enemies define the terms. This is a huge mistake. Never forget: We are in the right on this issue. We are on the side of the Founding Fathers. They are on the side of Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, and every other leader of an oppressive, totalitarian regime. John Ross http://www.john-ross.net/mistakes.htm September 14, 2005 ---- Your claim that "they're only for killing people" is imprecise. A gas chamber or electric chair is designed for killing people, and these devices obviously serve different functions than guns. To be precise, a high-capacity, military-type rifle or handgun is designed for conflict. When I need to protect myself and my freedom, I want the most reliable, most durable, highest-capacity weapon possible. The only thing hunting and target shooting have to do with freedom is that they're good practice. John Ross http://www.john-ross.net/mistakes.htm September 14, 2005 ---- Already at the origin of the species, man was the equal to what he was destined to become. - Jean Rostand - ---- Conservative: One who admires radicals centuries after they're dead. -- Leo C. Rosten ---- This is a really bad idea. It would run counter to our tradition and the principles on which we operate our community. John Roush Centre College President Campus gun bill is likely to die--Various officials oppose proposal January 22, 2008 http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080122/NEWS0101/801220381 ---- It is also significant that the Second Amendment refers, not to "a right of the people," but to "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms." The Framers’ use of the definite article indicates that the Amendment was intended to secure a pre-existing right rather than to create a new one. [...] The Court should affirm that the Second Amendment, no less than other provisions of the Bill of Rights, secures an individual right, and should clarify that the right is subject to the more flexible standard of review described above. If the Court takes those foundational steps, the better course would be to remand. Stephen R. Rubenstein January 2008 Chief Counsel Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives Department of Justice Washington, D.C. 20226-0001 Brief for the United States as Amicus Curiae http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290tsacUnitedStates.pdf ---- The first and basic premise of paganism, socialism, and Molech worship is its claim that the state owns the child. The basic premise of the public schools is this claim of ownership, a fact some parents are encountering in the courts. It is the essence of paganism to claim first the lives of the children, then the properties of the people. -R.J. Rushdoony- ---- The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more often likely to be foolish than sensible. -Bertrand Russell- ---- It would now be technically possible to unify the world, abolish war and poverty altogether, if men desired their own happiness more than the misery of their enemies. -Bertrand Russell- ---- Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do so. Bertrand Russell ---- Most of the great evils that man has inflicted on man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false. - Bertrand Russell - ---- This collection is an enlightening and comprehensive look at one of our planet's gravest problems. Until we regulate the trade in light weapons, arms dealers, just like drug traffickers and the slave traders, will continue to reap benefits at the cost of human lives in all countries of the world. It is only through tackling war, militarism and weapons of all sizes, on all levels and from all sides, that we will be able to realize our vision of a world in which extreme poverty and senseless violence are nothing but sad memories of the past. Oscar Arias Sanchez Former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Laureate http://www.basicint.org/pubs/Research/1996-LWIS-bookprom.htm as of October 14, 2006 ---- Revolt and terror pay a price. Order and law have a cost. - Carl Sandburg ---- I thought the whole idea of "zero-tolerance" was to show that the problem was so serious that intelligence and common sense would not be allowed in the implementation of policy. This serves to give a valuable lesson to students -- when something is really serious, you must make sure not to think. Fritz Sands 4/15/99 2:36 PM Microsoft Gun Club Public Folder Regarding zero tolerance gun policies at schools resulting in suspending kids for tiny toy guns. ---- When the rich make war, it's the poor who die. - Jean-Paul Sartre ---- Not only should the president order the execution of the turkeys, he should kill both gobblers himself. With his bare hands, while wearing a loin cloth. He should then rise, his body glistening with sweat and blood, and take a bite out of its head and display it proudly to the American people. SayUncle November 22, 2005 My Platform http://www.saysuncle.com/archives/2005/11/22/my_platform/ ---- I think contraception is disgusting -- people using each other for pleasure. -Joseph Scheidler- Director, Pro-Life Action League ---- Just before being blasted off into orbit Astronaut Walter Schirra was asked by Dr. E.R. Annis, "What concerns you the most?" Schirra thought, and then replied, "Every time I climb up on the couch [in the capsule] I say to myself, 'Just think, Wally, everything that makes this thing go was supplied by the lowest bidder.' ---- Guns are not pathogens, and the loss of lives from guns is not a public health phenomenon in any meaningful sense. Vaccines could be taken as a public health analogy for guns. Vaccines are widely recommended or even mandated with the support of the APHA and AAP despite the fact that many are killed or injured by them, and their effectiveness is imperfect. But the APHA’s and AAP’s logic could be applied to vaccines with the false conclusion that all vaccination programs are harmful because all vaccines have some side effects. The benefits of vaccines and guns are both indirect, but the benefits are very real in both cases, and it is essential to address those benefits in any argument attempting to ban the product. Andrew L. Schlafly February 7, 2008 Brief for amicus curiae association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc. in support of Respondent. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacAAPS.pdf ---- While the AAP Brief purports to defend the interests of children, in fact the gun is the best protector for the weak and vulnerable in society, as it removes any advantage held by a stronger aggressor. Victims who resist crime with a gun are only half as likely to be injured as those who put up no defense, and onefourth as likely to be injured as those resisting by other means (http://www.haciendapub.com/gunpage5.html). For centuries, the gun has been a family’s best defense against criminal attack, and the Second Amendment enshrines that essential safeguard in the Constitution. It is worth observing that "about half of all American homes contain a gun" and thus "burglars tend to avoid all occupied American homes." Andrew L. Schlafly February 7, 2008 Brief for amicus curiae association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc. in support of Respondent. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacAAPS.pdf ---- A non-vegetarian anti-abortionist is a contradiction in terms. --Phyllis Schlafly ---- Other commentators have likewise observed that "gun control is an essential precondition for genocide." Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman, and Alan M. Rice, Lethal Laws 9-12 (Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership: 1995). Children are as much the victims of genocide as adults, and a right to bear arms protects both against that horrendous evil. Armed citizens are less likely to submit to removal and murder of their children, and their dictators are less likely to try. Andrew L. Schlafly February 7, 2008 Brief for amicus curiae association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc. in support of Respondent. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacAAPS.pdf ---- Sex education classes are like in-home sales parties for abortions. -Phyllis Schlafy- ---- Women have babies and men provide the support. If you don't like the way we're made you've got to take it up with God. -Phyllis Schlafy- ---- It's very healthy for a young girl to be deterred from promiscuity by fear of contracting a painful, incurable disease, or cervical cancer, or sterility, or the likelihood of giving birth to a dead, blind, or brain-damaged baby (even ten years later when she may be happily married). -Phyllis Schlafy- ---- What does it take for Americans to do great things; to go to the moon, to win wars, to dig canals linking oceans, to build railroads across a continent? In independent thought about this question, Neil Armstrong and I concluded that it takes a coincidence of four conditions, or in Neil's view, the simultaneous peaking of four of the many cycles of American life. First, a base of technology must exist from which to do the thing to be done. Second, a period of national uneasiness about America's place in the scheme of human activities must exist. Third, some catalytic event must occur that focuses the national attention upon the direction to proceed. Finally, an articulate and wise leader must sense these first three conditions and put forth with words and action the great thing to be accomplished. The motivation of young Americans to do what needs to be done flows from such a coincidence of conditions.... The Thomas Jeffersons, The Teddy Roosevelts, The John Kennedys appear. We must begin to create the tools of leadership which they, and their young frontiersmen, will require to lead us onward and upward. - Dr. Harrison H. Schmidt,Sen.,New Mexico - ---- So, here's a message for the Big Dems back in the Beltway. Do lunch with Representative McCarthy and suggest she pull her bill before any more political blood is shed and it defeats enough dems to lose Congress back to the GOP and keeps you out of the White House. And when you do squash H.R. 1022, make sure everybody knows you did it. Bill Schneider March 22, 2007 http://www.newwest.net/index.php/topic/article/guns_sex_lies_democrats_and_the_nra/C41/L41/ ---- This isn't the way counterterrorism is supposed to work, but it's happening everywhere. It's a result of our relentless campaign to convince ordinary citizens that they're the front line of terrorism defense. "If you see something, say something" is how the ads read in the New York City subways. "If you suspect something, report it" urges another ad campaign in Manchester, UK. The Michigan State Police have a seven-minute video. Administration officials from then-attorney general John Ashcroft to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to President Bush have asked us all to report any suspicious activity. The problem is that ordinary citizens don't know what a real terrorist threat looks like. They can't tell the difference between a bomb and a tape dispenser, electronic name badge, CD player, bat detector, or trash sculpture; or the difference between terrorist plotters and imams, musicians, or architects. All they know is that something makes them uneasy, usually based on fear, media hype, or just something being different. Bruce Schneier November 1, 2007 The War on the Unexpected http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/the_war_on_the.html ---- How many of us have paused during conversation in the past four-and-a-half years, suddenly aware that we might be eavesdropped on? Probably it was a phone conversation, although maybe it was an e-mail or instant-message exchange or a conversation in a public place. Maybe the topic was terrorism, or politics, or Islam. We stop suddenly, momentarily afraid that our words might be taken out of context, then we laugh at our paranoia and go on. But our demeanor has changed, and our words are subtly altered. This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from us. This is life in former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And it's our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our personal, private lives. Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide. Bruce Schneier May 19, 2006 The Value of Privacy http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/05/the_value_of_pr.html ---- What good would it have been to know the names of Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber, or the DC snipers before they were arrested? Palestinian suicide bombers generally have no history of terrorism. The goal is here is to know someone's intentions, and their identity has very little to do with that. And there are security benefits in having a variety of different ID documents. A single national ID is an exceedingly valuable document, and accordingly there's greater incentive to forge it. There is more security in alert guards paying attention to subtle social cues than bored minimum-wage guards blindly checking IDs. That's why, when someone asks me to rate the security of a national ID card on a scale of one to 10, I can't give an answer. It doesn't even belong on a scale. Bruce Schneier April 1, 2004 A National ID Card Wouldn't Make Us Safer http://www.schneier.com/essay-034.html ---- What is sad is that this Congress is in danger of becoming irrelevant. We are on the verge of ceding responsibility from the legislative branch to the judicial branch because we cannot stand up to [the] gun lobby. It is ironic and fitting that our inability to act in any way that satisfies the American people has spawned a series of lawsuits that could ultimately impose penalties on the gun industry far more severe than even the most ardent gun control supporters in Congress hope to achieve. Charles E. Schumer November 4, 1999 http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR00067.html ---- We're here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true!. We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We're going to beat guns into submission! U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer November 30, 1993 NBC Nightly News ---- I guess I kind of believe in gun control: You control your gun, and I'll control mine. Brian Schweitzer Governor of Montana An avid hunter who has "more guns than I need but not as many as I want." The Boston Globe December 17, 2005 [For a Boston paper this is an excellent article on guns. My only criticism is they seem to think guns are only about hunting.--Joe] ---- Replace my real light bulbs with fluorescents, in sickly yellow or morgue blue, and I'll have to burn something else for color. Whale oil, maybe. Tom Scocca May 22, 2007 Fluorescent Fanatics Turn Me Off http://www.observer.com/2007/fluorescent-fanatics-turn-me ---- Courage and conviction are powerful weapons against an enemy who depends only on fists or guns. Animals know when you are afraid; a coward knows when you are not. David Seabury ---- On the one hand, the guns were there to help capture the imagination of the people. But more important, since we knew that you couldn't observe the police without guns, we took our guns with us to let the police know that we have an equalizer. Bobby Seale ---- It is the cornerstone of American political philosophy that, as a human being, every individual possesses certain inalienable rights. Even a cursory glance at the text of the Founding documents reveals a recurrent intention to preserve these "endowed" human rights. Jay Alan Sekulow February 2008 Amicus Brief of the American Center for Law and Justice http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07290bsacAmericanCenterforLawandJustice.pdf ---- A few years ago this would have seemed like a scene from behind the Iron Curtain or some futuristic George Orwell movie, but in our post-9/11 world it was just a Tuesday at the Reno airport. As silly and un-American as it all sounds, I do it because I want to do my part to help the good folks at Homeland Security keep our country safe; that and because they will pull me aside for a cavity search if I don't. Rick Seley January 19, 2008, 12:05 AM What's up with our Homeland Security? http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/article/20080119/Opinion/661296060 ---- We know that its killing. But the state permits killing under certain circumstances. -Dr. Neville Sender- Literature Abortion: the Silent Holecaust ---- When we, the Workers, all demand: "What are WE fighting for?" Then, then we'll end that stupid crime, That Devil's madness - WAR. - Robert W. Service - ---- 'Martyrdom' is the only way a person can become famous without ability. - George Bernard Shaw - ---- I make a fortune from criticizing the policy of the government, and then hand it over to the government in taxes to keep it going. -George Bernard Shaw- 1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar ---- NAPOLEON: What shall we do with this soldier, Guiseppe? Everything he says is wrong. GUISEPPE: Make him a general, Excellency, and then everything he says will be right. -- G. B. Shaw, "The Man of Destiny" ---- Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. G. B. Shaw ---- The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw ---- The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those who do not possess it. GB Shaw ---- Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. - George Bernard Shaw ---- We will be in a struggle with the Islamic world for the next 100 years. Sen. Richard Shelby R-Alabama January 19, 2008 http://www.enewscourier.com/local/local_story_019214605.html Athens Alabama ---- Ward Dorrity: What's the bag limit on crypto-fascist socialists? They're always in season, right? Becky Shepard: Kill'em All and then we can go for ice cream.......Any questions? April 9, 1998 ---- One of these days the talking will be over and the citizenry of the United States will decide whether or not to remain free. -Dan W. Shoemaker- ---- Tellingly, we think, the District did not suggest what sort of law, if any, would violate the Second Amendment today--in fact, at oral argument, appellees' counsel asserted that it would be constitutional for the District to ban all firearms outright. In short, we take the District's position to be that the Second Amendment is a dead letter. Laurence Silberman March 9, 2007 in decided the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual right in the case of: SHELLY PARKER, ET AL., APPELLANTS versus DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND ADRIAN M. FENTY, MAYOR OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. ---- To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). Laurence Silberman March 9, 2007 in decided the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual right in the case of: SHELLY PARKER, ET AL., APPELLANTS versus DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND ADRIAN M. FENTY, MAYOR OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. ---- Show me a young man who actively embraces Republicanism and I'll show you the world's most boring date. ---- It stands to reason that self-righteous, inflexible, single-minded, authoritarian true believers are politically organized. Open-minded, flexible, complex, ambiguous, anti-authoritarian people would just as soon be left to mind their own fucking business. R.U. Sirius In "How To Mutate and Take Over The World" http://www.amazon.com/How-Mutate-Take-Over-World/dp/0345392167/sr=1-1/qid=1160447171/ref=sr_1_1/102-5404973-3828963?ie=UTF8&s=b ooks ---- The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson The Walking Rifleman By Joe Sledge When a man takes his rifle a walkin' it adds not a bit to his load. It makes him in fact somewhat lighter, for he walks as a free man, unbowed. When a man takes his rifle a walkin', he's master of all he can see. A good man won't abuse the position, for a master's a fine thing to be. When a man takes his rifle a walkin', he'll keep his eye sharp, his wits keen. That's not just a tart he's escortin'. No, that lady beside him's a queen. When a man takes his rifle a walkin', its condition doesn't matter to me. He can load it however he chooses so long as he lives by Rule Three. When a man takes his rifle a walkin' and he needs a second shot quick, he'll be glad of the time spent on homework, that he mastered reflexive bolt-flick. When a man takes his rifle a walkin' and he's hunting, to feed him and his, well, he's living the way God intended, and that's just the way that it is. When a man takes his rifle a walkin', as some say he should not be allowed, well, they'd better be saying it softly, for a man with a rifle is proud. So if you take your rifle a walkin', realize what you're saying, my friend. You're saying that you are a free man and woe be to him who butts in. So let's take our rifles a walkin', with pride - defiance if need. If we don't want to be the last riflemen we've got to re-sow freedom's seed. Yes, let's take our rifles a walkin', and we'll walk in the light, so they'll see. And if they come to tell us we cannot, then we'll water the Liberty Tree. From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 5, No. 12 November 1997 ---- You will see I simply believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And in today's world of expanding, pervasive and all-powerful government, that makes me an extremist. Steven A. Sliver The Liberty Pole May 1998 Volume V. No. 2 The Lawyer's Second Amendment Society ---- All the advances that mankind has made over his environment have been done using a formal system whereby man has hypothesized, "If I observe A then I can conclude B" and thereafter presenting the hypothesis and the formal system to the scrutiny of others. -Dave Smead- ---- Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog. - Adam Smith ---- As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual value of society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it. Adam Smith ---- It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Adam Smith ---- Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition. - Adam Smith - ---- Those who sell their liberty for security are understandable, if pitiable, creatures. Those who sell the liberty of others for wealth, power, or even a moment's respite deserve only the end of a rope. L. Neil Smith ---- The truth is, regardless of how many pointy tools and shampoo bottles we confiscate, there shall remain an unlimited number of ways to smuggle dangerous items onto a plane. The precise shape, form and substance of those items is irrelevant. We are not fighting materials, we are fighting the imagination and cleverness of the would-be saboteur. Thus, what most people fail to grasp is that the nuts and bolts of keeping terrorists away from planes is not really the job of airport security at all. Rather, it’s the job of government agencies and law enforcement. It’s not very glamorous, but the grunt work of hunting down terrorists takes place far off stage, relying on the diligent work of cops, spies and intelligence officers. Air crimes need to be stopped at the planning stages. By the time a terrorist gets to the airport, chances are it’s too late. Patrick Smith December 28, 2007 The Airport Security Follies http://jetlagged.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/the-airport-security-follies/ ---- If a law containing the word "gun" or "firearm", etc.... would still describe an illegal act regardless of that word, the word should be removed as being unnecessary. Furthermore, laws that describe mere possession of an item (that can be safely controlled and maintained by the possessor) as the punishable "act" are not "reasonable" ... Paul Smith Email Sept 3, 2001, 7:13 PM ---- It is my firm conviction that man has nothing to gain, emotionally or otherwise, by adhering to a falsehood, regardless of how comfortable or sacred that falsehood may appear. Anyone who claims, on the one hand, that he is concerned with human welfare, and who demands, on the other hand, that man must suspend or renounce the use of his reason, is contradicting himself. There can be no knowledge of what is good for man apart from knowledge of reality and human nature-and there is no manner in which this knowledge can be acquired except through reason. To advocate irrationality is to advocate that which is destructive to human life. -George H. Smith- From: "Atheism: The Case Against God" ---- Contrary to widespread opinion, to rationally demonstrate or justify a belief is not synonymous with claiming certainty for that belief. Depending on various factors, such as the nature and amount of available evidence, a belief may be categorized as probable to some degree. If this is what the evidence warrants, the belief has been justified. Reason demands that the degree of certitude assigned to a belief must be in accordance with the available evidence. Reason does not demand that every bit of human knowledge must be accepted as certain or closed to further investigation. -George H. Smith- From: "Atheism the Case Against God" ---- It didn't make sense! That's how I knew it >had< to be true. Paul Smith On a law regarding ammunition. May 11, 1999 ---- While some atheists are communists and some are existentialists, this tells us nothing about atheism or other atheists. It is probable that the Christian, like the atheist, does not believe in the existence of magic elves--but this does not provide a significant area of agreement between the two. And so it is with atheism. -George H. Smith- From: "Atheism: The Case Against God" ---- Although atheism is negative in character, it need not be destructive. When used to eradicate superstition and its detrimental effects, atheism is a benevolent, constructive approach. It clears the air, as it were, leaving the door open for positive principles and philosophies based, not on the supernatural, but on man's ability to think and comprehend. -George H. Smith- From: "Atheism the Case Against God" ---- ... we may indicate three minimum requirements that must be fulfilled before any belief can claim the status of knowledge: (a) a belief must be base on evidence; (b) a belief must be internally consistent (i.e. not self-contradictory); (c) a belief cannot contradict previously validated knowledge with which it is to be integrated. If a belief fails to meet any or all of these criteria, it cannot properly be designated as knowledge. -George H. Smith- From: "Atheism the Case Against God" ---- If one believes, as I do, that theism is not only false, but is detrimental to man as well, then the choice between theism and atheism assumes a major importance. If considered purely as an abstract idea, theism may be dismissed without extended discussion. But when considered within its proper context-within the framework of its historical, cultural, philosophical and psychological significance-the question of god is among the most crucial subjects of our time. -George H. Smith- From: "Atheism: The Case Against God" ---- Cases of persecution similar to Galileo's (which are also found in Protestantism) are a significant indicator of the extent to which Christians themselves have been aware of the conflict between reason and faith. The issue is not whether Galileo was right or wrong. The issue is: Why has Christianity found it necessary and desirable to suppress free inquiry with the threat of force? If reason will only lend support to the dogmas of religion, why have those countries with a strong Church-State alliance displayed such an eagerness to enforce religious dogmas and eliminate dissent through the power of the State? Why has Christianity refused, whenever possible, to allow its beliefs to compete in a free marketplace of ideas? The answer is obvious - and revealing. Christianity is peddling an inferior product, one that cannot withstand critical investigation. Unable to compete favorably with other theories, it has sought to gain a monopoly through a state franchise, which means: through the use of force. -George H. Smith- From: "Atheism the Case Against God" ---- Religion has had the disastrous effect of placing vitally important concepts, such as morality, happiness and love, in a supernatural realm inaccessible to man's mind and knowledge. Morality and religion have become so intertwined that many people cannot conceive of ethics divorced from god, even in principle--which leads to the assumption that the atheist is out to destroy values. -George H. Smith- From: "Atheism the Case Against God" ---- Atheism ... is not the destruction of morality; it is the destruction of supernatural morality. Likewise, atheism is not the destruction of happiness and love; it is the destruction of the idea that happiness and love can be achieved only in another world. Atheism brings these ideas down to earth, within the reach of man's mind. -George H. Smith- From: "Atheism the Case Against God" ---- "Call for a cop, call for an ambulance, and call for a pizza. See who shows up first." -J. Snyder - "A Nation of Cowards" ---- Democracy is a form of government in which it is permitted to wonder aloud what the country could do under first-class management. -- Senator Soaper ---- Funny how orphanages horrify people who see nothing wrong with abortion clinics. -Joseph Sobran- E-mail ---- I don't want to help terrorists or help bad guys do bad things on airplanes, but what we have now is what we in the industry call 'security theater.' It's made to make you think you're secure without actually making you secure. As a member of the academic research community, I consider this to be a public service. Christopher Soghoian October 27, 2006 ABC News Web Site Lets Anyone Create Fake Boarding Passes http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2611432&page=1 ---- I hate guns. In today's society there is no need for the average citizen to own or carry a gun except to protect yourself from those who do carry guns and intend to use them in a crime. Oh, wait! I just contradicted myself. No. I just pointed out the vicious circle created by gun advocates. They say, "Guns don't kill, people kill." I'd say you're correct. But the government and law enforcement have done a lousy job of keeping guns out of the hands of those who kill, and longer jail sentences are not the answer because that occurs after a crime has been committed. Tighter gun control? I'll go so far as to say ban guns. That's the only way. Carol Solnom There's no need for most to carry a gun http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070109/EDIT0202/701090313/1022/EDIT January 9, 2007 The Enquirer ---- Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle. -Alexander Solzhenitsyn- ---- The abolition of the caliphate, then, accomplished precisely the opposite of what Ataturk hoped it would: it gave the adherents of political Islam a cause around which to rally, recruit, and mobilize. In essence, it gave birth to the crisis that engulfs the world today. It is likely that a destruction of the Kaaba or the Al-Aqsa Mosque would have the same effect: it would become source of spirit, not of dispirit. The jihadists would have yet another injury to add to their litany of grievances, which up to now have so effectively confused American leftists into thinking that the West is at fault in this present conflict. But the grievances always shift; the only constant is the jihad imperative. Let us not give that imperative even greater energy in the modern world by supplying such pretexts needlessly. Robert Spencer FrontPageMagazine.com July 28, 2005 ---- It is a natural impossibility that a government should have a right to punish men for their vices; because it is impossible that a government should have any rights, except such as the individuals composing it previously had, as individuals. They could not delegate to a government any rights which they did not themselves possess. They could not contribute to the government any rights, except such as they themselves possessed as individuals. Now, nobody but a fool or an impostor pretends that he, as an individual, has a right to punish other men for their vices. But anybody and everybody have a natural right, as individuals, to punish other men for their crimes; for everybody has a natural right, not only to defend his own person and property against aggressors, but also to go to the assistance and defense of everybody else, whose person or property is invaded. The natural right of each individual to defend his own person and property against an aggressor, and to go to the assistance and defense of every one else whose person or property is invaded, is a right without which men could not exist on the earth. And government has no rightful existence, except in so far as it embodies, and is limited by, this natural right of individuals. -Lysander Spooner- From: "Vices Are Not Crimes" ---- Deadly face is no substitute for due process. Jayne Lyn Stahl Another Poster Child for the NRA http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jayne_ly_071007_another_poster_child.htm October 7, 2007 at 22:34:36 ---- Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas? Joseph Stalin ---- And you choose to be unarmed? To me, that just doesn't make sense. Nicki Stallard Pink Pistols: The Gay Group That's Getting Armed Posted April 3, 2007 http://www.alternet.org/rights/50039/ ---- It is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we wish. -Elizabeth Cady Stanton E-mail ---- We do not ask man to represent us; it is hard enough in times like these for man to carry backbone enough to represent himself. - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1860 - ---- In America, any boy may become president and I suppose that's just one of the risks he takes. -- Adlai Stevenson ---- To rid ourselves of the entrenched, voracious type of capitalism that is in this country that perpetuates sexism and racism, I don't think that can come nonviolently. Lynne Stewart Civil rights lawyer convicted February 10, 2005 of smuggling messages of violence from one of her jailed clients -- a radical Egyptian sheik -- to his terrorist disciples on the outside. ---- Last week, a Federal Appeals Court overturned Washington D.C.'s long-standing restrictions on handguns -- a decision that endangers all of America's gun laws. This case is most likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court and we have a tidal wave of work to do before it gets there. This battle -- to its very core -- is the most important battle we have ever waged. We need your help today to build a strong Brady Gun Law Defense Fund to save America's gun laws. ... The threat to all our gun laws is truly unprecedented. From: StoptheNRA [mailto:advocacy@stopthenra.com] Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 7:11 AM Subject: Activist Judges Threaten US Gun Law ---- A person without conscience, even a smart one, tends to be a short sighted and naive individual who eventually expires of boredom, financial ruin, or a bullet. Martha Stout The Sociopath Next Door ---- Straightarrow's law; One who plans you no harm doesn't need you helpless. Straightarrow's corrolary; If one needs you disarmed he intends you harm. Maybe at his leisure, but inevitable it be. From http://www.alphecca.com/mt_alphecca_archives/002647.html ---- Guns are the catalytic component in murder-suicide. Just as important, it must be understood that the emotional factors that drive suicide can be all too easily turned outward on friends, family, co-workers, and complete strangers because of the unmatched lethality of firearms. Every major murder-suicide study ever conducted has shown that a firearm--with its unmatched combination of lethality and availability--is the weapon most often used to murder the victims, with the offenders then turning the gun on themselves. Josh Sugarmann VPC executive director August 5, 2002 http://www.vpc.org/press/0208nc.htm ---- We can continue to push legislation of dubious effectiveness. Or we can acknowledge that gun violence is a public-health crisis fueled by an inherently dangerous consumer product. To end the crisis, we have to regulate--or, in the case of handguns and assault weapons, completely ban--the product. From the article "Reverse Fire" by Josh Sugarmann January/February 1994 Issue of Mother Jones http://www.mojones.com/MOTHER_JONES/JF94/sugarmann.html ---- Assault weapons--just like armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and plastic firearms--are a new topic. The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons--anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun--can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these weapons. Josh Sugarmann Conclusion http://www.vpc.org/studies/awaconc.htm Assault Weapons and Accessories in America http://www.vpc.org/studies/awacont.htm 1988, 42 pages, $6.00 http://www.vpc.org/studyndx.htm ---- One tenet of the National Rifle Association's faith has always been that handgun controls do little to stop criminals from obtaining handguns. For once, the NRA is right and America's leading handgun control organization is wrong. Criminals don't buy guns in gun stores. That's why they're criminals. But it isn't criminals who are killing most of the 20,000 to 22,000 people who die from handguns each year. We are. Josh Sugarmann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Sugarmann June 1987 The NRA is Right: But We Still Need to Ban Handguns The Washington Monthly [This is one of those quotes that is almost too good to be true. I obtained it from Wikipedia for whatever that is worth.--Joe] ---- Guns can provide an intoxicating and almost pornographic attraction to young men who often feel powerless, according to academics in the field. Chris Summers November 12, 2007 Who carries guns and why? BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6937537.stm ---- In a democracy, people must have faith in their institutions. In a totalitarian government, fear will do. Don Surber July 21, 2007 Democrats ‘achieve' 14 percent approval http://www.dailymail.com/story/Opinion/2007072075/Don-Surber-Democrats-achieve-14-percent-approval/ ---- Utopia is not one of the available solutions to violence in our society. Only incremental improvements are attainable through repeal of victim disarmament laws and through implementation of effectual, affordable measures. Objective assessment of the risks and benefits of various proposals will assist development of rational and effectual public policy. Hysterical, ineffectual, unconstitutional, and merely symbolic measures only squander time, money, and energy that are better devoted to effectual solutions and realistic goals. Edgar A. Suter MD Guns in the Medical Literature -- A Failure of Peer Review http://rkba.org/research/suter/med-lit/conclusions.html ---- Citizens have the natural right and the common sense duty to protect themselves, their families, their communities, and their property... guns are the equalizing tools of self-protection, utopian lamentations notwithstanding. Edgar A. Suter ---- For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery. Jonathan Swift ---- When they took the fourth amendment, I was quiet because I didn't deal drugs. When they took the sixth amendment, I was quiet because I was innocent. When they took the second amendment, I was quiet because I didn't own a gun. Now they've taken the first amendment, and I can say nothing about it. -switchable-yento@affection.com- ---- Who can protest an injustice but does not is an accomplice in the act. The Talmud ---- Wow, other than the drug war/abstinence/McCain-Feingold stuff he sounds like my kinda guy. I'm all about ditching CAFE and drilling the ANWR with nuclear weapons and nerve gassing any hippies who protest it while de-funding their solar-powered Prius. Tamara K. June 1, 2007 http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2007/06/politics-fred-thompson-on-issues.html ---- The guy's as popular in France's Muslim ghettos as a bag of pork rinds, which rates another thumbs up in my book. If non-assimilating misogynist welfare leeches hate him, he can't be all bad. Tamara K. May 9, 2007 http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2007/05/my-reaction-to-frog-reaction-to-sarkozy.html ---- How can government eliminate poverty? Poverty is government's stock in trade. Tamara K. August 11, 2007 Yes, wouldn't it? http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2007/08/yes-wouldnt-it.html ---- In his article, Westen proudly displays his passport from Bizarroland, a place superficially similar to planet Earth, but where drooling idiots with hearts full of hate run amok absent guidance from their spiritual and intellectual betters in politics and academe. ... I was waiting for the lizardoids to show up around paragraph seven or so and symbolically rape Gaia while carrying off Al Gore to be a slave on their homeworld, Karlrovia. Tamara K. July 5, 2007 *sniff* It's a thing of beauty. http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2007/07/sniff-its-thing-of-beauty.html ---- Can you imagine what would have happened if some wide spot in the road had kidnapped a boat full of 'Er Majesty's tars back in the days of Pax Britannia? HMS Thunderer would have dropped anchor in the harbor of whatever pathetic hamlet they were being held captive. Royal Marines would have been disembarked. Crowds of Wogs would have been mowed down by Gatlings and run through with Martini bayonets. The local rajah would have forked over his prisoners, or he would have found his house burned to the ground and Tommy Atkins pissing on the ashes. Tamara K. March 30, 2007 England, ma'am. It's where Great Britain used to be. http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2007/03/england-maam-its-where-great-britain.html ---- I say not "give me liberty or give me death". I say I am born free and he who would deny me freedom risks his own death. Mack Tanner http://www.buildfreedom.com/tanner/born_free.shtml ---- Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. John Chafee (R-RI) made their big anti-gun push after Terry and Florio lost. They are all going to be back in the 104th Congress and they have said nothing to indicate that they will not keep pushing. Schumer and Feinstein got only part of what they wanted. Chafee didn't get his bill to ban all handguns in the last Congress, so he can be expected to file it again. Schumer's agenda still calls for passage of Brady II, which would require, among other things, that all handguns be licensed by the states along federal guidelines on a "needs" basis, that the licenses would have to be shown to buy handgun ammunition for the particular licensed guns, that the licenses would be renewable every two years at high cost, that people who own more than 20 firearms (rifles, shotguns and/or handguns) or 1,000 rounds of ammunition or one box of primers would have to pay for an expensive arsenal license and be subject to home inspection by the police. Brady II will be filed again, in part because Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), who was re-elected also, called for its passage during his election campaign. Hindsight from The New Gun Week Dec. 9, 1994 Nov. 8 Election Commentaries by Joseph P. Tartaro http://www.ccrkba.org/pub/rkba/hindsight/hs941209.txt ---- In the end, the only statistic that matters in Second Amendment discussions is that at least sixty million (and perhaps over one hundred million) people were murdered by their own governments during the twentieth century. Robert J. Cottrol & Raymond T. Diamond, The Fifth Auxiliary Right, 104 Yale L.J. 995, 1025 (1995) (book review). In America today, the necessity of exercising the last resort of revolution appears remote. But a Constitution is not for the moment -- it is for the ages. The people’s right to alter or abolish a despotic government is fundamental to their sovereignty. The means to exercise that right should not be entrusted to an exclusive military class, any more than the freedom of speech should be entrusted only to government spokespersons. Jeffrey B. Teichert February 12, 2008 District of Columbia, et al., v. Dick Anthony Heller Page 21. BRIEF AMICUS CURIAE OF ORGANIZATIONS AND SCHOLARS CORRECTING MYTHS AND MISREPRESENTATIONS COMMONLY DEPLOYED BY OPPONENTS OF AN INDIVIDUAL-RIGHTS-BASED INTERPRETATION OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENT http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacCitizensCommittee.pdf ---- Terrorists generally select targets where they can cause most damage, inflict mass casualties or attract widespread publicity. VBIEDs can be highly destructive. National Counter Terrorism Security Office Police explosives experts prevent carnage at the Tiger Tiger Club http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2007886.ece ---- I don't think Christians should use birth control. You consummate your marriage as often as you like and if you have babies, you have babies. -Randall Terry- One of the men behind the current campaign to blockade health clinics and publicly harrass and humiliate women. ---- To me, the nations with legalized abortions are the poorest nations. The greatest destroyer of peace today is the crime against the innocent unborn child.... In destroying the child, we are destroying love, destroying the image of God in the world. -Mother Theresa of Calcutta- Literature Abortion: the Silent Holocaust ---- People who relieve others of their money with guns are called robbers. It does not alter the immorality of the act when the income transfer is carried out by government. Cal Thomas A taxing time Jewish World Review April 17, 2000 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/thomas041700.asp ---- And Miss (Attorney General Janet) Reno, I say to you: If you send your jackbooted, baby-burning bushwackers to confiscate my guns, pack them a lunch. It will be a damned long day. The Branch Davidians were amateurs. I'm a professional. -Harry Thomas- NRA Board Member ---- Acknowledging the existence of evil - not just evil people but evil itself - is a prerequisite to understanding and controlling it. Denying that evil exists, and that it is a proper metaphor for the worst kind of behavior, ensures that evil will prosper. -Cal Thomas- Periodical Column - 4/24/95 4/24/95 ---- We just don't think that unelected bureaucrats and people in the Attorney General's Office should be making the decision about whether I can protect myself. John J. Thompson Lobbyist for the Delaware State Sportsmen's Association March 23, 2006 Testifying before the Delaware Legislature on concealed weapon legislation. The bill was passed by the House Public Safety by a vote of 4-2. http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060323/NEWS/603230338/1006/RSS ---- The real effect of these gun-control measures is to place onerous restrictions on law-abiding citizens who use firearms for such legal activities as self-defense, sport-shooting, hunting, and collecting. Fred Thompson ---- Many other universities have been swayed by an anti-gun, anti-self defense ideology. I respect their right to hold those views, but I challenge their decision to deny Americans the right to protect themselves on their campuses -- and then proudly advertise that fact to any and all. Whenever I've seen one of those "Gun-free Zone" signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I've always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don't mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago. Fred Thompson April 20, 2007 Signs of Intelligence? http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTIwYzMyZmQ1YzQ1MDNmZTMyYzQ1Y2U3YTU4YzNmNGE= ---- [In the 60's] there was madness in any direction, at any hour ... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was `right', that we were winning ... And that, I think, was the handle -- the sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply `prevail'. There was no point in fighting -- on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave .... So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark -- the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. -- Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" ---- What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Journal entry, 23 Oct. 1852. ---- I was never molested by any person but those who represented the State. Walden, "The Village," 1854. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. ---- That government is best which governs least. Henry David Thoreau 1849 Civil Diobedience http://thoreau.eserver.org/civil1.html ---- What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? - Henry David Thoreau - ---- Talk about slavery! It is not the peculiar institution of the South. It exists wherever men are bought and sold, wherever a man allows himself to be made a mere thing or a tool, and surrenders his inalienable rights of reason and conscience. Indeed, this slavery is more complete than that which enslaves the body alone. . . . I never yet met with, or heard of, a judge who was not a slave of this kind, and so the finest and most unfailing weapon of injustice. He fetches a slightly higher price than the black men only because he is a more valuable slave. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62) U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Journals (1906), entry for 4 Dec. 1860. ---- Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing institution- such call I good books. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62) U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, "Sunday" (1849). ---- Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62) U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). ---- There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few went to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Closing lines of On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). The passage relates to Thoreau's refusal to pay a poll tax, for which he went to jail for one night in July 1846. This essay was often quoted by Gandhi in his campaign of passive resistance. ---- As to conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I have not a very high opinion of that course. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Journals (1906), entry in 1850. ---- If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). Thoreau by his account paid no poll tax for six years, for which he spent a night in jail in the summer of 1846, a gesture against the Mexican War declared that year. ---- The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). ---- Any fool can make a rule And every fool will mind it. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Journals (1906), entry for 3 Feb. 1860. ---- The rich man . . . is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). ---- I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). ---- A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). ---- Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Letter, 31 July 1849, to Ellen Emerson (then 10 years old), eldest child of Ralph Waldo Emerson (published in The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 1958). ---- If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life. -Henry David Thoreau- (1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Walden, "Economy" (1854). ---- "There are worse things to be than a bigot. I'd rather keep company with a bigot who lets me go my own way than a well-intentioned man who presumes to know what is good for me." - Wendy Thrash - ---- Man is flying too fast for a world that is round. Soon he will catch up with himself in a great rear-end collision and Man will never know that what hit him from behind was Man. - James Thurber - ---- In short, the argument that "the right of the people" is subject to reasonable regulation and restriction tramples on the very words of the Second Amendment, reading the phrase -- "shall not be infringed" -- as if it read "shall be subject only to reasonable regulation to achieve public safety." Herbert W. Titus Gun Owners of America Brief amicus curiae in D.C. v. Heller. February 11, 2008 http://www.gunowners.org/fs0802.pdf ---- the Solicitor General has argued, Congress may prohibit such persons as idiots, imbeciles, felons, and children from possessing any firearm whatsoever. Id. at 25-26. While the Second Amendment would not absolutely preclude exclusions, it does prohibit them if they rest upon the constitutionally impermissible ground of unfitness. Exclusions may only be based upon the foundation that the class of persons excluded are not part of the constituent "people" -- i.e., those persons who have authority to constitute and reconstitute the government -- being either incapable of giving the requisite consent to be governed, such as children, or having forfeited their civil rights, such as a convicted violent felon. According to the republican political philosophy underpinning the Second Amendment, whether a person is "trained" in the use of a firearm, and thus fit to possess it, is a matter of selfgovernment, not subject to any fitness regulation of the government. Herbert W. Titus Gun Owners of America Brief amicus curiae in D.C. v. Heller. February 11, 2008 http://www.gunowners.org/fs0802.pdf ---- Let me get this straight... The state wants me to pay a fee and ask me all kinds of personal questions to exercise a right... The state wants to license every producer of firearms and require them to serial number everything they make, without room for error... The state wants access to everyone's police and medical records... The state wants a record of every transaction where a firearm changes hands... The state wants me to submit to training despite the fact that I had two decades of prior experience and no negligent discharge, much less a crime... The state wants to dictate where I may carry a firearm... The state wants to dictate how I transport a firearm... The state wants me to inform them where and when I move anywhere in the country... The state doesn't trust me to report a theft, so they will automatically assume guilt if I don't... The state doesn't trust me with certain types of firearms... The state wants every bullet and case to have an identification... The state doesn't trust me to defend my life without violating someone else's rights... ...and I'm the paranoid one? TJH http://blog.joehuffman.org/CommentView,guid,b1ed2f72-5bf5-4251-b6b7-92e2dea28705.aspx#commentstart ---- I visualize a "gunextremist" as someone who shows up to the range with a NAA mini in .22 Short and a Phelps revolver in .45-70. TJH In comments November 4, 2007, 9:32 PM. http://blog.joehuffman.org/CommentView,guid,1e0970eb-b4c8-4e2c-a446-6eda6a21b6ea.aspx ---- Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratification's, and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks on the contrary to keep them in perpetual childhood ...it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns ...Thus it everyday renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent ...It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided ...such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize; but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing but a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which government is the shepherd. -Alexis de Tocqueville- from Democracy_in_America 1840 ---- There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle. Alexis de Tocqueville ---- Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. Alexis de Tocqueville ---- Ninety eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them. Lily Tomlin ---- America's foreign policy is like "a large friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair. - Arnold Toynbee ---- Someone gets up one day and says, 'I'm gonna kill all the girls.' How do you legislate against that? Katie True Pennsylvania House Representative from Lancaster County October 2, 2006 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Analysis: Gun control forces will be emboldened, face tall task http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_473219.html ---- It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job. It's a depression when you lose yours. - Harry Truman ---- I never give them hell. I just tell the truth, and they think it is hell. Harry S Truman 1884-1972 33rd President of the United States ---- At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of the minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms. I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. Harry S Truman Message to Congress Later known as Truman Doctrine March 12, 1947 ---- Leaders are best when people scarcely know they exist, not so good when people obey and acclaim them, worst when people despise them. Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you. But of good leaders who talk little, when their work is done, their aim fulfilled, the people will say: "We did this ourselves". - Lao Tse - ---- Communism is at once a complete system of proletarian ideology and a new social system. It is different from any other ideological and social system, and is the most complete, progressive, revolutionary and rational system in human history. The ideological and social system of feudalism has a place only in the museum of history. The ideological and social system of capitalism has also become a museum piece in one part of the world (in the Soviet Union), while in other countries it resembles "a dying person who is sinking fast, like the sun setting beyond the western hills", and will soon be relegated to the museum. The communist ideological and social system alone is full of youth and vitality, sweeping the world with the momentum of an avalanche and the force of a thunderbolt. Chairman Mao Tse-Tung's Little Red Book "On New Democracy" (January 1940), Selected Works, Vol. II, pp. 360-61. http://art-bin.com/art/omaotoc.html ---- Our state is a people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance. What is this dictatorship for? Its first function is to suppress the reactionary classes and elements and those exploiters in our country who resist the socialist revolution, to suppress those who try to wreck our socialist construction, or in other words, to resolve the internal contradictions between ourselves and the enemy. For instance, to arrest, try and sentence certain counterrevolutionaries, and to deprive landlords and bureaucrat-capitalists of their right to vote and their freedom of speech for a specified period of time - all this comes within the scope of our dictatorship. To maintain public order and safeguard the interests of the people, it is likewise necessary to exercise dictatorship over embezzlers, swindlers, arsonists, murderers, criminal gangs and other scoundrels who seriously disrupt public order. The second function of this dictatorship is to protect our country from subversion and possible aggression by external enemies. In that event, it is the task of this dictatorship to resolve the external contradiction between ourselves and the enemy. The aim of this dictatorship is to protect all our people so that they can devote themselves to peaceful labour and build China into a socialist country with a modern industry, agriculture, science and culture. Chairman Mao Ts-Tung's Little Red Book On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (February 27, 1957), 1st pocket ed., pp. 6-7. http://art-bin.com/art/omaotoc.html ---- The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be. Lao Tsu ---- The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest possible limits...and [when] the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction. St. George Tucker, Judge of the Virginia Supreme Court and U.S. District Court of Virginia in I Blackstone COMMENTARIES Sir George Tucker Ed., 1803, pg. 300 (App.) ---- Families, when a child is born Want it to be intelligent. I, through intelligence, Having wrecked my whole life, Only hope the baby will prove Ignorant and stupid. Then he will crown a tranquil life By becoming a Cabinet Minister -- Su Tung-p'o ---- None of this is easy for someone raised to believe that the Second Amendment was the dividing line between the enlightenment and the dark ages of American culture. Yet, it is time to honestly reconsider this amendment and admit that ... here's the really hard part ... the NRA may have been right. This does not mean that Charlton Heston is the new Rosa Parks or that no restrictions can be placed on gun ownership. But it does appear that gun ownership was made a protected right by the Framers and, while we might not celebrate it, it is time that we recognize it. Jonathan Turley 12:15 AM/ET, October 04, 2007 A liberal's lament: The NRA might be right after all Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors. http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/10/a-liberals-lame.html ---- A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain. -- Mark Twain ---- You can not say civilization don't advance...for in every war they kill you in a new way. - Mark Twain ---- France has neither winter, summer, nor morals - apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country. - Mark Twain - ---- There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress. -- Mark Twain ---- God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board. -- Mark Twain ---- Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform. -- Mark Twain ---- It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either. -- Mark Twain ---- I don't care who does the electing as long as I get to do the nominating. -- Boss Tweed ---- A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship. The average age of the world s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependency; From dependency back into bondage. Alexander Fraser Tyler (1748 - 1813) The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic ---- You can say that one gun on campus is one too many. But it is and always will be impossible to prevent a determined person with ill intent from smuggling one (or more) onto campus. The best defense against such people is to increase the number of armed good guys so that there is always someone nearby able to respond. Union Leader April 18, 2007 Guns on campus: One is one too few http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Guns+on+campus%3A+One+is+one+too+few&articleId=79fa4ff5-d3d0-4042-9617-6dbfce8 08d68 ---- On 24 September 1999, the Security Council convened its first meeting at ministerial level devoted to the issue of small arms. A report (S/2000/1092) was prepared with the assistance of internationally recognized experts following the ministerial meetings request that the Secretary-General “develop a reference manual for use in the field on ecologically safe (amended in report S/2000/1092 to read 'environmentally sound') methods of weapons destruction in order better to enable Member States to ensure the disposal of weapons voluntarily surrendered by civilians or retrieved from former combatants”. The report has been used as a guide in the preparation of this aide mémoire. A DESTRUCTION HANDBOOK Small arms, light weapons, ammunition and explosives UNITED NATIONS http://disarmament2.un.org/DDAPublications/desthbk.pdf ---- Practical competition is open to all reputable persons without regard to occupation. It may specifically not be limited to public servants. USPSA Handgun Competition Rules PRINCIPLES of USPSA Competitions Draft--January 2008 [A reminder for those wishing to become oppressors. Government employees are servants. The way they are kept servants is by the people refusing to allow their right to own and use guns to be infringed. Reminding the servants of the skill of the people is a part of keeping the servants in line. The USPSA is part of that.--Joe] ---- Only those with a vested emotional interest in seeing through on the promise of total gun confiscation continue to hang onto the false hope of gun control. After years of being convinced of the righteousness of their cause they are blinded to reality and have begun to believe their own lies. That is the only way to explain how they can still be pushing their failed agenda. If it wasn't such a serious issue the determination of anti-gun proponents would border on the laughable. Since their misguided ways have led to untold numbers of people being left at the mercy of armed thugs, it takes all the humor out of their laughable ways. Still, their determination has brainwashed them to believe in their cause at all costs. I also proves that they are incapable of creating a conspiracy with the anti-gun establishment media. The sad sorry truth is they actually believe this crap. Gerard Valentino Buckeye Firearms Association Central Ohio Chair January 3, 2008 There is No Leftist Anti-Gun Conspiracy - They Really Believe This Crap http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/article4121.html ---- It is less important to redistribute wealth than it is to redistribute opportunity. Arthur H. Vandenberg ---- Tom Hayden is the kind of politician who gives opportunism a bad name. Gore Vidal ---- Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates. Gore Vidal ---- The primary goal of the National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle program is not to safeguard children, but to protect the interests of the NRA and the firearms industry by making guns more acceptable to children and youth. The Eddie Eagle program employs strategies similar to those utilized by America's tobacco industry-from youth "educational" programs that are in fact marketing tools to the use of appealing cartoon characters that aim to put a friendly face on a hazardous product. The hoped-for result is new customers for the industry and new members for the NRA. Violence Policy Center From http://www.vpc.org/fact_sht/eddiekey.htm as of April 15, 1999 ---- Gun shows hold a particular appeal for the pro-gun fringe... While McVeigh and Koresh may be two of the best known gun show customers, they are other lesser known but equally discomforting attendees. According to the January 23, 1995 issue of National Review, convicted serial killer Thomas Dillon began his murderous career by killing more than 500 dogs and cats, then moved on to humans allegedly killing at least five men. In 1989 he announced to a friend that he had quit killing animals and began inviting the friend to attend gun shows with him. From the July 1996 Violence Policy Center study Gun Shows in America: Tupperware® Parties for Criminals. See: http://www.vpc.org/fact_sht/gunshow.htm ---- ... model legislation, "The Firearms Safety and Violence Prevention Act," designed to expand the powers of the Secretary of Treasury to include regulation of the manufacture, distribution and sale of firearms and ammunition and to expand the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department to include firearm products and non-powder firearms. In addition to granting the Treasury health and safety powers (such as standard-setting and recall capability), it also includes: a ban on assault weapons; a ban on weapons regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA) such as silencers, hand grenades, and land mines; and a handgun phase-out--the future manufacture and sale of new handguns would be prohibited. Currently possessed handguns would be required to be surrendered upon the owner's death. Violence Policy Center From http://www.vpc.org/fact_sht/ceasefs.htm (as of 11/10/98) ---- Washington, DC's ban on handguns in the home has long protected DC's residents as measured by the District of Columbia's firearm suicide and overall suicide rate. The District's handgun ban provides compelling evidence of how strict gun laws save lives by keeping handguns out of homes. The District of Columbia ranks 51st (last) in the country for firearms suicide for 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available. The District also ranks last for overall suicide. Maintaining the ban will ensure the health and safety of DC residents. Violence Policy Center July 16, 2007 Threat of Handgun Ban Repeal Puts Lives of DC Residents in Supreme Court Balance http://vpc.org/press/0707dc.htm ---- Civilian semiautomatic assault weapons incorporate all of the functional design features that make assault weapons so deadly. They are arguably more deadly than military versions, because most experts agree that semiautomatic fire is more accurate--and thus more lethal--than automatic fire. Violence Policy Center Bullet Hoses http://www.vpc.org/studies/hoseone.htm 2003 ---- I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. -- Voltaire ---- I know many books that have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil. - Voltaire - ---- War is the greatest of all crimes; and yet there is no aggressor who does not color his crime with the pretext of justice. - Voltaire - ---- One man's red tape is another man's system. - D. Waldo - ---- With the exception of the mayor of Birmingham, AL (who last month suggested citizens of Birmingham arm themselves with guns), I am not aware of ANY official or agency that recommends resistance to criminal attack, despite the fact that federal statistical data (from the Bureau of Justice Statistics) overwhelmingly shows that armed defense (with firearms at the top of the "armed" list) offers the lowest risk of injury to the innocent victim. The "system" is in the business of creating and perpetuating sheeple. Sheeple are dependent on the state/system. Joe Waldron 10/11/2005 11:44 AM Email to wa-ccw@yahoogroups.com ---- The Personal Protection Act has succeeded in destroying the myth that legally-armed citizens are somehow a threat to the general public. We knew they were wrong, and now everybody else knows it, too. Joe Waldron March 30, 2007 Executive Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms ANTI-GUNNERS WRONG (AGAIN) ABOUT MINNESOTA CARRY http://www.ccrkba.org/pub/rkba/press-releases/minnesota.htm ---- I've seen many politicians paralyzed in the legs as myself, but I've seen more of them who were paralyzed in the head. - George Wallace - ---- On July 6, 1775, after Lexington and Concord, after General Gage had declared martial law in Boston on June 12 of that year, Congress issued the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms. In the Declaration the Congress states, as one of the reasons for taking up arms, that Gage had disarmed the people of Boston and seized their weapons. Finally, one year after the Declaration of Causes, the Continental Congress concluded that it was forced to declare independence. It would seem strange if the authors of the Bill of Rights were to insist upon protecting other rights against government interference yet exclude from that protection the auxiliary right which is necessary to protect the most fundamental of all rights, the right to life. Recall that the confiscation of private arms was list as one of the causes for taking up arms against the Crown. Recall that the Declaration of Right asserted that we are entitled to the protection of the laws of England, including the right to arms for self-defense, which was declared to be our birthright which was restored by act of parliament. Would they have written such amendments to protect against oppressive government, having recently experienced oppressive government, without protecting the auxiliary right which is necessary to protect the one right without which no other right may be enjoyed? Of course, as we have said, contemporary thinkers believed that this right had been secured in the Second Amendment. At the time Madison wrote the Second Amendment, there was a right of the people to keep and bear arms for self-defense. This right was believed, by the Framers, to be an right inalienable. Every word of the Constitution, and the articles of amendment, was written, approved, and ratified by men who believed this. James H. Warner February 2008 Brief for amici curiae Disabled Veterans for Self-Defense and Kestra Childers in support of respondent. [Only one more day until oral arguments.--Joe] http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07290bsacDisabledVeteransforSelf-Defense%20and%20KestraChilders.pdf ---- The gun registry registers legal guns. Gangsters don't register their guns. Tony Warr Toronto's deputy police chief June 18, 2006 Gun Control System Targeted in Canada http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-guns18jun18,1,7907209.story?coll=la-headlines-world ---- Today, as always, the people, no less than their courts, must remain vigilant to preserve the principles of our Bill of Rights, lest in our desire to be secure we lose our ability to be free. -- Chief Justice Earl Warren ---- I have heard the bullets whistle; and believe me, there is something charming in the sound. George Washington After returning from a battle during the Revolutionary War. ---- When firearms go, all else goes...we need them every hour. -George Washington- Literature ---- The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference -- they serve a place of honor with all that is good. -George Washington- ---- Guns rank second in importance only to the Constitution itself. They are our Liberty Teeth. --George Washington ---- Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. George Washington speech of January 7, 1790 ---- If I had my way, the gun lobby would be looking at three yards and a cloud of dust. Let's get organized and shove tougher gun policies right down their throats. Laura Washington novakevans@aol.com Gun lovers disarm control advocates http://www.suntimes.com/news/washington/529247,CST-EDT-laura27.article ---- The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the christian religion. - George Washington - ---- We don't have to protect the environment -- the Second Coming is at hand. -- James Watt ---- If you are explaining, you are losing. J.C. Watts July 22, 2002 ---- Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. -- Daniel Webster ---- God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it. Daniel Webster ---- In the Rooseveltain era of avowed concern for the underdog, liberals and civil libertarians had been no exception. The stripping of a minority of their constitutional rights, indeed the entire evacuation-internment folly, was 'engineered by liberals', asserts Professor William Petersen of Ohio State University. 'Among the civilians one can hardly name a person, from the President down to the local officials, who was not one.' Michi Weglyn Years of Infamy William Morrow & Company, 1976 page 112 Regard the internment of Japanese citizens in the US during WW II. ---- We stand at the brink of a new age, an age made possible by the revolution that is embodied in the computer. Standing on the brink, we could totter either way to a golden age of liberty or a dark age of tyranny, either of which would surpass anything the world has ever known. Perhaps no individual's efforts will make any difference in the result, but we must never cease trying, for then the result is sure to be tyranny. Gerald M. Weinberg The Psychology of Computer Programming 1971 ---- No one can tell me that I can and should use deadly force. -Edward Wenger- FBI sharpshooter testifying before congress in regards to the death of Vickie Weaver by FBI sharpshooter Lon Horiuchi. Sept 14, 1995 Horiuchi's rules of engagement orders were "... can and should use deadly force against any armed adult..." Even if a surrender order had not been given. ---- I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat. -Rebecca West- (1913) ---- Syria is shamed and silent. Iran is freaking out in panic. Defenseless enemies are fun. Dr. Jack Wheeler Silence in Syria, Panic in Iran September 25, 2007 http://www.ocnus.net/artman2/publish/Analyses_12/Silence_in_Syria_Panic_in_Iran.shtml ---- Every time they cry wolf, they lose a little more credibility and support. Their ideas on gun control were tried, and failed. The social experiment is over. It is time to stop denying our rights and heritage based on a pack of lies. Dan White 21 April 2006 http://www.ohioccw.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3584&Itemid=83 ---- Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one. E. B. White http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._B._White ---- Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. E. B. White ---- There is no choice before us. Either we must succeed in providing the rational coordination of impulses and guts, or for centuries civilization will sink into a mere welter of minor excitements. We must provide a great age or see the collapse of the upward striving of the human race. - Alfred North Whitehead - ---- The simple-minded use of the notions 'right and wrong' is one of the chief obstacles to the progress of understanding. Alfred North Whitehead ---- A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time. -- Alfred E. Wiggam ---- I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability. OSCAR WILDE ---- America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. - Oscar Wilde - ---- Democracy is a bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people. -Oscar Wilde- 1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar ---- The struggles of the Freedom Riders and the Sit-In Movements have concentrated on a single goal: the right to eat at a lunch counter, the right to sit anywhere on a bus. These are important rights because their denial is a direct personal assault on a Negro's dignity. It is important for the racists to to maintain these perpheral forms of segregation. They establish an atmosphere that supports a system. By debasing and demoralizing the black man in small personal matters, the system eats away the sense of dignity and pride which are necessary to challenge a racist system. Robert F. Williams Page 38; Negros With Guns ---- This demonstration today shows that the Negro in the South cannot expect justice in the courts. He must convict his attackers on the spot. He must meet violence with violence, lynching with lynching. Robert F. Williams Page 26; Negros With Guns ---- The Second Amendment gives us the right to bear arms in order to have a "well-regulated militia." People with little understanding interpret that as meaning the National Guard or some other government organization. But here's how George Mason, one of our unsung framers, responded to the question, "I ask, sir, what is a militia?" Mason answered, "It is the whole people, except for a few public officials." James Madison said, "Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense." George Washington said, "When firearms go, all else goes...we need them every hour." The framers of our Constitution knew well that an armed citizenry was the ultimate defense against government tyranny. As for crime, Thomas Paine said, "The peaceable part of mankind will be overrun by the vile and abandoned while they neglect the means of self-defense...(but) arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe....Horid mischief would ensue were the good deprived of the use of them." -Walter Williams- Periodical Colorado Springs Gazette 4/24/94 ---- If you take guns away from legal gun owners then the only people who would have guns would be the bad guys. Even a pacifist would get violent if someone were trying to kill him or her. You would fight for your life, whatever your beliefs. You'd use a rock or tear one of these chairs out of the floor. Bruce Willis http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000246/bio ---- Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world. Woodrow Wilson ---- As to guns in private hands detering invasions. The Japanese disagreed with you. During WWII, the Japanese were considering a raid on the Northwest US, in order to force the US to divert resources to defend this area. They decided against it precisely because they knew how well armed and trained the citizens were. This is not theory or conjecture, the minutes of the meetings were captured when Japan surrendered. During WWII, civilian patrols were quite influential in protecting British shores against sabuetors. Mark Wilson 3/31/98 From http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/98/0326/iccon.asp ---- Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. -Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) U.S. Democratic politician, president. Speech, 9 Sept. 1912, New York Press Club. ---- Hollywood is a place where they shoot too many pictures and not enough actors. - Walter Winchell, gossip columnist ---- We must remember the First Amendment which protects any shrill jackass no matter how self-seeking. -- F. G. Withington ---- If you're involved in any underground or anti-government activity, there is always one person you should distrust more than any other. For years, members of groups from the Ku Klux Klan to the Weather Underground have had a saying: "You can always tell the FBI agent; he's the one who keeps trying to get you to bomb something." -Claire Wolfe- From 101 Things To Do 'Til The Revolution ---- There is not a group on this planet worthy of your respect. Only individuals. Respect or disrespect them case-by-case, based on what they do, not what categories they belong to. It's possible that your greatest ally could be a DEA or BATF agent becoming disillusioned with the agency's practices. It's possible your worst enemy could be a friend about to rat on you to save his or her own butt. It's possible that the smartest person you'll ever meet will be a member of a racial group you always believed was stupid. It's possible that the most venal person you'll ever meet belongs to a group otherwise known for its honor. -Claire Wolfe- From 101 Things To Do 'Til The Revolution ---- Free people >never< beg governments for fundamental rights like free speech, freedom of association, self-defense, worship and freedom to travel. If the government gets in the way of your ability to live your life peacefully, as you see fit, in voluntary relationships with others, then it's wrong and you're right. Period. Don't sit around and wait for Congress to the state legislature to "fix" violated rights. The very essence of the government game is that legislators give you a tiny bit here while grabbing a double handful of what's yours there. Even if you gain a victory or two, in the long run, government is a game freedom lovers can only lose. Never, never beg or negotiate for your rights. Take them. If enough of us do, no government in the world can stand in our way. -Claire Wolfe- From "101 Things To Do 'Til The Revolution" ---- America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards. -Claire Wolfe- From "101 Things To Do 'Til The Revolution" ---- The only way we're going to get off this road to Hell is if we jump off. If we, personally, as individuals, refuse to cooperate with evil.... Stopping it might include any number of things: tax resistance; public civil disobedience; wide-scale, silent non-cooperation; highly noisy non-cooperation; boycotts; secession efforts; monkey wrenching; computer hacking; dirty tricks against government agents; public shunning of employees of abusive government agencies; alternative; self-sufficient communities that provide their own medical care and utilities.... Whatever we do, though we must remember that we are all, already, outlaws. Not one of us can be certain [of] going through a single day without violating some law or regulation we've never even heard of. We are all guilty in the eyes of today's law. -Claire Wolfe- The Liberty Pole May 1998 Volume V. No. 2 The Lawyer's Second Amendment Society ---- Marx was wrong; religion isn't the opiate of the masses; in modern America, the drug that keeps us numb, dumb and well-behaved is a belief that we can still make a difference by politely voicing our views to our would-be rulers and owners. The fact is, every minute you spend writing to your congressperson is a minute you don't spend on useful freedom activity. Every minute you spend writing to your congressperson is a minute you fool yourself into believing you're accomplishing something when you're not. -Claire Wolfe- From "101 Things To Do 'Til The Revolution" ---- Les Baer Custom is Illinois' garbage. Assault weapons manufacturers in Illinois are getting kicked to the curb. And for good reason. Leah Woodward April 30, 2007 Executive director of Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence LeClaire council holds off vote on Les Baer Custom Inc. http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=336482 ---- Bravo for John Lott's revealing research on the impact that concealed carry laws are having on crime. That such laws have been passed in 31 states, coinciding with passage of "Three Strikes" and "Hard Time for Armed Crime" legislation, is the real reason we are seeing a decline in reported violent crime. Those who have advocated restrictive gun control over the years, and other intrusions on the rights of individual citizens, are now being shown as the liars they've always been. In the wake of the Arkansas tragedy, I remain more firmly convinced than ever that gun control advocates are glad such shooting rampages to occur, simply in order to further their own agenda. The veneer is wearing thin, however, as from your own USA Today polling, the majority of respondents support gun ownership, and are now rejecting arguments that restrictions on our Constitutional rights will control crime. Dave Workman oeppubs@mail.nwlink.com 3/28/98 From http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/98/0326/icpro.asp ---- Indeed, I am now of the opinion that a compelling case for "stricter gun control" cannot be made, at least not on empirical grounds. I have nothing but respect for the various pro-gun control advocates with whom I have come in contact over the past years. They are, for the most part, sensitive, humane and intelligent people, and their ultimate aim, to reduce death and violence in our society, is one that every civilized person must share. I have, however, come to be convinced that they are barking up the wrong tree. James Wright Academic researcher who collaborated with Peter Rossi ---- All warfare is based on deception. - Sun Tzu Wu - ---- Bureaucracy: An execution chamber in which the condemned are alternately strangled by rules, clubbed with paper, and starved in lines. - Alexander Yarrowville ---- It's very simple. The authorities have no way of controlling criminals. So they control the law abiding 'cause we are an easy target. You Tube England Gun Ban Update http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGVAQOUi6ec @ 2:14 into the video. ---- Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. -Mao Tse-Tung, also Mao Zedung- Literature Problems of War and Strategy, speech, 6 Nov. 1938 ---- What Harriet Beecher Stowe did in 1853 [showing the horrors of slavery in Uncle Tom's Cabin] John Ross has done for today's struggle for individual freedom...Read it! Aaron Zelman Executive Director Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. On the book Unintended Consequences ----