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

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

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
[In response to the Supreme Court Opinion from yesterday.  Joe]

Guns rank second in importance only to the Constitution itself.  They are our Liberty Teeth.

George Washington

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

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
[This logic applies to many government and bureaucracy laws, regulations, and rules.  See, for example, this one from yesterday.]

Self-interest has no place in society.

Sandy Cuney
Handgun Control Incorporated
May 6, 1994

One thousand letters a day did not represent what the First District wanted.

Congressperson Maria Cantwell
July 16, 1994
Washington State First District
Town Hall Meeting
North Kirkland Community Center
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.

Those who would expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

Thomas Paine

My view is that there is only so much pain that can exist in the ‘bubble’ around me.  If I’m feeling pain then the way to get rid of it is to give it back to the person that gave it to me.  That’s what makes me feel better.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
February 5, 1997

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

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. 

Things to remember about the Weaver incident:

1. It occurred during the presidency of George H. Bush before Clinton was elected.
2. Horiuchi was a sniper who ‘saw action’ at Waco under the Clinton adminstration.
3. ‘Management’ at Ruby Ridge (Weaver) gave illegal orders but neither they nor the people who followed those orders were given signficant punishment.
4. Some of the same ‘management’ was at Waco.
5. Neither political party has a monopoly on illegal and immoral acts and the people willing to execute those acts follow orders of anyone willing to give them.

-Joe Huffman-]

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
10/27/2000
At his Halloween party.