Quotes

These men knew what they meant and meant what they said.

This Page Last Updated 02/07/2008

"Quemadmoeum gladis nemeinum occidit,
occidentis telum _est" ("A sword is never a killer, it's a tool in the killer's hands")
Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the younger" ca. (4 BC - 65 AD)

"There exists a law, not written down anywhere, but in our hearts; a law which comes to us not by training or custom or reading; a law which has come to us not from theory but from practice; not by instruction but by natural intuition: I refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right."
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC-43 BC) Roman Orator and Statesman at the trial of T. Annius Milo in 52 BC

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
Thomas Jefferson, 1791

"Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us."
Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking up Arms, 6 July 1775)

"It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."
Samuel Adams "The Father of the American Revolution"

"The right of self-defense never ceases.  It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals."
President James Monroe (November 16, 1818)

"Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers.  This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God.  As such it is a judgment that men cannot part with according to the God of Nature.  It is the first and foremost of our inalienable rights without which we can preserve no other."
John Locke (1632-1704) English philosopher and political theorist.

"We may be tossed upon an ocean where we can see no land nor, perhaps, the sun and stars. But there is a chart and a compass for us to study, to consult, and to obey.  The chart is the Constitution."
 Daniel Webster

If we are to ever get to the bottom of the argument surrounding the Right To Keep And Bear Arms (RKBA), then we must go back in time and see what the founders said.

Some people, including the ACLU, have asserted that the Second Amendment only protects a state's power to raise and support an armed militia.  I have the feeling that if the Founding Father's were alive today, they would have something to say about that...

When you are finished reading this page, I guarantee you will say to yourself, hey Marc really knows what he is talking about.

I have done entirely enough talking now and I will let the rest of this page speak for the Founding Father's.  Let's go back in time and see what they had to say...

"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invent against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
Thomas Jefferson letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823

Many millions of United States Citizens believe that the Second Amendment ONLY refers to each State's power to form militias.  This is simply not the case.  The Second Amendment does indeed refer to the right to keep and bear arms as an individual right.

When the Second Amendment was written, there wasn't any National Guard.  The People were the National Guard.  In fact, the National Guard did not exist for another 116 years.

Private Firearm ownership is a guarantee against the breaching or transgression of all the other rights reserved to the People.  Private and free gun ownership is a guard against any possible tyranny or dictatorships.  The Founding Fathers knew what they meant and meant what they wrote.

The Founding Fathers clearly did not believe that limiting lawful access to firearms by law-abiding, honest and upright citizens of good moral character would either diminish crime, nor be constitutional.

When considering ANY legislation that has the slightest hint of curtailing our freedom and liberty, we should closely examine it as if it was taken to the most extreme limit, then treat it accordingly.

"You [should] 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 harm it would cause if improperly administered."
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) 37th US President (1963-1969)

"I hope, therefore, a bill of rights will be formed to guard the people against the Federal government as they are already guarded against their State governments, in most instances." 
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:98

"I learn with great concern that [one] portion of our frontier so interesting, so important, and so exposed, should be so entirely unprovided with common fire-arms.  I did not suppose any part of the United States so destitute of what is considered as among the first necessaries of a farm house."
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Jacob J. Brown (1808)

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
 Thomas Jefferson

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
Thomas Jefferson

"Every citizen should be a soldier.  This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824

"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them."
Thomas Jefferson  to George Washington, 1796

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1776

"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President.  Source: Eighth Annual Message, November 8, 1808

"None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army.  To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important."
Thomas Jefferson 1803

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.  The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
Thomas Jefferson (attributed without source)

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."
Thomas Jefferson's advice to his 15 year-old nephew

"Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that 'if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' It is a very serious consideration that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event."
Samuel Adams speech, 1771

"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life, secondly to liberty, thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can."  
Samuel Adams

"...It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control...The Militia is composed of free Citizens.  There is therefore no danger of their making use of their power to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to invade them."  
Samuel Adams

"The said Constitution [shall] be never 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 of Massachusetts -- U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788

"(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
James Madison, The Federalist Number 46

"The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops."
James Madison, The Federalist Number 46 January 29, 1788

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person." 
James Madison, Proposed Amendments to the Constitution June 8, 1789

"Suppose that we let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal: still it would not be going to far to say that the State governments with the people at their side would be able to repel the danger...half a million citizens with arms in their hands"
James Madison, The Federalist Papers

"A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country."  
James Madison

"[Tyranny cannot be safe] without a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace."
James Madison, In his autobiography

"Arms in the hands of individual citizens [may] be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense..."
John Adams, A Defense of the Constitution of Government of the United States of America, 1788

"Arms in the hands of the citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country, the overthrow of tyranny or private self-defense."  
John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President

"You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments: rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the universe."
John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President

"There is danger from all men.  The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."
John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government."
Alexander Hamilton Federalist #28

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large, is that they be properly armed."  
Alexander Hamilton

"...but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights..."
Alexander Hamilton Federalist 29

"... of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press; of the trial by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well defined, and secured against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate into tyranny."
James Monroe (1758-1831), 5th US President

"The right of self-defense never ceases.  It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals."
President James Monroe (November 16, 1818)

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

"To each of my Nephews, William Augustine Washington, George Lewis, George Steptoe Washington, Bushrod Washington, and Samuel Washington, I give one of my swords or Cutteaux of which I may be Possessed; and they are to choose in the order they are named. These Swords are accompanied with an injunction not to unsheathe them for the purpose of shedding blood, except it be for self defense, or in the defense of their Country and its rights; and in the latter case, to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling with them in their hands, to the relinquishment thereof."
George Washington from his Last Will and Testament

"The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend.  Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men."
George Washington

"Altho' a large standing Army in time of Peace hath ever been considered dangerous to the liberties of a Country, yet a few Troops, under certain circumstances, are not only safe, but indispensably necessary. Fortunately for us our relative situation requires but few. The same circumstances which so effectually retarded, and in the end conspired to defeat the attempts of Britain to subdue us, will now powerfully tend to render us secure. Our distance from the European States in a great degree frees us of apprehension, from their numerous regular forces and the Insults and dangers which are to be dreaded from their Ambition."
George Washington May 1, 1783

"...As there is not the least doubt at present, that the principle Object of the Enemy is to get Possession of the City of Philadelphia, it is absolutely necessary, that every Person able to bear Arms (except such as are Conscientiously scrupulous against it in every Case), should give their personal Service, and whenever a part of the Militia is required only, either to join the Army or find a Man in their place. In order to effect this, I beg you will order the whole Militia of your State to be enrolled and compleatly equipp'd; that one half at least may proceed to join the Army with all possible expedition..."
George Washington--to Pennsylvania Safety Council, January 19, 1777

George Mason (1725-1792) Statesman, Founding Father, Patriot and known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights"

"And we do each of us, for ourselves respectively, promise and engage to keep a good firelock in proper order, and to furnish ourselves as soon as possible with, and always keep by us, one pound of gunpowder, four pounds of lead, one dozen gunflints, and a pair of bullet moulds, with a cartouch box, or powder horn, and bag for balls."  
George Mason's Fairfax County Militia Plan, 1775

"That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power."  
Virginia Declaration of Rights 13 (June 12, 1776), drafted by George Mason

"I ask sir, what is the militia?  It is the whole body of the people except for a few public officials.  To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them..." 
George Mason

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." 
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

"... as all history informs us, there has been in every State & Kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing & governed: the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less.  And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the Princes, or enslaving of the people.  Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more.  The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure.  There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever ..."
Benjamin Franklin, before the Constitutional Convention, (June 2, 1787)

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! - I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Patrick Henry

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.  Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.  Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force.  When you give up that force, you are ruined." 
Patrick Henry, Virginia's U.S. Constitution Ratification Convention

"Have we the means of resisting disciplined armies, when our only defense, the militia is put in the hands of Congress?" 
Patrick Henry, 3 Elliot Debates 48.

"They tell us that we are weak—unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Three million people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us."  
Patrick Henry, 1775
Webmaster's Note:  It is interesting to note that the population in 1775, was approximately 2.9 million.  In Patrick Henry's above quotation, he refers to ALL THE PEOPLE, and NOT just those meeting the qualifications of service in the Militia.

"The great object is that every man be armed.  Everyone who is able may have a gun."  
Patrick Henry

"Are we at least brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?"
Patrick Henry, 3 Elliot Debates 168-169.

Noah Webster American Patriot (1758-1843) (Author of America's first dictionary)

"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops..." 
Noah Webster, An Examination of The Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution,  Philadelphia 1787 

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe." 
Noah Webster

Tench Coxe (Alexander Hamilton's Chief Assistant in the Treasury Department)

"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 next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms."
Tench Coxe, writing as "A Pennsylvanian," in "Remarks On The First Part Of The Amendments To The Federal Constitution," in the _Philadelphia Federal Gazette,_ June 18, 1789, p.2 col.1

"The power of the sword, say the minority of Pennsylvania, is in the hands of Congress. My friends and countrymen, it is not so, for the powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from 16 to 60. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? It is feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom? Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American. The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people."  
Tench Coxe, writing as "the Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 1788

"Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen."
"M.T. Cicero"  1788

"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 limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, 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."
Blackstone's 1768 "Commentaries on the Laws of England"

"And, lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actually violated and attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances; and, lastly, to the right of having and using arms for self preservation and defense."
Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780)
Source: Commentaries on the Laws of England (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 17th edition, 1966, Vol. 1., Chap.1).

"The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms has justly been considered the palladium of the liberties of the republic, since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers, and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
Joseph Story (1779-1845) U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1811-1845. His Dad was one of the Sons of Liberty who took part in the Boston Tea Party and fought at Lexington & Concord in 1775.  The above quote was from 1833

"No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution."
Joseph Story (1779-1845) U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1811-1845. His Dad was one of the Sons of Liberty who took part in the Boston Tea Party and fought at Lexington & Concord

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion."
Edmund Burke, Speech at country meeting of Buckinghamshire, 1784

"The danger (where there is any) from armed citizens, is only to the 'government', not to 'society'; and as long as they have nothing to revenge in the government (which they cannot have while it is in their own hands) there are many advantages in their being accustomed to the use of arms, and no possible disadvantage."
Joel Barlow, Advice to the Privileged Orders, 1792-93

"An act against the Constitution is void.  An act against natural equity is void."
James Otis (1725-1783)

"[The disarming of citizens] has a double effect, it palsies the hand and brutalizes the mind: a habitual disuse of physical forces totally destroys the moral [force]; and men lose at once the power of protecting themselves, and of discerning the cause of their oppression."
Joel Barlow, Advice to the Privileged Orders, 1792-93

"If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I would never lay down my arms never, never, never!  You cannot conquer America." 
William Pitt, Speech, November 18, 1777

"The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people."
Fisher Ames, of Massachusetts June 12, 1789

"All persons shall bear arms, and every male person shall have in continual readiness a good musket or other gun, fit for service."  
Connecticut Gun Code of 1650

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been recognized by the General Government; but the best security of that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free citizens of these States....Such men form the best barrier to the liberties of America"
Gazette of the United States October 14, 1789

"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, Additional Letters From The Federal Farmer, 1788

"The constitution ought to secure a genuine militia and guard against a select militia. ....all regulations tending to render this general militia useless and defenseless, by establishing select corps of militia, or distinct bodies of military men, not having permanent interests and attachments to the community ought to be avoided."
Richard Henry Lee

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if so dear to the enlightened legislator — and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.
Criminologist Cesare Beccaria On Crimes and Punishments (1764)

"While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit, the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny."
Rev. Nicholas Collin, Fayetteville Gazette (N.C.), October 12, 1789



"Instances of the licentious and outrageous behavior of the military conservators of the peace still multiply upon us, some of which are of such nature and have been carried to so great lengths as must serve fully to evince that a late vote of this town, calling upon the inhabitants to provide themselves with arms for their defense, was a measure as prudent as it was legal. It is a natural right which the people have reserved to themselves, confirmed by the [English] Bill of Rights, to keep arms for their own defense, and as Mr. Blackstone observes it is to be made use of when the sanctions of society and law are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression."
From "A Journal of the Times", calling the citizens of Boston to arm themselves in response to British abuses of power, 1769

"No free government was ever founded or ever preserved its liberty, without uniting the characters of the citizen and soldier in those destined for the defense of the state.... Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen."
State Gazette (Charleston), September 8, 1788

"It's the misfortune of all Countries, that they sometimes lie under a unhappy necessity to defend themselves by Arms against the ambition of their Governors, and to fight for what's their own.  If those in government are heedless of reason, the people must patiently submit to Bondage, or stand upon their own Defence; which if they are enabled to do, they shall never be put upon it, but their Swords may grow rusty in their hands; for that Nation is surest to live in Peace, that is most capable of making War; and a Man that hath a Sword by his side, shall have least occasion to make use of it."
John Trenchard (1662-1723)
Source: and Walter Moyle (1672-1721), "An Argument, shewing; that a standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government and Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy," (London, 1697)

"Under every government the dernier [Fr. last, or final] resort of the people, is an appeal to the sword; whether to defend themselves against the open attacks of a foreign enemy, or to check the insidious encroachments of domestic foes.  Whenever a people... entrust the defence 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 Anonymous 'framer' of the US Constitution  Source: Independent Gazetteer, January 29, 1791

Other Quotes of Interest

"Americans have the will to resist because you have weapons. If you don't have a gun, freedom of speech has no power."
Yoshimi Ishikawa, Japanese author commenting on the lack of protest with which Japanese tolerated governmental corruption, Los Angeles Times, 10/15/92

"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


"Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA - ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State."
Heinrich Himmler


"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead (1901-1978), American Anthropologist


"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime."
Adlai E.Stevenson, Jr


"Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens 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 America but which historically has proven to be possible."
Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (1960)



"...By calling attention to a well-regulated militia for the security of the Nation, and the right of each citizen to keep and bear arms, our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fear of governmental tyranny, which gave rise to the Second Amendment, will ever be an important danger to our Nation, the Amendment remains an important declaration of our basic military-civilian relationship, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason I believe the Second Amendment will always be important."
President John F. Kennedy

Please take a minute to compare and contrast the above quotes with the following ones: 


First, listen to former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton's comments on the Bill of Rights...

"When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans. And so a lot of people say there's too much personal freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it. That's what we did in the announcement I made last weekend on the public housing projects, about how we're going to have weapon sweeps and more things like that to try to make people safer in their communities."
President William Jefferson Clinton 3-22-94


"If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees."
William Jefferson Clinton, August 12, 1993


"The United States can't be so fixed on our desire to preserve the rights of
ordinary Americans..."
William Jefferson Clinton, March 1, 1993


"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans ..."
President William Jefferson Clinton USA Today March 11, 1993


"You know the one thing that's wrong with this country? Everyone gets a chance to have their fair say."
President William Jefferson Clinton May 29, 1993 


"The Constitution is a radical document... it is the job of the government to rein in people's rights."
President William Jefferson Clinton on MTV - 1992


"We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society."
Hillary Clinton, 1993



The common good comes before the private good.
Nazi slogan
Hmmm, kinda sounds like Hillary's quote right above this one doesn't it.


"We have to license and register all handguns."
Senator Hillary Clinton
We have to make sure you never even get nominated.


"The measures adopted to restore public order are: First of all the elimination of the so-called subversive elements.... They were elements of disorder and subversion. On the morrow of each conflict I gave the categorical order to confiscate the largest possible number of weapons of every sort and kind. This confiscation, which continues with the utmost energy, has given satisfactory results."
Italy’s Fascist ruler, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, Italian Senate Speech, June 8, 1923
Fascism occurs where the wants and desires of government supercede those of the people.


"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
Note: U.S. Rep. Schumer is now a U.S. Senator


"We don't compel in the Brady bill. We allow."
U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer CNN Crossfire, March 3, 1993
Oh really? I suppose the government allows free speech too?


"Banning guns is an idea whose time has come."
U.S. Senator Joe Biden
Fat chance Joe. Why is this guy still in the Senate?


"The pusher's best friend, the N.R.A."
Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy
Gee, Ted, I thought we were about safety, marksmanship and keeping your hands off our stuff?


"Once Brady is signed into law, we will have to go back and get this sunset [phaseout of the delay] undone." 
U.S. Rep Charles Schumer Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 11, 1993
Chuck, we knew all along that Brady was the foot in the door, but America didn't believe us.


"You know, we're having trouble in the House. It's neck and neck on an assault weapons ban, which is a ban of the most obnoxious kinds of weapons that nobody uses."
U.S. Rep Charles Schumer Press conference introducing Brady II, February 28, 1994 
Chuck, just because you fear paramilitary semi-autos doesn't mean we do...


"U.S. citizens may soon have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive forms of protection."
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen Remarks at the Adult Learning Center, New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 1, 1993
Mr. Cohen, we have a third choice, how about never allowing Democrats the majority again, what do you think about that?



Listen to another of our own United States Senators...
"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an out right ban, picking up every one of them... "Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in, "I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here."
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), CBS-TV's "60 Minutes," 2/5/95 ; 8/1/99
Note: I find it interesting to note that the above Senator Dianne Feinstein has a concealed carry permit for a handgun in her home state of California.


 "I will introduce legislation banning the sale manufacture or possession of hand-guns except in a few cases."  
Senator J. Chafee, Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 15. 1992, pg. A13.
Hmmm, John, seems like your bill didn't quite make the grade...



Quotes from the media.

"Investigate the NRA with renewed vigor. Print names of those who take NRA funds. Support all causes the NRA opposes. The Times-Herald is right. The work a day guy doesn't envision total confiscation, but many with the real power to sway public opinion and effect change in America do."  
T. Winship, Editor - Boston Globe, in Editor and Publisher Magazine, April 24, 1993, pg. 24


"It might be 50 years before the United States gets to where Britain is today. Passing a law like the assault weapon ban is a symbolic--purely symbolic--move in that direction. Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation."
Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, April 5, 1996


"The only way to discourage the gun culture is to remove the guns from the hands and shoulders of people who are not in the law enforcement business."
New York Times, September 24, 1975


"There is no reason for anyone in this country, for anyone except a police officer or a military person, to buy, to own, to have, to use, a handgun. The only way to control handgun use in this country is to prohibit the guns. And the only way to do that is to change the Constitution."
Michael Gartner, former NBC News President, USA Today, January 16, 1992


"Gun violence won't be cured by one set of laws. It will require years of partial measures that will gradually tighten the requirements for gun ownership, and incrementally change expectations about the firepower that should be available to ordinary citizens." 
New York Times, December 21, 1993
Ordinary citizens huh?  It's ordinary citizens who are in charge here bucko.  Remember a government for the people and by the people?  This is not a Communist country yet....

"We are inclined to think that every firearm in the hands of anyone who is not a law enforcement officer constitutes an incitement to violence. Let's come to our senses before the whole country starts shooting itself up on all its Main Streets in a delirious kind of High Noon." 
Washington Post, August 19, 1965


"By a curiosity of evolution, every human skull harbors a prehistoric vestige: a reptilian brain. This atavism, like a hand grenade cushioned in the more civilized surrounding cortex, is the dark hive where many of mankind's primitive impulses originate. To go partners with that throwback, Americans have carried out of their own history another curiosity that evolution forgot to discard as the country changed from a sparsely populated, underpoliced agrarian society to a modern industrial civilization. That vestige is the gun -- most notoriously the handgun, an anachronistic tool still much in use."
Time, April 13, 1981


"We will never fully solve our nation's horrific problem of gun violence unless we ban the manufacture and sale of handguns and semi-automatic weapons."
USA Today


"Why should America adopt a policy of near-zero tolerance for private gun ownership? ...(W)ho can still argue compellingly that Americans can be trusted to handle guns safely?  We think the time has come for America to tell the truth about guns.  They are not for us.  We cannot handle them." 
Los Angeles Times


When the major media outlets have an agenda, and their news stories become slanted and biased, we all lose. At the very least, we should expect truthful reporting from the media at large. When biased reports arise, bogus statistics get used and one-sided polls are taken, we should all do our part to straighten them out. 

Quotes From Anti-Gun Groups

"I'm convinced that we have to have Federal legislation to build on. We're going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily--given the political realities--going to be very modest... Our ultimate goal--total control of handguns in the United States--is going to take time... The first problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced and sold in this country. The second problem is to get handguns registered, and the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns, and all handgun ammunition totally illegal."
Nelson T. Shields III, Founder of Handgun Control Incorporated (HCI)


"To me, the only reason for guns in civilian hands is for sporting purposes."
Sarah Brady Tampa Tribune, Oct 21, 1993
Sarah, I can see that you don't know very much about American History do ya?


"...I don't believe gun owners have rights."
Sarah Brady, Hearst Newspapers Special Report, "Handguns in America" October 1997
So Sorry to disappoint you, but you should try to learn a little about what you're talking about before you open your trap.


"The NRA is bound and determined not to allow the Brady Bill to be enacted. And they're a fearsome opponent. They see this as `threshold' legislation. Because they realize if we get the Brady Bill to President Clinton and he signs it into law, then the door will be wide open for further gun control legislation. Of course, we hope that's true because, as you know, our campaign to enact a National Gun Policy to combat gun violence doesn't end with the Brady Bill - it just begins."
Sarah Brady HCI newsletter, Spring 1993


"It [the Brady Bill] is not a panacea. It's not going to stop crimes of passion or drug-related crime."
Sarah Brady Washingtonian Magazine, March 1991 
It's not gonna stop anyone inclined toward murder.  Murderers don't obey laws...


Webmasters Note: Statistics show that the Brady Law has at best been ineffective as a deterrent to violent crime where a firearm is used. This fact is widely known, but I would not expect Dan Rather or Tom Brokaw to be trumpeting it on the Evening News.
The Brady Law has been ineffective because the Brady Law affects only those who obtain firearms through lawful channels. Criminals obtain their guns illegally, thereby bypassing the Brady Law.
And I'm not even a lawyer!!!

Winning Final Quote By Rosie O'Donnell
"I don't care if you think it's your right. I say: Sorry, it's 1999. We have had enough as a nation. You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun I think you should go to prison."
Isn't "The Queen Of Nice", Simply Brilliant???

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