1151 lines
60 KiB
Plaintext
1151 lines
60 KiB
Plaintext
Combat Arms BBS
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P.O. Box 913
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Portland, Oregon 97207-0913
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Voice: (503) 223-3160
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BBS: (503) 221-1777
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Fido 1:105/68
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August 7, 1994
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QUOTES.DOC
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The following are the quotes carried on the Combat Arms
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BBS. If you have documented quotes relating to firearms that
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are not included here, please send them to my attention. Thank
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you. The current version of my quotes collection may be readily
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downloaded by calling the Combat Arms BBS in Portland, Oregon
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(503-221-1777; speeds to V.32bis) and downloading the file
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QUOTES.ZIP.
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Richard Bash
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-Your SysOp-
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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"What the subcommittee on the Constitution uncovered was clear - and long
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lost - proof that the Second Amendment to our Constitution was intended
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as an individual right of the American citizen to keep and carry arms in
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a peaceful manner, for protection of himself, his family, and his
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freedoms." -- Senator Orrin Hatch, Chairman, Subcommittee on the
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Constitution - Preface, "The Right To Keep And Bear Arms"
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"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any
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member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to
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others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient
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warrant." -- John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty" 1859
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"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and
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degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth
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a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for
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firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish
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purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other
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human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their
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own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for
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an honest purpose by their free choice, -- is often the means of their
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regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for,
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nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety,
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is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and
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kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice
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and injustice have not terminated their ever- renewing fight for
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ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when
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need is, to do battle for the one against the other." -- John Stuart
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Mill, "The Contest in America," Dissertations and Discussions, vol. 1, p.
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26 (1868). First published in Fraser's Magazine, February 1862.
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"The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by rule
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of construction be conceived to give the Congress the power to disarm the
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people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general
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pretense by a state legislature. But if in blind pursuit of inordinate
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power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a
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restraint on both." -- William Rawle, 1825; considered academically to be
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an expert commentator on the Constitution. He was offered the position of
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the first Attorney General of the United States, by President Washington.
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"Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is a force, like fire
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a dangerous servant and a terrible master." -- George Washington
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"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not infringed; a
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well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free
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country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be
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compelled to render military service in person." - [This was Madison's
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original proposal for the "Second Amendment" -- James Madison, I Annuals
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of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789).
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"It is not certain that with this aid alone [possession of arms], they
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would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to
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possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by
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themselves, who could collect the national will, and direct the national
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force; and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments
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and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the
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greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be
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speedily overturned, in spite of the legions which surround it." -- James
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Madison "Federalist No. 46"
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"A government resting on the minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic,
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and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it,
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without a standing army, an enslaved press and a disarmed populace." --
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James Madison, The Federalist Papers (No. 46).
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"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the
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citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the
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people with arms." -- James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46 at 243-
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244
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"Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we
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shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom? Congress shall have
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no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible
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implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American ... The
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unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or
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state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the
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hands of the People." -- Tench Coxe - 1788.
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"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them,
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may attempt to tyrannize, ... the people are confirmed by the next
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article in their right to keep and bear arms." -- Tench Coxe in "Remarks
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on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution", Federal
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Gazette, June 18, 1789
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men,
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undergo the fatigue of supporting it." -- Thomas Paine
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"The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be
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preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike;
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but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. ... Horrid
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mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them;
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... the weak will become a prey to the strong." -- Thomas Paine
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"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the
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other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the
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plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property.
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The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be
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preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike;
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but since some others them aside... Horrid mischief would ensue were one
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half the world deprived of the use of them; ... the weak will become the
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prey to the strong." -- Thomas Paine, I Writings of Thomas Paine at 56
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(1775).
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"The great object is that every man be armed, everyone who is able might
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have a gun." -- Patrick Henry (3 Elliot, Debates at 386)
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"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who
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approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but
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downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined." -- Patrick
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Henry, speaking to the Virginia convention for the ratification of the
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constitution on the necessity of the right to keep and bear arms.
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"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation,
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that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the
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difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction,
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and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the
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real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with
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more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" -- Patrick
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Henry, Philadelphia, 1836.
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"They tell us, Sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable
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an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or
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the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a
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British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength
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by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual
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resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive
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phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
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Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the
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God of nature hath placed in our power." -- Patrick Henry (1736-1799) in
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his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775
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"Three millions of People, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in
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such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force
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which our enemy can send against us. Beside, Sir, we shall not fight our
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battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of
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Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us." --
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Patrick Henry (1736-1799) in his famous "The War Inevitable" speech,
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March, 1775
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"The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the
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active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base
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enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There
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is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their
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clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and
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let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!" -- Patrick Henry (1736-1799) in
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his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775
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"It is in vain, Sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace,
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Peace! -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale
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that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding
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arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What
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is it that Gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or
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peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
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Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as
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for me, give me liberty or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry (1736-1799)
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in his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775
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"The constitutions of most of our states [and of the United States]
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assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise
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it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times
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armed and that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of
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religion, freedom of property, and freedom of press." -- Thomas Jefferson
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"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
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warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of
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resistance? Let them take arms ... The tree of liberty must be refreshed
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from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its
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natural manure." -- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Stephens
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Smith on November 13, 1787. Taken from "Jefferson, On Democracy," page
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20, S. Padover edition, 1939.
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"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and
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mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day." -- Thomas
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Jefferson, letter to P. S. du Pont de Nemours, April 24, 1816. -- Found
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in "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson," edited by Paul L. Ford, vol. 10,
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p. 25 (1899). This sentence is one of many quotations inscribed on Cox
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Corridor II, a first floor House corridor, U.S. Capitol.
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"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship, with all nations -- entangling
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alliances with none." -- President Thomas Jefferson, inaugural address,
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March 4, 1801. -- The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew A.
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Lipscomb, vol. 3, p. 321 (1904). This thought had been similarly
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expressed earlier in his letter to Edward Carrington, December 21, 1787:
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"I know too that it is a maxim with us, and I think it a wise one, not to
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entangle ourselves with the affairs of Europe." -- The Papers of Thomas
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Jefferson, edited by Julian P. Boyd, vol. 12, p. 447 (1955). George
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Washington did not use any form of "entangle," but shared a like
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political view in his letters to Patrick Henry, October 9, 1795: "My
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ardent desire is . . . to keep the United States free from political
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connexions with every other Country. To see that they may be independent
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of all, and under the influence of none," and to Gouverneur Morris,
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December 22, 1795: "My policy has been . . . to be upon friendly terms
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with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth. To share in the
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broils of none." -- Writings of George Washington, ed. John C.
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Fitzpatrick, vol. 34, pp. 335, 401 (1940).
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"I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long
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as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall
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be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one
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another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in
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Europe." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787.
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Taken from "The Papers of Thomas Jefferson," edited by Julian P. Boyd,
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vol. 12, p. 442 (1955).
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"No man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for
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the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last
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resort, to protect themselves against the tyranny in government. --
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Thomas Jefferson, June 1776
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"The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time."-- Thomas
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Jefferson (1774). From "The Papers of Thomas Jefferson," edited by Julian
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P. Boyd, vol. 9, p. 151 (1954).
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"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I
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advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives
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boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the
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ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp
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no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant
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companion of your walk." -- Encyclopedia of Thomas Jefferson, 318 (Foley,
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Editor, reissued 1967)
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"The main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. . . .
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[are] the sole objects of all legitimate government." -- Thomas
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Jefferson, letter to General Thaddeus Kosciusko, February 26, 1810. From
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"The Writings of Thomas Jefferson," edited by Andrew A. Lipscomb, vol.
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12, pp. 369-70 (1904). In the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of
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Liberty is a plaque inscribed with this quotation, lacking the first
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clause above.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form
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of tyranny over the mind of man." -- Vice President Thomas Jefferson,
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letter to Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800. -- The Writings of Thomas
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Jefferson, ed. Andrew A. Lipscomb, vol. 10, p. 175 (1903). Carved at the
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base of the dome, interior of the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C.
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[Regarding the Revolutionary War] "Yet where does this anarchy exist?
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Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusetts?
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And can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably
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conducted? ... God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a
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rebellion. The people can not be all, and always, well informed. The part
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which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of
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the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such
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misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public
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liberty." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Stephens Smith, November
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13, 1787. -- The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, vol. 12,
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p. 356 (1955).
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"When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public
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property." -- Attributed to Thomas Jefferson by B. L. Rayner, "Life of
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Thomas Jefferson," p. 356 (1834).
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"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But
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laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human
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mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new
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discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions
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change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also
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to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still
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the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever
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under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors." -- Thomas Jefferson,
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letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816. Found in "The Writings of
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Thomas Jefferson," edited by Paul L. Ford, vol. 10, pp. 42-43 (1899).
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"The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the
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hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they
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please." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Judge Spencer Roane, September 6,
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1819. Found in "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson," edited by Andrew A.
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Lipscomb, vol. 15, p. 213 (1904).
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"...for it is a truth, which the experience of all ages has attested,
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that the people are commonly most in danger when the means of insuring
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their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the
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least suspicion." -- Alexander Hamilton
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"The best that we can hope for concerning the people at large is that
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they be properly armed." -- Alexander Hamilton (The Federalist Papers at
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184-8)
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"Arms in the hands of citizens [may] be used at individual discretion...
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in private self-defense..." -- John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions
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of the Government of the USA, 471 (1788).
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"Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be
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unfurled, there will be America's heart, her benedictions and prayers,
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but she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the
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well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion
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and vindicator of her own." -- John Quincy Adams, 1821.
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"That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize
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Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of
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conscience; or to prevent *the people* of the United States who are
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peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms ..." -- Samuel Adams in
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arguing for a Bill of Rights, from the book "Massachusetts," published by
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Pierce & Hale, Boston, 1850, pg. 86-87.
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"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is
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then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-
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defence which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which
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against the usurpations of the national rulers, may be exerted with
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infinitely better prospect of success than against the rulers of an
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individual state. In a single state, if the persons intrusted with
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supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or
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districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each,
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can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush
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tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource;
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except in their courage and despair." -- "Daily Advertiser," 10 January,
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1788, collected in Federalist Paper 28
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"To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people
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always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to
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use them..." -- Richard Henry Lee writing in "Letters from the Federal
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Farmer to the Republic", 1787-1788
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"The militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves,
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... [T]he Constitution ought to secure a genuine [militia] and guard
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against a select militia, by providing that the militia shall always be
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kept well organized, armed, and disciplined, and include ... all men
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capable of bearing arms;..." -- Richard Henry Lee writing in "Letters
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from the Federal Farmer to the Republic", 1788, page 169.
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"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment
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of a standing army, the bane of liberty.... Whenever Governments mean to
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invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to
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destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins." -- Rep.
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Eldridge Gerry of Massachusetts (spoken during floor debate over the
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Second Amendment [I Annals of Congress at 750 {August 17, 1789}])
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"This declaration of rights, I take it, is intended to secure the people
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against the maladministration of the Government, if we could suppose
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that, in all cases, the rights of the people would be attended to, the
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occasion for guards of this kind would be removed. Now, I am
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apprehensive, sir, that this clause would give an opportunity to the
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people in power to destroy the Constitution itself. They can declare who
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are those religiously scrupulous, and prevent them from bearing arms." --
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Eldridge Gerry, speaking on the 2nd Amendment (1 Annals of Cong. Aug. 17,
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1789)
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[The American Colonies are] "all democratic governments, where the power
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is in the hands of the people and where there is not the least difficulty
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or jealousy about putting arms into the hands of every man in the
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country. [European countries should not] be ignorant of the strength and
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the force of such a form of government and how strenuously and almost
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wonderfully people living under one have sometimes exerted themselves in
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defence of their rights and liberties and how fatally it has ended with
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many a man and many a state who have entered into quarrels, wars and
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contests with them." -- George Mason from "Remarks on Annual Elections
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for the Fairfax Independent Company" quoted from The Papers of George
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Mason, 1725-1792 edited by Robert A. Rutland [Chapel Hill, 1970]
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"That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people
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trained to arms, is the proper, natural and safe defense of a free state;
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that standing armies in time of peace should be avoided as dangerous to
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liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict
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subordination to, and governed by, the civil power." -- George Mason,
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Article 13 of The Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776.
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"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for few
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public officials." -- George Mason (3 Elliot, Debates at 425-426)
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"Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except for a
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few public officials." -- George Mason, Framer of the Declaration of
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Rights, Virginia, 1776, which became the basis for the U.S. Bill of
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Rights; 3 Elliot, Debates at 425-426.
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"They that would give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety
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deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin
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"Instances of the licentious and outrageous behavior of the military
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conservators still multiply upon us, some of which are of such nature,
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and have been carried to so great lengths, as must serve fully to evince
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that a late vote of this town, calling upon its inhabitants to provide
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themselves with arms for their defence, was a measure as it was legal
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natural right which the people have reserved to themselves, confirmed by
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the Bill of Rights, (the post-Cromwellian English bill of rights) to keep
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|
arms for their own defence; 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." -- "A Journal of the Times"
|
|
(1768-1769) colonial Boston newspaper article.
|
|
|
|
Sentry: "Halt, who goes there?"
|
|
Voice : "American."
|
|
Sentry: "Advance and recite the second verse of the Star Spangled
|
|
Banner."
|
|
Voice : "I don't know it."
|
|
Sentry: "Proceed, American."
|
|
|
|
"The people of the various provinces are strictly 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 Hideyoshi, Shogun, August 29, 1558, Japan.
|
|
|
|
"War to the hilt between capitalism and communism is inevitable. Today,
|
|
of course, we are not strong enough to attack. Our time will come in 20
|
|
or 30 years. In order to win, we shall need the element of surprise. The
|
|
bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep, so we shall begin by launching
|
|
the most spectacular peace movement on record. There will be electrifying
|
|
overtures and unheard of concessions. The capitalist countries, stupid
|
|
and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction. They
|
|
will leap at another chance to be friends. As soon as their guard is
|
|
down, we shall smash them with our clenched fist." -- Quoted by Dmitri Z.
|
|
Manuisky, Lenin School of Political Warfare (1931).
|
|
|
|
"Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money,
|
|
except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer
|
|
to be generous with other people's freedom and security." -- William F.
|
|
Buckley
|
|
|
|
"In recent years it has been suggested that the Second Amendment protects
|
|
the "collective" right of states to maintain militias, while it does not
|
|
protect the right of "the people" to keep and bear arms... The phrase
|
|
"the people" meant the same thing in the Second Amendment as it did in
|
|
the First, Fourth, Ninth and Tenth Amendments -- that is, each and every
|
|
free person. A select militia defined as only the privileged class
|
|
entitled to keep and bear arms was considered an anathema to a free
|
|
society, in the same way that Americans denounced select spokesmen
|
|
approved by the government as the only class entitled to the freedom of
|
|
the press." -- Stephen P. Holbrook, "That Every Man Be Armed: The
|
|
Evolution of a Constitutional Right", University of New Mexico Press,
|
|
1984, pp. 83-84.
|
|
|
|
"He that violates his oath profanes the Divinity of faith itself." --
|
|
Cicero (found on LA City Hall)
|
|
|
|
"Disperse you Rebels - Damn you, throw down your Arms and disperse." --
|
|
Maj. John Pitcairn, Lexington, Massachusetts, April 19, 1775
|
|
|
|
"Those, who have the 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 Shewing, That a
|
|
Standing Army Is Inconsistent with a Free Government, and Absolutely
|
|
Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy" [London, 1697]
|
|
|
|
"To avoid domestic tyranny, the people must be armed to 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 & Walter Moyle, "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] ("An Argument")
|
|
|
|
"Men that are above all Fear, soon grow above all Shame." -- John
|
|
Trenchard and Thomas Gordon "Cato's Letters: Or, Essays on Liberty, Civil
|
|
and Religious, and Other Important Subjects" [London, 1755]
|
|
|
|
"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 St. George Tucker,
|
|
Editor, 1803, pg. 300 (App.)
|
|
|
|
The English nobleman came home early to find his wife with her lover.
|
|
Angrily he reached for his shotgun and aimed at the interloper. Just
|
|
then, his butler whispered in his ear, "You're a sportsman, sir; get him
|
|
on the rise."
|
|
|
|
Too often foreign aid is when the poor people of a rich nation send their
|
|
money to the rich people of a poor nation.
|
|
|
|
"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; else he lives precariously, and at
|
|
discretion." -- James Burgh "Political Disquisitions: Or, an Enquiry into
|
|
Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses" [London, 1774-1775]
|
|
|
|
"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"
|
|
|
|
"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been
|
|
considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a 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 "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States; With a
|
|
Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and
|
|
States before the Adoption of the Constitution" [Boston, 1833]
|
|
|
|
"...And yet, though this truth would seem so clear, and the importance of
|
|
a well regulated militia would seem so undeniable, it cannot be disguised
|
|
that among the American people there is a growing indifference to any
|
|
system of militia discipline, and a strong disposition, from a sense of
|
|
its burdens, to be rid of all regulations." -- Joseph Story "Commentaries
|
|
on the Constitution of the United States; With a Preliminary Review of
|
|
the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States before the Adoption
|
|
of the Constitution" [Boston, 1833]
|
|
|
|
"How it is practicable to keep the people duly armed without some
|
|
organization, it is difficult to see. There is certainly no small danger,
|
|
that indifference may lead to disgust, and disgust to contempt; and thus
|
|
gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our
|
|
national bill of rights." -- Joseph Story "Commentaries on the
|
|
Constitution of the United States; With a Preliminary Review of the
|
|
Constitutional History of the Colonies and States before the Adoption of
|
|
the Constitution" [Boston, 1833]
|
|
|
|
"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]
|
|
|
|
"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" (1532)
|
|
|
|
"... The answer is that one would like to be both the one and the other;
|
|
but because it is difficult to combine them, it is far better to be
|
|
feared than loved if you cannot be both. ...Men worry less about doing an
|
|
injury to one who makes himself loved than to one who makes himself
|
|
feared. The bond of love is one which men, wretched creatures that they
|
|
are, break when it is to their advantage to do so; but fear is
|
|
strengthened by a dread of punishment which is always effective." - -
|
|
Machiavelli - The Prince; Chapter 17
|
|
|
|
In the arguments over the validity of the Theory of Quantum Mechanics,
|
|
Dr. Albert Einstein uttered his now oft-quoted line, "God does not play
|
|
dice with the Universe" but rarely quoted is Dr. Neils Bohr's response,
|
|
"Albert, stop telling God what to do."
|
|
|
|
"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 the constitutional rights secure." --
|
|
Albert Einstein
|
|
|
|
"No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single
|
|
experiment can prove me wrong." -- Albert Einstein
|
|
|
|
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." --
|
|
Albert Einstein
|
|
|
|
"If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was
|
|
landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms -- never -- never --
|
|
NEVER! You cannot conquer America." -- William Pitt, Earl of Chatham
|
|
Speech in the House of Lords November 18, 1777
|
|
|
|
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never -- in nothing,
|
|
great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of
|
|
honor and good sense." -- Winston Spencer Churchill Address at Harrow
|
|
School, October 29, 1941
|
|
|
|
"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however
|
|
long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."
|
|
-- Winston Spencer Churchill
|
|
|
|
"In war you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times." --
|
|
Winston Churchill
|
|
|
|
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the
|
|
subject." -- Winston Churchill
|
|
|
|
"I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught."
|
|
-- Winston Churchill
|
|
|
|
"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
|
|
|
|
"...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine.
|
|
Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious."
|
|
-- Joseph Goebbels - Nazi Propaganda Minister
|
|
|
|
"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless
|
|
one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly...it must confine
|
|
itself to a few points and repeat them over and over." -- Joseph Goebbels
|
|
- Nazi Propaganda Minister
|
|
|
|
God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to
|
|
guard and defend it." -- Daniel Webster
|
|
|
|
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do
|
|
nothing." -- Edmund Burke
|
|
|
|
"Democracy, the practice of self-government, is a covenant among free men
|
|
to respect the rights and liberties of their fellows" -- Franklin D.
|
|
Roosevelt
|
|
|
|
"Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time
|
|
that men have died to win them." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
|
|
|
|
"You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I
|
|
say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" -- Oliver
|
|
Cromwell in dissolving Parliament, 1653
|
|
|
|
"Congress may give us a select militia which will, in fact, be a standing
|
|
army -- or Congress, afraid of a general militia, may say there shall be
|
|
no militia at all. When a select militia is formed; the people in general
|
|
may be disarmed." -- John Smilie
|
|
|
|
"If the laws of the Union were oppressive, they could not carry them into
|
|
effect, if the people were possessed of the proper means of defence." --
|
|
William Lenoir
|
|
|
|
"Whenever 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"
|
|
in The Independent Gazetteer, 1791
|
|
|
|
"A cardinal rule of bureaucracy is that it is better to extend an error
|
|
than to admit a mistake." -- Colin Greenwood
|
|
|
|
" 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 harm it would cause if improperly administered." -- Lyndon
|
|
Baines Johnson, former Senator and President.
|
|
|
|
"We, the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts
|
|
- not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the
|
|
Constitution." -- Abraham Lincoln
|
|
|
|
"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is
|
|
not... the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and
|
|
disciplined army... our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has
|
|
planted in our bosoms." -- Abraham Lincoln, 1858
|
|
|
|
"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" -- Abraham
|
|
Lincoln
|
|
|
|
"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
|
|
|
|
"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 proved to be always
|
|
possible." -- Senator Hubert Humphrey
|
|
|
|
"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." -- Adolf Hitler
|
|
|
|
"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 Ghandi
|
|
|
|
"There is only one tactical principal which is not subject to change. It
|
|
is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds,
|
|
death, and destruction in the minimum amount of time." -- General George
|
|
S. Patton
|
|
|
|
"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other
|
|
bastard die for his." -- General George S. Patton
|
|
|
|
"We always hire Democratic Congressmen who promise to give us from the
|
|
government all the things we want. And we always hire Republican
|
|
Presidents to make sure we don't have to pay for it." -- T.J. Rodgers
|
|
quoting in REASON
|
|
|
|
"The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every
|
|
time Congress meets." -- Will Rogers
|
|
|
|
"They have rights who dare maintain them." -- James Russell Lowell
|
|
|
|
"The one weapon every man, soldier, sailor, or airman-should be able to
|
|
use effectively is the rifle. It is always his weapon of personal safety
|
|
in an emergency, and for many it is the primary weapon of offence and
|
|
defense. Expertness in its use cannot be over emphasized." -- General (5
|
|
star and later U.S. President) Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1943.
|
|
|
|
"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has
|
|
seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." -- 5 Star General and
|
|
former President Dwight David Eisenhower
|
|
|
|
We, free citizens of the Great Republic, feel an honest pride in her
|
|
greatness, her strength, her just and gentle government, her wide
|
|
liberties, her honored name, her stainless history, her unbesmirched
|
|
flag, her hands clean from oppression of the weak and from malicious
|
|
conquest, her hospitable door that stands open to the hunted and the
|
|
persecuted of all nations; we are proud of the judicious respect in which
|
|
she is held by monarchies which hem her in on every side, and proudest of
|
|
all of that loft patriotism which we inherited from our fathers, which we
|
|
have kept pure, and which won our liberties in the beginning and has
|
|
preserved them unto this day. While patriotism endures the Republic is
|
|
safe, her greatness is secure, and against them the powers of the earth
|
|
can not prevail." -- Mark Twain
|
|
|
|
"Courage is resistance of fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." --
|
|
Mark Twain
|
|
|
|
"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant, I could hardly
|
|
stand to have him around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was
|
|
astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." -- Mark Twain
|
|
|
|
Kill one man and you are a murderer. Kill millions and you are a
|
|
conqueror. Kill everyone and you are a God. -- Jean Rostand
|
|
|
|
"...while the legislature has power in the most comprehensive manner to
|
|
regulate the carrying and use firearms, that body has no power to
|
|
constitute it a crime for a person, alien or citizen, to possess a
|
|
revolver for the legitimate defense of himself and his property. The
|
|
provisions in the Constitution granting the right to all persons to bear
|
|
arms is a limitation upon the power of the legislature to enact any law
|
|
to the contrary." PEOPLE v. ZERILLO 219 Mich 635
|
|
|
|
"...The police power of the State to preserve public safety and peace and
|
|
to regulate the bearing of arms cannot fairly be restricted to the mere
|
|
establishment of conditions under which all sorts of weapons may be
|
|
privately possessed, but it may account of the character and ordinary use
|
|
of weapons and interdict those whose customary employment by individuals
|
|
is to violate the law. The power is, of course, subject to the limitation
|
|
that its exercise be reasonable and it cannot constitutionally result in
|
|
the prohibition of the possession of those arms which, by the common
|
|
opinion and usage of law-abiding people, are proper and legitimate to be
|
|
kept upon private premises for the protection of person and property."
|
|
PEOPLE v. BROWN 253 Mich 537
|
|
|
|
"...The right of the people peacefully to assemble for lawful purposes
|
|
existed long before the adoption of the Constitution of the United
|
|
States. In fact, it is and always has been one of the attributes of a
|
|
free government. It `derives its source,' to use the language of Chief
|
|
Justice Marshall, in Gibbons v Ogden, 9 Wheat., 211, `from those laws
|
|
whose authority is acknowledged by civilized man throughout the world.'
|
|
It is found wherever civilization exists. It was not, therefore, a right
|
|
granted to the people by the Constitution... The second and tenth counts
|
|
are equally defective. The right there specified is that of `bearing arms
|
|
for a lawful purpose.' This is not a right granted by the constitution.
|
|
Neither is it in any manner dependant upon that instrument for its
|
|
existence. The Second Amendment declares that it shall not infringed; but
|
|
this, as has been seen, means no more than it shall not be infringed by
|
|
Congress. This is one of the amendments that has no other effect than to
|
|
restrict the powers of the National Government..." UNITED STATES v.
|
|
CRUIKSHANK; 92 US 542; (1875)
|
|
|
|
"The rifle of all descriptions, the shot gun, the musket and repeater are
|
|
such arms; and that under the Constitution the right to keep and bear
|
|
arms cannot be infringed or forbidden by the legislature." ANDREWS v.
|
|
STATE; 50 Tenn. 165,179,8 Am. Rep. 8, 14 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1871)
|
|
|
|
"...the right to keep arms necessarily involves the right to purchase
|
|
them, to keep them in a state of efficiency for use, and to purchase and
|
|
provide ammunition suitable for such arms, and to keep them in repair."
|
|
ANDREWS v. STATE; 50 Tenn. (3 Heisk) 165, 178; (1871)
|
|
|
|
"...we incline to the opinion that the Legislature cannot inhibit the
|
|
citizen from bearing arms openly, because it authorizes him to bear them
|
|
for the purposes of defending himself and the State, and it is only when
|
|
carried openly, that they can be efficiently used for defence." STATE v.
|
|
REID; 1 Ala. 612, 619, 35 Am. Dec. 47; (1840)
|
|
|
|
"The practical and safe construction is that which must have been in the
|
|
minds of those who framed our organic law. The intention was to embrace
|
|
the 'arms,' an acquaintance with whose use was necessary for their
|
|
protection against the usurpation of illegal power - such as rifles,
|
|
muskets, shotguns, swords and pistols. These are now but little used in
|
|
war; still they are such weapons that they or their like can still be
|
|
considered as 'arms' which the [the people] have aright to bear." STATE
|
|
v. KERNER; 181 NC 574, 107 SE 222, 224-25 (North Carolina Supreme Court,
|
|
1921.)
|
|
|
|
"If the text and purpose of the Constitutional guarantee relied
|
|
exclusively on the preference for a militia `for defense of the State,'
|
|
then the terms `arms' most likely would include only the modern day
|
|
equivalents of the weapons used by the Colonial Militia Men." -- STATE v.
|
|
KESSLER, 289 Or. 359, 369, 614 p. 2d 94,99 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1980.)
|
|
|
|
"To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm . . . is an
|
|
unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear
|
|
arms. 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 constitutional privilege." -
|
|
- WILSON v. STATE, 33 Ark. 557, at 560, 34 Am. Rep. 52, at 54 (1878)
|
|
|
|
"`The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'
|
|
The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys, and
|
|
not militia only, to keep and bear arms of every description, and not
|
|
such merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed,
|
|
curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for
|
|
the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-
|
|
regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of a free State.
|
|
Our opinion is that any law, State or Federal, is repugnant to the
|
|
Constitution, and void, which contravenes this right." -- NUNN v. STATE,
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|
1 Ga. (1 Kel.) 243, at 251 (1846)
|
|
|
|
"[T]he right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the second amendment to
|
|
the federal constitution is not carried over into the fourteenth
|
|
amendment so as to be applicable to the states." STATE v. AMOS, 343 So.
|
|
2d 166, 168 (La. 1977)
|
|
|
|
"The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun." -- R. Buckminster
|
|
Fuller
|
|
|
|
"If there is one basic element in our Constitution, it is civilian
|
|
control of the military." -- President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)
|
|
|
|
A camel is a horse designed by a committee and an elephant is a mouse
|
|
built to military specifications." -- from page 321 of "Cryptoanalysis
|
|
for Microcomputers" by Caxton C. Foster (University of Massachusetts),
|
|
Hayden Book Co. Inc., 1982.
|
|
|
|
"It appears that the murder rate inside prisons is ten times higher than
|
|
that outside prisons. It must be due to all those Kalashnikov rifles that
|
|
are issued to prisoners upon their incarceration." -- Jeff Cooper in Guns
|
|
& Ammo magazine, August, 1989.
|
|
|
|
"In all history the only bright rays cutting the gloom of oppression have
|
|
come from men who would rather get hurt than give in." -- Jeff Cooper;
|
|
from "Pistols and the Law" in "Cooper on Handguns"
|
|
|
|
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." --
|
|
Santayana
|
|
|
|
"The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to
|
|
reside some time in a foreign one." -- William Shenstone
|
|
|
|
"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
|
|
|
|
"If a gun bill will pass because of the politics of the 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
|
|
|
|
"...and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
|
|
Luke 22:36
|
|
|
|
"In war, there is no substitute for victory." -- General Douglas
|
|
MacArthur
|
|
|
|
"In war there is no second prize for the runner-up." -- General Omar
|
|
Bradley.
|
|
|
|
"Wars may be fought with weapons but they are won by men. It is the
|
|
spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the
|
|
victory." -- General George Patton
|
|
|
|
The only way to win a war is to prevent it. -- General George Marshall
|
|
|
|
If at first you do succeed, try something harder.
|
|
|
|
Most people don't object to criticism - provided it's favorable.
|
|
|
|
There is nothing wrong in having nothing to say, unless you say it.
|
|
|
|
If it's stupid but works, it's not stupid.
|
|
|
|
Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than you are.
|
|
|
|
If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush.
|
|
|
|
No military combat plan survives the first contact with the enemy intact.
|
|
|
|
If you are short of everything except enemy, then you are in combat.
|
|
|
|
Incoming fire has the right of way.
|
|
|
|
If the enemy is in range, so are you.
|
|
|
|
Friendly fire - isn't.
|
|
|
|
Beer math is two beers times 37 men equals 49 cases.
|
|
|
|
Things that must be together to work usually are not shipped together.
|
|
|
|
Anything you do can get you shot - including doing nothing.
|
|
|
|
Make it too tough for the enemy to get in, and you can't get out.
|
|
|
|
Tracers work both ways.
|
|
|
|
The only thing more accurate that incoming enemy fire is incoming
|
|
friendly fire.
|
|
|
|
Professional soldiers are predictable, but the world is full of amateurs.
|
|
|
|
The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to
|
|
reside some time in a foreign one. -- William Shenstone
|
|
|
|
"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a
|
|
reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the
|
|
very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for
|
|
independence." -- Charles A. Beard
|
|
|
|
The anti-gun movement is like a pair of baby's diapers: always on your
|
|
ass and full of shit. -- Richard Bash - Combat Arms BBS SysOp.
|
|
|
|
"The great body of our citizens shoot less as times 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.
|
|
|
|
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
|
|
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
|
|
better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose
|
|
face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who
|
|
errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without
|
|
error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who
|
|
knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a
|
|
worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high
|
|
achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while
|
|
daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and
|
|
timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt,
|
|
address at the Sorbonne, Paris, France, April 23, 1910. "Citizenship in a
|
|
Republic," The Strenuous Life (vol. 13 of The Works of Theodore
|
|
Roosevelt, national edition), chapter 21, p. 510 (1926).
|
|
|
|
"This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle
|
|
is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my
|
|
life." -- From "My Rifle" by Major General W.H. Rupertus, USMC.
|
|
|
|
"My rifle, without me, is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must
|
|
fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying
|
|
to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will..." -- From "My
|
|
Rifle" by Major General W.H. Rupertus, USMC.
|
|
|
|
"My rifle and myself know that what counts in this war is not the rounds
|
|
we fire, the noise of our burst, nor the smoke we make. We know it is
|
|
only the hits that count. We will hit..." -- From "My Rifle" by Major
|
|
General W.H. Rupertus, USMC.
|
|
|
|
"My rifle is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn
|
|
it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts,
|
|
its accessories, its sights, and its barrel. I will ever guard it against
|
|
the ravages of weather and damage. I will keep my rifle clean and ready,
|
|
even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We
|
|
will..." -- From "My Rifle" by Major General W.H. Rupertus, USMC.
|
|
|
|
"Before God I swear this creed: My rifle and myself are the defenders of
|
|
our country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my
|
|
life. So be it until victory is America's and there is no enemy, but
|
|
Peace!" -- From "My Rifle" by Major General W.H. Rupertus, USMC.
|
|
|
|
"A man with his heart in his profession imagines and finds resources
|
|
where the worthless and lazy despair." -- Frederic the Great, in
|
|
instructions to his Generals.
|
|
|
|
"All military science becomes a matter of simple prudence, its principle
|
|
object being to keep an unstable balance from shifting suddenly to our
|
|
disadvantage and the proto-war from changing into total war." --
|
|
Clausewitz (From the book "On War" by Raymond Aron, Doubleday, New York,
|
|
1959).
|
|
|
|
"The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation." -- Woodrow
|
|
Wilson, 28th President of the United States (1856-1924).
|
|
|
|
"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
|
|
be certainly be lost." -- William Lloyd Garrison
|
|
|
|
No combat-ready squad ever passed inspection. No inspection-ready squad
|
|
ever passed combat. -- Heard in Vietnam
|
|
|
|
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be
|
|
the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than
|
|
under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may
|
|
sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those
|
|
who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do
|
|
so with the approval of their consciences." -- C.S. Lewis
|
|
|
|
"I was that which others did not want to be. I went where others feared
|
|
to go, and did what others failed to do. I asked nothing from those who
|
|
gave nothing, and reluctantly accepted the thought of eternal
|
|
loneliness...should I fail. I have seen the face of terror, felt the
|
|
stinging cold of fear; and enjoyed the sweet taste of a moment's love. I
|
|
have cried, pained, and hoped...but most of all, I have lived times
|
|
others would say were best forgotten. At least someday I will be able to
|
|
say that I was proud of what I was...a soldier." -- George L. Skypeck
|
|
|
|
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." -- William
|
|
Shakespeare; Henry VI, Act IV, Scene II, spoken by Dick the Butcher.
|
|
|
|
"Tell General Howard I know my heart. What he told me before, I have in
|
|
my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is
|
|
dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all killed. It is the
|
|
young men who say yes or no. He who led the young men [Ollokot; his
|
|
brother] is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children
|
|
are freezing to death. I want time to look for my children, and see how
|
|
many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me,
|
|
my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now
|
|
stands, I will fight no more forever." -- Chief Joseph; Wallowa Nez Perc�
|
|
tribe; October 5, 1877; Montana, near the Canadian border.
|
|
|
|
"No man is competent unless he can stalk alone and armed in the
|
|
wilderness." -- Townsend Whelen
|
|
|
|
"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 (scholarly research who
|
|
collaborates with Peter Rossi)
|
|
|
|
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius,
|
|
power and magic in it." -- Goethe
|
|
|
|
LOCK, STOCK, AND BARREL - This phrase, denoting the whole thing, the
|
|
entirety of it all, is an old expression, used as early as the American
|
|
Revolutionary War. It comes from the three principle parts of a [muzzle
|
|
loading] firearm: the barrel, "the pipe down which the bullets are
|
|
fired," the lock, "the firing mechanism," and the stock, "the wooden
|
|
handle to which the other parts are attached." Together, lock, stock and
|
|
barrel referred to the entire gun and the phrase are now used to suggest
|
|
the whole of anything. -- M.T. Wyllyamz; 1992; published by Price, Stern,
|
|
Sloan, Los Angeles.
|
|
|
|
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty
|
|
when the government's purposes are beneficent....the greatest dangers to
|
|
liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but
|
|
without understanding." -- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
|
|
|
|
"Poor people have access to the courts in the same sense that the
|
|
Christians had access to the lions. . ." -- Judge Earl Johnson Jr.
|
|
|
|
"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
|
|
|
|
"A great industrial Nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our
|
|
system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the Nation and all our
|
|
activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the
|
|
worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated
|
|
Governments in the world -- no longer a Government of free opinion, no
|
|
longer a Government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a
|
|
Government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." --
|
|
Woodrow Wilson
|
|
|
|
"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We
|
|
hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens and one of
|
|
the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of
|
|
America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by
|
|
exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the
|
|
consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by
|
|
denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much ... to forget it."
|
|
-- James Madison
|
|
|
|
"The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which
|
|
would be unlawful for them to do themselves." -- John Locke
|
|
|
|
"Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are
|
|
therefore called natural rights, such as life and liberty, need not the
|
|
aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they
|
|
are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the
|
|
municipal laws to be inviolate. On the contrary, no human legislature has
|
|
power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit
|
|
some act that amounts to a forfeiture." -- Sir William Blackstone
|
|
|
|
"I always marveled at how a woman who had never handled a gun could shoot
|
|
an errant husband straight through the heart on her first try, with one
|
|
shot. And a trained policeman, trying to shoot an armed bank robber, only
|
|
ends up hitting a elderly woman waiting for a bus two blocks away." --
|
|
H.L. Mencken in his autobiographical "Newspaper Days"
|
|
|
|
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
|
|
discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!), but "That's funny ..." --
|
|
Isaac Asimov
|
|
|
|
"There are only three kinds of people: those who make things happen,
|
|
those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened." --
|
|
Anonymous
|
|
|
|
"It is often easier to apologize for your actions than to ask permission
|
|
to do those actions." -- Anonymous
|
|
|
|
"Ships are very safe when in port. Unfortunately a ship's mission has
|
|
nothing to do with staying in port!" -- Anonymous
|
|
|
|
"We preserve our freedoms using four boxes: soap, ballot, jury, and
|
|
cartridge." -- Anonymous
|
|
|
|
Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface. -- Anonymous
|
|
|
|
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples,
|
|
then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea
|
|
and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have
|
|
two ideas." -- Attributed to George Bernard Shaw
|
|
|
|
"Nothing in the World can take the place of persistence. Talent will not;
|
|
nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will
|
|
not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world
|
|
is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are
|
|
omnipotent. The slogan `press on' has solved and always will solve the
|
|
problems of the human race." -- Attributed to Calvin Coolidge.
|
|
Unverified, though this appeared on the cover of the program of a
|
|
memorial service for him in 1933. The Forbes Library, Northampton,
|
|
Massachusetts, has searched its Coolidge collection many times for this.
|
|
|
|
"A sword never kills anybody; it's a tool in the killer's hand." --
|
|
Seneca (4 BC - 65 AD)
|
|
|
|
"All cruelty springs from weakness." -- Seneca (4 BC - 65 AD)
|
|
|
|
"As it is with a play, so it is with life -- what matters is not how long
|
|
the acting lasts, but how good it is. It is not important at what point
|
|
you stop. Stop wherever you will -- only make sure that you round it off
|
|
with a good ending." -- Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 77
|
|
|
|
|
|
-= END OF QUOTES.DOC =-
|
|
|
|
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|
|