Adams, Samuel - In all free States the Constitution is fixed; and as the supreme Legislative derives its Power and Authority from the Constitution, it cannot overleap the Bounds of it without destroying its own foundation. - Massachusetts House of Representatives to the Speakers of the Other Houses of Representatives (Feb. 11, 1768), in 1 WRITINGS OF SAMUEL ADAMS 185 (Cushing ed.)
Adams, Samuel (1722-1803) - And that the said Constitution 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; or to raise standing armies, unless when necessary for the defence of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions. - during the Massachusetts’ U.S. Constitutional ratification convention, 178, DEBATES AND PROCEEDINGS IN THE CONVENTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, HELD IN THE YEAR 1788, at 86-87 (Pierce & Hale ed., Boston 1850).
Adler, Alfred – It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.
ALABAMA CONSTITUTION - That every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state. - article I, section 26.
ALASKA CONSTITUTION - A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. - article I, section 19.
Allen, Ethan (American Revolutionary Hero, organized the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont) - There is not anything, which has contributed so
much to delude mankind in religious matters, as mistaken apprehensions concerning supernatural inspiration or revelation; not considering that all true religion originates from reason, and cannot otherwise be understood, but by the exercise and improvement of it. - REASON, THE ONLY ORACLE OF MAN.
AMERICAN INFORMATION NEWSLETTER - Government dictated integration is as bad as government dictated segregation.
AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE (SECOND) - The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment, and not merely from the date of decision so branding it. “No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it.” - 16 AM JUR. 2D § 177, § 256.
Badnarik, Michael – I am a very peaceful man. I love people and am known for my gregarious personality. However, if you try to confiscate my guns, I will feel compelled to give them to you, one bullet at a time. - GOOD TO BE KING, 2004.
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Adams, Pres. John - Arms in the hands of individual citizens may be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense. - A DEFENSE OF THE
Adams, Pres. John - Elections, especially of representatives and counselors, should be annual, there not being in the whole circle of the sciences a maxim more infallible than this, “where annual elections end, there slavery begins.” These great men ... should be (chosen) once a year—Like bubbles on the sea of matter bourne, they rise, they break, and to the sea return. This will teach them the great political virtues of humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.
Adams, Samuel - A standing army, however necessary it may be at some times, is always dangerous to the liberties of the people. Such power
should be watched with a jealous eye.
Adams, Samuel - In all free States the Constitution is fixed; and as the supreme Legislative derives its Power and Authority from the Constitution, it cannot overleap the Bounds of it without destroying its own foundation. - Massachusetts House of Representatives to the Speakers of the Other Houses of Representatives (Feb. 11, 1768), in 1 WRITINGS OF SAMUEL ADAMS 185 (Cushing ed.)
Adams, Samuel – 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. - 3 SAMUEL ADAMS, WRITINGS 251 (Henry A. Cushing ed., 1906).
Adams, Samuel - 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. - 1771.
Adams, Samuel (1722-1803) - And that the said Constitution 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; or to raise standing
armies, unless when necessary for the defence of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a
3
peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of
their persons, papers or possessions. - during the Massachusetts’ U.S. Constitutional ratification convention, 178, DEBATES AND PROCEEDINGS IN THE
CONVENTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, HELD IN THE YEAR 1788, at 86-87 (Pierce & Hale ed., Boston 1850).
Adams, Samuel (1722-1803; American patriot) - If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest
for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity
forget that ye were our countrymen. - Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.
Adler, Alfred – It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.
Adler, Jonathan H. - Through the rapid proliferation of laws reaching every corner of human existence, “the government is manufacturing more
criminals now than ever before.” The list of illegal activities includes more minutiae than one would think possible. Beer-makers are barred from
listing alcohol content on bottles, and liquor distilleries cannot advertise on TV. Filling one’s own prairie pothole can land a property owner in jail, as
can protecting private property from unlawful intruders. Placing handbills in neighbors’ mailboxes is strictly prohibited, and attempting to sell
nectarines of an improper size is a federal offense. Companies are no longer allowed to give salaried professionals partial days off without pay, and in
Texas it is a crime to call oneself an interior designer without the government’s permission. It is perhaps easier to recount all that remains legal than
all that is now prohibited. - Tyranny Now, LIBERTY, p. 55, November, 1994.
ALABAMA CONSTITUTION - That every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state. - article I, section 26.
ALABAMA CONSTITUTION – That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty and
property, and when government assumes other functions, it is usurpation and oppression. - article I.
ALASKA CONSTITUTION - A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not
be infringed. - article I, section 19.
Arenburg, Gerald (Executive Director National Association of Chiefs of Police) - [Y]ou are more likely to find a policeman when you run a red light than when you need him in a violent situation. - quoted by David B. Kopel, THE SAMURAI, THE MOUNTIE, AND THE COWBOY: SHOULD AMERICA
ADOPT THE GUN CONTROLS OF OTHER DEMOCRACIES? p. 376 (1992).
ARIZONA CONSTITUTION - ... governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain
individual rights. - article I, section 2.
ARIZONA CONSTITUTION - The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself or the State shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain, or employ an armed body of men. - article II, section 26.
ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION - The citizens of this State shall have the right to keep and bear arms for their common defense. - article II, section 5.
Badnarik, Michael - If I give you a forty five percent chance at lethal injection, a fifty percent chance at the electric chair, and a five percent chance for escape which are you going to vote for? The electric chair, because you're likely to win?
Bandow, Doug (columnist, author, and senior fellow at the CATO Institute) - In fact, as guarantor of global peace the U.N. has been a flop. . . .
Peacekeeping became a simple effort to separate combatants, like in Cyprus, who had tired of fighting. True, Washington adopted a U.N. fig leaf for
both the Korean and Iraqi wars, but it was America that ran both campaigns. The U.N. flag was for show. Where the U.N. itself has attempted to
do more—in Somalia and Bosnia, for instance—the results have not been pretty. . . . In fact, it is the institution itself—an unaccountable global
bureaucracy with an appetite for self-aggrandizement and disdain for cost-consciousness—that is flawed. . . . Entrusting an organization most noted
for its incompetence and corruption with serious power would not likely bring world peace. Allowing the United Nations to suck America and other
Western states into more Bosnias and Somalias would only compound foreign tragedies. . . . Theoretically worthy organizations like the World
Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization have been wracked
by infighting, incompetence, cronyism, and corruption. Moreover, for years the numerically strong Third World states hijacked much of the U.N.
bureaucracy to promote ... attempts to mandate international redistribution of resources to autocratic governments of small state and stifle the
Western media’s activities in the same nations. . . . Congress should act, over the president’s veto if necessary, to stop forcing U.S. taxpayers to fund
the U.N.’s bloated bureaucracy and Mr. Boutros-Ghali’s inflated global ambitions. - Seeing the U.N. plain, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Thursday,
June 29, 1995.
Barnett, Randy E. and Don B. Kates – [I]f anti-gun laws explain low Japanese homicide rates, why does Taiwan (where gun possession is a capital offense) have a higher murder rate than the U.S? Why does Russia also have much higher homicide rates, despite a longtime, highly stringent gun control policy and the adoption by the Soviet Army of different caliber weapons than any Western nation, a measure which hampered soldiers returning with souvenirs from World War II and later wars from obtaining ammunition? (c) Austria, Israel, and Switzerland, which have gun possession rates equaling or exceeding those in the U.S., have homicide rates fully as low or lower than the highly gun-restrictive nations of Western Europe. An Israeli criminologist notes that Israel’s murder “rates are ... much lower than in the United States ... despite the greater availability of guns to law-abiding [Israeli] civilians.”... in Israel if you legally possess a firearm (by loan or licensure), you are allowed to carry it on your person (concealed or unconcealed). The police even recommend you carry it [concealed] because then the gun is protected from thieves or children. The result is that in any big crowd of citizens, there are some people with their personal handguns on them (usually concealed). American massacres, in which dozens of unarmed victims are mowed down before police can arrive, astound Israelis, who note what occurred at a Jerusalem [crowd spot] some weeks before the California McDonald’s massacre: three terrorists who attempted to machine-gun the throng managed to kill only one victim before being shot down by handgun-carrying Israelis. Presented to the press the next day, the surviving terrorist complained that his group had not realized that Israeli civilians were armed. The terrorists had planned to machine-gun a succession of crowd spots, thinking that they would be able to
escape before the police or army could arrive to deal with them. - Under Fire: The New Consensus on the Second Amendment, 45 EMORY L. J.
1139, 1239-40 (1996).
Barnett, Randy E. and Don B. Kates – [L]ate eighteenth century Americans, being classically educated, took as gospel Aristotle’s lessons that basic to tyrants is “mistrust of the people; hence they deprive them of arms,” and that confiscation of the Athenians’ personal arms had been instrumental to the tyrannies of Pisistratus and the Thirty. Far from being an anachronism, possession of arms served importantly and recently to protect political speech and action even in our own nation, as veterans of the civil rights struggle in the South have attested. Based on actual experience in the South, it has been observed that armed self-defense brings police intervention and martyrdom does not. Public authorities and influential elites may be content to see unarmed victims injured or slain, if the violence can be so confined. But when victims can arm themselves, authorities feel compelled to take action, lest incidents lead to widespread bloodshed and disorder. Indeed, it has been argued that the personal right to defensive arms is particularly relevant in a century which has seen almost 160 million unarmed civilians murdered by governments or by private groups or militias acting with government acquiescence or encouragement. - Under Fire: The New Consensus on the Second Amendment, 45 EMORY L. J. 1139, 1230-31 (1996).
Barnett, Randy E. and Don B. Kates – [T]he very concept that the Amendment guaranteed only a right of the states or related to their militias appears to have been completely unknown before the twentieth century. That the individual right interpretation was the common understanding is shown by the earliest American legal commentary on the Second Amendment. - Under Fire: The New Consensus on the Second
Amendment, 45 EMORY L. J. 1139, 1219 (1996).
Barnett, Randy E. and Don B. Kates – American anti-gun advocates manifest an elitist contempt for ordinary citizens by their portrayal of the common person as a potential murderer. This myth asserts that most murders are committed, not by criminals, but by ordinary people; therefore, if guns were banned most potential murderers would docilely comply with the ban, and most disputes would end in fistfights at worst. ... [M]urderers are highly aberrant. They tend to have lifelong histories of felony, extreme violence, and other hazardous behaviors (toward themselves as well as those around them), including car and gun accidents, substance abuse, and psychopathology. ... 70-80% of those charged with murder had prior adult
records, with an average adult criminal career of six or more years, including four major adult felony arrests. Indeed, over 10% of accused murderers
were actually out on pretrial release, that is, they were awaiting trial on some other offense when the murder was committed. - Under Fire: The
New Consensus on the Second Amendment, 45 EMORY L. J. 1139, 1244-45 (1996).
Barnett, Randy E. and Don B. Kates – Anti-gun activists’ radical disconnection from, lack of empathy for, and willingness to use legal coercion
and incarceration to suppress the culture that produced and that still supports the Second Amendment are potentially disastrous for a pluralistic
society. - Under Fire: The New Consensus on the Second Amendment, 45 EMORY L. J. 1139, 1218 (1996).
Barnett, Randy E. and Don B. Kates – The criminological evidence ... shows: (a) that victims who use firearms in self-defense are much less
likely to be injured—or to be robbed, raped, or assaulted—than are victims who comply or who resist with other weapons; (b) that handguns are used
by good citizens in self-defense at least hundreds of thousands of times annually; and (c) that felons fear and take steps to avoid armed victims.
- Under Fire: The New Consensus on the Second Amendment, 45 EMORY L. J. 1139, 1228 (1996).
Barnett, Randy E. and Don B. Kates – The eighteenth century usage of “regulate” had the more specialized meaning of “practiced in the use of
arms, properly trained, and/or disciplined.” - Under Fire: The New Consensus on the Second Amendment, 45 EMORY L. J. 1139, 1208 (1996)
citing Robert Dowlut, The Right to Arms, 36 OKLA L. REV. 65, 92 n. 133 (1983).
Barnett, Randy E. and Don B. Kates – The most recent and exhaustive data analysis concludes that handguns are used by victims to defend
themselves about three times more often than they are misused by criminals in violent crime. ... Particularly impressive support for this conclusion
has been supplied through its endorsement by an eminent criminologist who is deeply opposed to gun ownership, ... 34% of the convicts “said
they had been scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim, ... and about two-thirds (69%) had at least one acquaintance who had this
experience.”... 34% of the felons said that in contemplating a crime they either “often” or “regularly” worried that they “[m]ight get shot at by the
victim”; and 57% agreed that “[m]ost criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police.”... the
felons most frightened “about confronting an armed victim” were those “from states with the greatest relative number of privately owned firearms”;
while, on the other hand, the highest robbery rates are in the jurisdictions which are most restrictive of gun ownership. Finally, recent data establish
that Handgun Control, Inc. is wrong in advising submission as invariably the best strategy for victims of rape or robbery: “the best defense against
injury is to put up no defense—give them what they want or run.” Analysis of nationwide victimization data gathered for the U.S. Department of
Justice shows that, far from defensive gun use endangering gun-armed victims, those who resist with guns are injured far less often than either those
who submit or those who resist with other weapons. Of course, gun-armed resisters are also much less likely to be robbed, raped, or otherwise
harmed. - Under Fire: The New Consensus on the Second Amendment, 45 EMORY L. J. 1139, 1242-45 (1996).
Barnett, Randy E. and Don B. Kates - To discriminate among the constitutional rights that one is willing to defend is ruinous to the credibility of
those who exhort or hector public officials to honor rights with which those officials may disagree or which they may wish to disregard. - Under
Fire: The New Consensus on the Second Amendment, 45 EMORY L. J. 1139, 1147 (1996).
Barnett, Randy E. and Don B. Kates (Randy E. Barnett is the Austin B. Fletcher professor of law at Boston University, and Don B. Kates is an
attorney in San Francisco, CA, LL.B. Yale 1966) – [T]he right of the people to keep and bear arms is to be treated the same as the other rights of the
people specified in the Constitution—no more and no less. Like the other rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights, it is a right to be asserted by
individuals against infringement by government. Like other rights in the Bill of Rights, it is not absolute, but neither is it a hollow shell which
legislatures can ignore with impunity. - Under Fire: The New Consensus on the Second Amendment, 45 EMORY L. J. 1139, 1142 (1996).
Bastiat, Claude Frederic - If goods are not allowed to cross international borders, soldiers will.
Bastiat, Claude Frederic - If philanthropy is not voluntary, it destroys liberty and justice. The law can give nothing that has not first been taken from its owner.
Bastiat, Claude Frederic - It is always beneficial for a nation to specialize in what it can produce best and then trade with others to acquire goods at costs lower than it would take to produce them at home.
Bastiat, Claude Frederic - Life, Liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. - THE LAW (1850).
Bastiat, Claude Frederic - Often the masses are plundered and do not know it.
Bastiat, Claude Frederic – The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable. - THE LAW.
Beam, Judge (U.S. Circuit Judge, 8th Cir.) - I disagree that Cases v. United States, 131 F.2d 916 (1st Cir. 1942); United States v. Warin, 530 F.2d 103
(6th Cir. 1976); United States v. Oakes, 564 F.2d 394 (10th Cir. 1977); and United States v. Nelson, 859 F.2d 1318 (8th Cir. 1988) properly interpret
the Constitution or the Supreme Court’s holding in United States v. Miller ... insofar as they say that Congress has the power to prohibit an individual
from possessing any type of firearm, even when kept for lawful purposes. Judge Gibson’s opinion seems to adopt that premise and with that holding,
I disagree. - United States v. Hale, 978 F.2d 1016, 1021 (8th Cir. 1992) (Beam, J. concurring specially).
Bennet, George - [T]he distinctive difference between a freeman and a slave was a right to possess arms, not so much, as had been stated, for the purpose of defending his property as his liberty. - 41 T. C. HANSARD, THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES FROM THE YEAR 1803 TO THE PRESENT TIME 1130-31
(1819).
Bingham, Congressman John A. (R-OH; drafter of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) – Mr. Speaker, that the scope and meaning of the
limitations imposed by the first section, fourteenth amendment of the Constitution may be more fully understood, permit me to say that the privileges
and immunities of citizens of the United States ... are chiefly defined in the first eight amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Those
eight amendments are as follows. ... These eight articles I have shown never were limitations upon the power of the States, until made so by the
fourteenth amendment. The words of that amendment ... are an express prohibition upon every state in the Union. - CONG. GLOBE, 39th
Congress, 1st Session, 2765 (1866).
Black, Justice Hugo Lafayette (1886-1971) - My study of the historical events that culminated in the Fourteenth Amendment, and the expressions
of those who sponsored and favored, as well as those who opposed its submission and passage, persuades me that one of the chief objects that the
provisions of the Amendment's first section, separately, and as a whole, were intended to accomplish was to make the Bill of Rights, applicable to the
states. ... I would follow what I believe was the original purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment—to extend to all the people of the nation the
complete protection of the Bill of Rights. To hold that this Court can determine what, if any, provisions of the Bill of Rights will be enforced, and if
so to what degree, is to frustrate the great design of a written Constitution. - Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46, 72, 89 (Dissent) (1947).
Blackstone, Sir William (1725-1780; British jurist and legal scholar) - Of the absolute rights of individuals: ... 5. The fifth and last auxiliary rights of the subject ... is that of having arms for their defense. . . . - 1 W. BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES 123.
Bland, Theodore - I have founded my hopes to the single object of securing (in terrorem) the great and essential rights of freemen from the
encroachments of Power—so far as to authorize resistance when they should be either openly attacked or insidiously undermined. - letter to Patrick
Henry, March 19, 1790, 3 PATRICK HENRY417-18 (1951).
Boaz, David – Bureaucrats and politicians are just as self-interested as the rest of us. – What Big Government Is All About, THE FREEMAN, April, 1997, p. 210.
Boaz, David – Maybe that’s because guns are sold at a profit, while schools are provided by the government. - In response to Jocelyn
Elders statement, “It is often easier for our children to obtain a gun than it is to find a good school.”
Boaz, David and Morris Barrett (Morris Barrett is a New York writer) - Education Department figures show that the average private elementary school tuition in America is less than $2,500. The average tuition for all private schools, elementary and secondary, is $3,116, or less than half of the cost per pupil in the average public school, $6,857. - WHAT WOULD A SCHOOL VOUCHER BUY? The Real Cost of Private Schools, CATO INSTITUTE BRIEFING PAPER No. 25, March, 1996.
Bolick, Clint - Trickle-down civil rights in the form of racial preferences does nothing to solve those core problems. Preferences sprinkle benefits on the most-advantaged members of designated groups while doing nothing to aid the truly disadvantaged.
Bonner, Elena (Widow of Sakharov) - The point is that the communist goal is fixed and changeless—it never varies one iota from their objective of world domination, but if we judge them only by the direction in which they seem to be going, we shall be deceived.
Bovard, James – Americans’ liberty is perishing beneath the constant growth of government power. Federal, state, and local government’s are
confiscating citizens’ property, trampling their rights, and decimating their opportunities more than ever before. - LOST RIGHTS.
Bovard, James – Giving countries money that will be badly used is worse than not giving them any money at all.
Bovard, James – Money-laundering statutes epitomize how the government has shirked going after violent criminals and instead is routinely
impaling innocent citizen and penny ante misfits in order to maximize its number of convictions. If the government cannot catch the guilty, at least it
can scourge the innocent. - Laundering: The Criminalization of Everything, FREEDOM DAILY, August 1997, p. 24.
Boycott Taxes!
Brandeis, Justice Louis - Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that
are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our
government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the
government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that
in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means--to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the
conviction of a private criminal--would bring terrible retribution. Against that pernicious doctrine this court should resolutely set its face. -
Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, dissent (1928)
Brennan, Justice (U.S. Supreme Court) - [T]he term “the people” [in the Constitution] is better understood as a rhetorical counterpoint “to the
government,” such that rights that were reserved to “the people” were to protect all those subject to “the government” ... “The people” are “the
governed.” - U.S.v. Verdugo-Urquirdez, (1990) (Dissent).
Brennan, Justice William and Thurgood Marshall – [T]he framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to “create” rights. Rather, they designed
the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be pre-existing. - United States v. Verdugo-
Urquidez, 494 U.S. 259, 288 (1990) (dissent).
Brown, Michael (Associate Professor of Education at the University of California Santa Barbara) - If, out of the kindness of their heart someone sees
the conditions you have dealt with and they want to help you, that’s fine.... But if they don’t want to help you, that’s fine too. You should never put
your confidence in affirmative action.
Burris, Alan - Tariffs, quotas and other import restrictions protect the business of the rich at the expense of high cost of living for the poor. Their
intent is to deprive you of the right to choose, and to force you to buy the high-priced inferior products of politically favored companies. - A
Liberty Primer
Bursor, Scott - An armed populace ... is the best means of defending the state, sensitizing the government to the rights of the people, preserving civil
order and the natural right of self-defense, and cultivating the moral character essential to self-government. – Note: Toward a Functional
Framework for Interpreting the Second Amendment, 74 TEX. L. REV. 1125, 1146-49 (1996).
Cain, Representative Richard (North Carolina, U.S. House of Representatives, and black leader) - I do not ask any legislation for the colored
people of this nation that is not applied to the white people. All that I ask is equal laws, equal legislation, and equal rights throughout the length and
breadth of this land. - quoted by Terry Eastland and William J. Bennett, COUNTING BY RACE, (New York: Basic Books Inc., 1979).
CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION - All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their protection, security, and benefit, and they
have the right to alter or reform it when the public good may require. - article 2, section 1.
Campaign reform has never done anything except to entrench incumbents, stifle free speech, and make running for office a rich man’s privilege.
Carey, Drew (TV actor, stand up comic, author, libertarian) – The less government, the better. As far as your personal goals are and what you
actually do with your life, it should never have to do with the government. You should never depend on the government for your retirement, your
financial security, for anything. If you do, you’re screwed. ... That’s all the government should be. - REASON
Celente, Gerald (Trend Forecaster) - Governments become emboldened by their failures. - May 22, 2009 interview on CNBC
Chase, Justice Samuel P. (signer of the Declaration of Independence) - The jury has the right to determine both the law and the facts. - 1796.
Chew, Joseph T. - Expecting a carjacker or rapist or drug pusher to care that his possession or use of a gun is unlawful is like expecting a terrorist to
care that his car bomb is taking up two parking spaces.
Churchill, Winston - The inherent virtue of communism is the equal sharing of miseries.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius - Civilized people are taught by logic, barbarians by necessity, communities by tradition; and the lesson is inculcated even
in wild beasts by nature itself. They learn that they have to defend their own bodies and persons and lives from violence of any and every kind by all
the means within their power.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius - To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain ever a child.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius - Whenever, therefore, the profession of arms becomes a distinct order in the state ... the end of the social compact is
defeated.... 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 defence 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. - The Citizens of America, STATE GAZETTE (Charleston), September 8,
1788.
Citizens without firearms live or die at the whim of governments with firearms.
Clark, J. Reuben, Jr. (U.S. Ambassador) - [T]he [United Nations] Charter specifically provides for the waging of wars and for our participation
therein.... The Charter is a war document not a peace document. - in his 1945 preliminary analysis of the U.N. Charter, quoted by William
Norman Grigg, More Soldiers Saying “No!”, THE NEW AMERICAN, p. 19, December 11, 1995.
Clay, Henry - The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity—unlimited,
undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.
Clinton, Hillary Rodham - Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who
may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them or
denying them their freedom or dignity because of peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions. - speaking at the United Nations Women’s
Conference in Beijing, China; quoted by Paul Greenberg in the CONSERVATIVE CHRONICLE, September 20, 1995.
Clinton, Pres. William J. - [The United States] can’t be so fixed on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans. - during a press
conference March 1, 1993, in Piscataway, NJ, quoted in the BOSTON GLOBE, March 3, 1993, page 3; USA TODAY, March 11, 1993.
Clinton, Pres. William J. - I hope very much that others who will be tempted to join cults and become involved with people like Koresh will be
deterred by the horrible scenes they have seen. - spoken one day after the fiery massacre of the Branch Davidians at Waco, TX regarding Clinton’s
idea of the “lesson to be learned” from the incident.
Clinton, Pres. William J. - The Constitution is a radical document ... it is the job of government to rein in people’s rights. - spoken on MTV,
1992; quoted in THE PROPONENT, February, 1996.
Clinton, Pres. William J. (U.S. President, served January, 1993-present, Democrat) – When we got organized as a country and we wrote a radical
Constitution with a radical Bill of rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had
that freedom would use it responsibly ... 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... - spoken on MTV, Enough is Enough, March 22, 1994.
Collin, Nicholas (Reverend from Philadelphia) - [T]hat congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.
- written under the penname “A Foreign Spectator”, Remarks on the Amendments to the Federal Constitutions.
COLORADO CONSTITUTION - The people of this state have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves, as a free, sovereign and independent
state; and to alter and abolish their constitution and form of government whenever they may deem it necessary to their safety and happiness .... -
article 2, section 2.
Colorado Supreme Court - The overbreadth doctrine is applicable to legislative enactments which threaten the exercise of fundamental or express
constitutional rights, such as ... the right to keep and bear arms. - People v. Garcia, 595 P.2d 228, 230 (1979) (en banc).
Congress - The rate of pay for the offices referred to under section 703(a)(2)(B) of Ethics Reform Act of 1989 (5 U.S.C. 5318 note) shall be the rate
of pay that would be payable for each such office if the provisions of section 703(a)(2)(B) and 1101(a)(1)(A) of such act (5 U.S.C. 5318 note and
5305) had not been enacted. - a provision in the 1992 appropriations bill giving senators a $23,200 a year pay raise.
Congress, Joint Economic Committee - The federal government is losing billions of dollars of tax revenue by imposing a 28 percent capital gains
rate. ... If the capital gains tax rate had remained at 20 percent and capital gains realizations had continued to grow at a 12 percent annual rate
between 1986 and 1992, as they did between 1980 and 1985, the federal government would have collected $70 billion more in revenues over the
period even at the lower tax rate. - Capital Crimes: The Impact of the 1986 Capital Gains Tax Hike, 1993.
Congressional Record Vol. 90 Sec. 271 (b)(1) p.2243 (1939) - Under this bill we are trying our best to eliminate tax returns for some 30,000,000 of
our individual taxpayers by allowing them to use the so-called W-2 form, which results in the taxpayer not computing his own tax but having his tax
computed by the collector ... This whole thing is for the purpose of removing complications and difficulties that have arisen by reason of the
enactment of the so-called pay-as-you-go system.
CONNECTICUT CONSTITUTION - Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state. - article I, section 15.
Cooley, Judge Thomas M. - Among the other safeguards to liberty should be mentioned the right of the people to keep and bear arms.... The
alternative to a standing army is “a well-regulated militia”; but this cannot exist unless the people are trained to bearing arms. The Federal and State
constitutions therefore provide that the right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed. - A TREATISE ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITATIONS
WHICH REST UPON THE LEGISLATIVE POWER OF THE STATES OF THE AMERICAN UNION 729 (8th ed. 1927).
Cooley, Judge Thomas M. – It may be supposed from the phraseology of this provision that the right to keep and bear arms was guaranteed to the
militia; but this would be an interpretation not warranted by the intent .... The meaning of the provision undoubtedly is, that the people, from whom
the militia must be taken shall have the right to keep and bear arms, and they need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose.... - THE
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 298-99 (3rd ed. 1898).
Cooley, Judge Thomas M. - The right [second amendment] declared was meant to be a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary
power of rulers, and as a necessary and efficient means of regaining rights when temporarily overturned by usurpation. The Right is General—It may
be supposed from the phraseology of this provision that the right to keep and bear arms was only guaranteed to the militia; but this would be an
interpretation not warranted by the intent. The militia, as has been elsewhere explained, consists of those persons who, under the law, are liable to the
performance of military duty, and are officered and enrolled for service when called upon. But the law may make provision for the enrollment of all
who are fit to perform military duty, or of a small number only, or it may wholly omit to make any provision at all; and if the right were limited to
those enrolled, the purpose of this guaranty might be defeated altogether by the action or neglect to act of the government it was meant to hold in
check. The meaning of the provision undoubtedly is that the people from whom the militia must be taken, shall have the right to keep and bear arms,
and they need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose. But this enables the government to have a well regulated militia; for to bear arms
implies something more than the mere keeping; it implies the learning to handle and use them in a way that makes those who keep them ready for
their efficient use; in other words, it implies the right to meet for voluntary discipline in arms, observing in doing so the laws of public order. -
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, 298 (Andrew C. McLaughlin ed., Boston, Little, Brown, 3d ed. 1898); A TREATISE ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL
LIMITATIONS WHICH REST UPON THE LEGISLATIVE POWER OF THE STATES OF THE AMERICAN UNION, 498-99 (Victor H. Lane ed., 7th ed. 1903).
Cooley, Judge Thomas McIntyre (1824-1898; Chief Justice of Michigan Supreme Court)– The right of the people to bear arms in their own
defence, and to form and drill military organizations in defence of the State, may not be very important in this country; but it is significant as having
been reserved by the people as a possible and necessary resort for the protection of self-government against usurpation, and against any attempt on
the part of those who may for the time be in possession of State authority or resources to set aside the constitution and substitute their own rule for
that of the people. Should the contingency ever arise when it would be necessary for the people to make use of the arms in their hands for the
protection of constitutional liberty, the preceding, so far from being revolutionary, would be in strict accord with popular right and duty. - The
Abnegation of Self-Government, THE PRINCETON REVIEW, July-Dec. 1883, at 209, 213-14.
Cooper, James Fennemore - Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizens as much freedom of action and of being as
comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own
manner.
Corwin, Prof. S - [Attorneys have been] prone to identify the judicial version of the Constitution as the authentic Constitution.
Cottrol, Robert J, and Raymond T. Diamond (Robert Cottrol a professor at Rutgers School of Law and George Washington University; Raymond
Diamond is a professor of law at Tulane University School of Law – both are members of the ACLU and the NAACP) - [O]verwhelmingly,
commentators in the antebellum years of the 19th century wrote of the Second Amendment as a right of individuals. To our knowledge, no
commentaries in the antebellum era offered an interpretation of the Second Amendment that indicated that the right was only a right of the states or
was limited to those actively involved in militia service. - Book Review. The Fifth Auxiliary Right, 104 YALE L.J. 995, 1002 note 24 (1994),
a review of Dr. Joyce Lee Malcolm’s TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS: THE ORIGIN OF AN ANGLO-AMERICAN RIGHT (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1994), Dr. Malcolm is a professor of history at Bentley College.
Cottrol, Robert J., and Don B. Kates – If the Bill of Rights is to continue, we must apply its spirit even as conditions change. That is the nub of the
Second Amendment controversy: Modern intellectuals who tend to feel self-defense is barbaric—that government should have a monopoly of arms
with the people being dependent, on it for protection—have difficulty accepting the Founders’ diametrically opposite views. - Founders Backed
Gun Ownership, DEMOCRAT 4 CHRONICLE, Rochester, N.Y., March 3, 1993.
Cottrol, Robert J., and Raymond T. Diamond – [T]he right to arms is essentially a question of the balance of power between a people and the state
that governs them. - Book Review. The Fifth Auxiliary Right, 104 YALE L.J. 995, 1025-26 (1994), a review of Dr. Joyce Lee Malcolm’s TO
KEEP AND BEAR ARMS: THE ORIGIN OF AN ANGLO-AMERICAN RIGHT (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), Dr. Malcolm is a professor of
history at Bentley College.
Coxe, Tench - 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. - originally published under the pseudonym “A Pennsylvanian,” Remarks on the First
Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution first appeared in the Philadelphia FEDERAL GAZETTE, June 18, 1789 at 2, col. 1. They were
reprinted by the NEW YORK PACKET, June 23, 1789 at 2, cols. 1-2, and by the BOSTON CENTENNIAL, July 4, 1789 at 1, col. 2.
Coxe, Tench - The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many troops quite unnecessary. They will form a
powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them. - An American Citizen, October 21, 1787, reprinted in
13 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 433 (1981).
Coxe, Tench (1755-1824; Political economist, colonial legislator, attorney) - The powers of the sword are in the hands of the young yeomanry of
America from sixteen to sixty. 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? Is it 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.... [T]he 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 American people. - An American Citizen, February 20, 1788 in A Pennsylvanian, THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE,
February 20, 1788, reprinted in 2 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 1778-1780 (Kaminski & Sdaladino eds., 1981), quoted
in Stephen Halbrook, To Keep and Bear Their Private Arms: The Adoption of the Second Amendment, 10 N. KY. L. REV. 13, 17 (1982).
Crane, Edward H. - [F]or citizen participation to flourish in politics and for the two parties to feel some outside competition we should eliminate
contribution limits to federal campaigns, have full disclosure, and create an open dynamic political system. ... Under the current system we’re
spending less than $3.00 per eligible voter per election cycle on congressional races. That’s not enough, given the huge impact Congress currently
has on our lives. Unlimited contributions will also take away the artificial bias the Federal Election Campaign Act has created in favor of the media.
Why should Katherine Graham, Gary Trudeau, or Rush Limbaugh give the equivalent of millions of dollars in support of their candidate or cause
when we’re limited to $1,000? If the answer is the First Amendment, well it’s meant for all of us, not just the media. - Can Washington Change?,
REASON, p. 23, August/September 1996.
Crane, Edward H. - [W]hy should those with the capacity to enhance political discourse through significant campaign contributions be denied that
option when we allow others to spend all they want, just because they chose the favored profession of the media or being a candidate? - Spending
too little, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, March 3, 1996.
Crane, Edward H. - Taxpayer funding of campaigns will enhance federal power and corruption. Open, vigorous, privately funded campaigns are
our best hope for reducing the burden of the federal government on the American people. - Wrong to use tax money, USA TODAY 14A, November
1, 1996.
Crane, Edward H. - Taxpayer funding of political campaigns is wrong for a fundamental reason: In a free society, people are not forced to give their
money to support political activity they would otherwise not support. - Wrong to use tax money, USA TODAY 14A, November 1, 1996.
Crane, Edward H. (President, The CATO Institute) - Social Security took the trouble out of planning retirement. AFDC took the trouble out of
having a baby without a father. Government run unemployment insurance took the trouble out of being unemployed. - April 6, 1995, at a meeting of
the Philanthropy Roundtable.
Criminals love gun control. It makes their jobs safer.
Dasbach, Steve - Art subsidies don't give people what they want; it forces people to pay for what they don't want. - Libertarian Party Press
Release: February 28, 1997.
Davis, Richard J. (D.D.S.) – There are several movements, both within and without the government, aimed at disarming the American population.
- Real Independence Day: The Meaning of the Second Amendment, THE TYRANNY OF GUN CONTROL, 32 (Future of Freedom Foundation
1997).
Dean, Dough (Co House Majority Leader, R-Colorado Springs) – I would feel safer knowing that there was a teacher at my kid’s school who was a
concealed weapons permit holder who could intervene in a situation like this [the Littleton, Colorado H.S. Shooting].
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a
well-informed, well-armed sheep.
Denning, Brannon P. (Research Associate and Senior Fellow Yale Law School, Associate – Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell, B.A. The
University of the South 1992, J.D. The University of Tennessee) – [U]ntil 1968, there had historically been no widespread efforts on the part of the
government to regulate private ownership of firearms extensively. - Gun Shy: The Second Amendment as an “Underenforced Constitutional
Norm” 21 HARV. J. L. & PUB. POL’Y. 719, 727 (Summer 1998).
Denning, Brannon P. and Randy Barnett - A close examination of the lower courts’ opinions and comparison with the actual holding of Miller,
however, reveals that the lower courts have demonstrated a remarkable obtuseness, sometimes lurching into intellectual dishonesty. As I have shown,
the courts have indulged in constitutional gymnastics in an effort to avoid construing the Second Amendment to contain anything resembling a right
under which an individual might make a colorable claim. On this point alone, courts might be said to be construing the wording of a provision of the
Constitution to be meaningless—a result that should be avoided. - CAN THE SIMPLE CITE BE TRUSTED?: LOWER COURT INTERPRETATIONS OF UNITED
STATES V. MILLER AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT, 26 Cumb. L. Rev. 961, 999 (1996).
Denning, Brannon P. and Randy Barnett - Lawyers, judges, courts and the government in general have come under increasing suspicion from
those citizens who believe many of these same elites manipulate the system at the expense of the “common man.” It is this sort of distrust that breeds
the resentment that manifests itself in what historian Gordon Wood termed “out-of-doors” political activity—private militias and the so-called
“common law courts” are two contemporary examples. By staking their prestige and power of judgment on a position that citizens do not accept and
new scholarship shows to be untenable, federal courts that continue to nonchalantly dismiss the Second Amendment, disingenuously citing Miller as
their authority, do so at the risk of their legitimacy. - CAN THE SIMPLE CITE BE TRUSTED?: LOWER COURT INTERPRETATIONS OF UNITED STATES V.
MILLER AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT, 26 Cumb. L. Rev. 961, 1003-4 (1996).
Denning, Brannon P. and Randy Barnett - The 1912 Supreme Court decision of Gitlow v. New York which applied the First Amendment, by
assumption, to the states seems to have overruled Cruikshank sub silento or at least would seem to approve the reexamination of its theoretical
underpinnings. - CAN THE SIMPLE CITE BE TRUSTED?: LOWER COURT INTERPRETATIONS OF UNITED STATES V. MILLER AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT, 26
Cumb. L. Rev. 961, 994 (1996).
Dennis, Anthony J. - Citizens who bear arms as members of local or state militias are able to repulse or deter tyrants from seizing power. They are a
republic’s protection against all enemies, both internal and external. Thus, the arms bearing citizenry at large, serving in the militia is, in essence, a
form of demagogue insurance. - Article: Clearing the Smoke from the right to Bear Arms and the Second Amendment, 29 AKRON L. REV. 57, 76
(Fall 1995).
Dennis, Anthony J. - The right to bear arms was clearly of paramount importance to state leaders. Five state ratifying conventions recommended
that the Constitution be amended to include a personal right to bear arms. In contrast, only lesser numbers of state ratifying conventions
recommended that such rights as due process, peaceable assembly, freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, freedom of speech, the right to
confront one’s accuser, and freedom from double jeopardy be included in the new constitution. - Article: Clearing the Smoke from the right to
Bear Arms and the Second Amendment, 29 AKRON L. REV. 57, 69 (Fall 1995).
Dennis, Anthony J. - The urban poor, women and various newly arrived or otherwise disadvantaged groups bear the brunt of violent crime. These
groups need to be armed, not forcibly disarmed, if they are to realize any sense of safety at all. To disarm the law-abiding citizenry would be
tantamount to victimizing them again after they have already suffered as a group as victims of crime. - Article: Clearing the Smoke from the right
to Bear Arms and the Second Amendment, 29 AKRON L. REV. 57, 68 footnote 37 (Fall 1995).
Dennis, Anthony J. (officer and lawyer for Aetna Life and Casualty Company; author; B.A. cum laude from Tufts University; J.D. from
Northwestern University School of Law) - It is well established that in past eras gun registration was often a mere prelude to widespread
disarmament and confiscation. In England during the seventeenth century, for example, gun registration laws aimed at catholics and other dissidents
feared by the throne were used first to identify and then disarm the government’s opponents. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the Nazi regime
also used gun registration in order to identify, disarm, and then subsequently execute gun owners. - Article: Clearing the Smoke from the right to
Bear Arms and the Second Amendment, 29 AKRON L. REV. 57, 60 (Fall 1995).
Dershowitz, Alan – I think it was H.L. Mencken who once said that in America they go after the S.O.B.’s first. And nobody cares about them. They
establish bad precedents on them, and then they go after the rest of us. - Justice and the Citizen, Achievement TV Network.
Dershowitz, Alan (Harvard law professor, constitutional scholar, criminal defense lawyer) – Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second
Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it’s not an individual right or that it’s too much of a public safety hazard don’t see the danger in the
big picture. They’re courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don’t like.
- quoted by Dan Gifford, the Conceptual Foundations of Anglo-American Jurisprudence in Religion and Reason, 62 TENN. L. REV. 759, 789
(1995).
Dingell, John D., III – The goal of the agency [BATF] appears to be less the prosecution of criminals and persons unlawfully engaged in the illegal
use of firearms than in the manufacturing of a statistical record of persons who have committed some technical violation of 1968 Gun Control Act.
Dingell, John D., III (U.S. congressman, D-MI) – If I were to select a jack-booted group of fascists who were perhaps as large a danger to American
society as I could pick today, I would pick BATF. They are a shame and a disgrace to our country. - 1980.
Disarming innocent people does not protect innocent people.
Douglas, Justice William O. (1898-1980) - As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when
everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air—however slight—lest we
become unwitting victims of the darkness.
Douglass, Frederick - Property will produce for us the only condition upon which any people can rise to the dignity of genuine manhood. ...
Knowledge, wisdom, culture, refinement, manners, are all founded on work and the wealth which work brings. ... without money, there’s no leisure,
without leisure, no thought, without thought, no progress.
Dowling, Morgan E. – Gold is the standard of all great civilizations. - January, 1896, American Federationist.
Dowlut, Robert – [T]he Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment intended the Second Amendment to apply to the states.... The Framers
intended the Fourteenth Amendment to protect the right to keep and bear arms from state abridgment. ... The Framers of the Fourteenth
Amendment intended the Second Amendment to apply to the states, and their main concern was the right to self-defense. - Arms: A Right to
Self-Defense Against Criminals and Despots, 8 STANFORD L. & POL’Y REV. 25 (1997).
Dowlut, Robert - Because Americans developed a system of government in which the Constitution is supreme, the concerted effort to nullify an
explicit constitutional right, and to disarm the people incrementally, cannot be justified. Whether the pendulum of public opinion swings in favor of
protecting or banning firearms, the Constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. - Arms: A Right to Self-Defense Against
Criminals and Despots, 8 STANFORD L. & POL’Y REV. 25 (1997).
Dowlut, Robert - Eventually, the Supreme Court probably will apply the Second Amendment to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment,
resting on a solid historical basis and compelling arguments made by academics. This is not judicial activism. It is judicial responsibility, for courts
act as the bulwark of our liberties. - Arms: A Right to Self-Defense Against Criminals and Despots, 8 STANFORD L. & POL’Y REV. 25 (1997).
Dowlut, Robert - Gun prohibitionists often point out that some police organizations support them. Support from the police is a flawed measure of
the constitutionality of legislation, since historically the police have opposed any extension of constitutional rights to individuals under their control.
Law enforcement groups denounced Miranda v. Arizona because it “puts another handcuff on the police” and results in the “diminishing of law and
order.” Chicago’s police superintendent called for the suspension of constitutional rights to fight crime because “his visit to China underscored what
he s[aw] as constitutional obstructions to police work.” Newspapers publicize criminal misconduct by some policemen, including “concocting bogus
arrest and search warrants.” Recently, a senior F.B.I. official pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for destroying evidence favorable to the defense
in the Ruby Ridge siege, involving a white separatist, and a former Los Angeles police detective pleaded no contest to a perjury charge stemming
from the O. J. Simpson trial. Furthermore, some members of law enforcement routinely view civilians, especially members of minority groups, as
suspects rather than citizens. Appearances of impropriety, such as attendance at the “Good Ol’ Boy Roundup,” do not promote a healthy image of
law enforcement. - Arms: A Right to Self-Defense Against Criminals and Despots, 8 STANFORD L. & POL’Y REV. 25 (1997).
Dowlut, Robert – Victims of genocide cannot expect other nations to come to the rescue. ... Given the helpless position of these peoples, weapon
control laws have been called “gateways to victim oppression and genocide.” It matters little if the people could eventually be defeated by an
oppressive government, because history teaches that “armed citizens continue to give pause to far better armed governments even in the age of
nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles.” ... Modern day civil wars demonstrate that an armed people can deter government oppression and
successfully defend themselves. - Arms: A Right to Self-Defense Against Criminals and Despots, 8 STANFORD L. & POL’Y REV. 25 (1997).
Dowlut, Robert (J.D. 1979 Howard Univ., Attorney for the National Rifle Association) – A written constitution is a reminder that governments can
be unreasonable and unjust. By guaranteeing that “[a] well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to
keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed,” the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution provides the citizens a means of protection
against the unjust excesses of government. - Arms: A Right to Self-Defense Against Criminals and Despots, 8 STANFORD L. & POL’Y REV. 25,25
(1997).
Downs, Hugh (ABC News Correspondent) - The NRA has a point about the inadvisability of simply taking guns away from the populace. If that
were possible, it would not disarm that small percentage of the populace willing to break the law. . . . Punishing people who obey the law is backward
thinking. - April 5, 1995 ABC News Radio interview.
Eastwood, Clint (Oscar winning Actor and Director) - Abuse of power isn't limited to bad guys in other nations. It happens in our own country if
we're not vigilant. ... At Waco, was there really an urgency to get those people out of the compound at that particular time? Was the press going to
make it look heroic for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms? At Ruby Ridge, there was one guy in a cabin at the top of the mountain. Was
it necessary for federal agents to go up there and shoot a 14-year-old in the back and shoot a woman with a child in her arms? What kind of mentality
does that? ... Those in power get jaded, deluded, and seduced by power itself. The hunger for absolute power and, more to the point, the abuse of
power, are a part of human nature. - in an essay written for the January 12, 1997 issue of PARADE Magazine.
Eisenhower, Dwight D. – We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the ... military-industrial complex. - January,
1961.
Emmert, Chief Justice (of the Indiana Supreme Court) - Nor can it be maintained that the right to bear arms only protects the use of muskets,
muzzle-loading rifles, shotguns and pistols, because they were the only ones used by the Colonists at the time. It might as well be argued that only a
house of the architectural vintage of the Revolution would be protected against a present unreasonable search and seizure. Modern guns suitable for
hunting and defense are within the protection of our Bill of Rights just the same as the owner of a modern ranch house type home is protected against
unlawful searches. - Matthews v. State, 148 N.E.2d 334, 341 (1958) (concurring in part dissenting on other grounds).
England, Newport - noe man shall go two miles from the Towne unarmes, eyther with Gunn or Sword; and that none shall come to any public
Meeting without his weapon. - a 1639 law.
Everything has its antithesis.
Feder, Don - When liberals look at us, they see not individuals but representatives of a race, a gender, an ethnicity or a religion—interchangeable
and indistinguishable. They see ciphers, not Americans. - CONSERVATIVE CHRONICLE, August 2, 1995.
FEDERAL GAZETTE & PHILADELPHIA EVENING POST - 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. - June 18, 1789, at 2.
Feinstein, Senator Diane (D-CA) – If it were up to me, I would tell Mr. and Mrs. America to turn them [guns] in—turn them all in. - in an
interview with Lesley Stahl on CBS’s 60 Minutes aired February 24, 1995.
Fezell, Attorney Howard J. - The right guaranteed by the Second Amendment is the right of the people, not the States. The very text of the
Constitution distinguishes between “the people,” “persons” and “States.” See art. I., Sec. 2; art. I, Sec. 3; art. III, Sec. 1. The Tenth Amendment
distinguishes between “the people” and “the States” by providing that, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. - Your INDIVIDUAL Right To Arms: Supreme Court
opinions supporting an individual right to keep and bear arms.
Flack, Horace E. - Congress, the House and the Senate, had the following objects and motives in view for submitting the first section of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the States for ratification: 1. To make the Bill of Rights (the first eight Amendments) binding upon, or applicable to, the
States. 2. To give validity to the Civil Rights Bill. 3. To declare who were citizens of the United States. - THE ADOPTION OF THE FOURTEENTH
AMENDMENT 94 (1908).
Fletcher, Andrew (1655-1716; Scottish statesman, writer) - He who thinks he is his own master, and has anything he may call his own, ought to
have arms to defend himself and what he possesses, or else he lives precariously and at discretion. - 17th century
Fletcher, Arthur A. - The best hope of getting critically needed seed money into Los Angeles and other tense urban areas is by cutting the capital
gains tax. ... Policies that punish success ultimately kill the seeds that promise enterprise and jobs to the poor. - Help the Poor, cut the Cap Gains
Tax, WALL STREET JOURNAL, August 25, 1993.
FLORIDA CONSTITUTION - The right of the people to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and of the lawful authority of the state shall not be
infringed, except that the manner of bearing arms may be regulated by law. - article I, section 8(a).
Florida Supreme Court – I know something of the history of this legislation [firearm registration law]. The original Act of 1893 ... was passed for
the purpose of disarming the Negro laborers and to thereby reduce the unlawful homicides that were prevalent in turpentine and sawmill camps and
to give the white citizens in sparsely settled areas a better feeling of security ... and there has never been, within my knowledge, any effort to enforce
the provisions of this statute as to white people, because it has been generally conceded to be in contravention of the Constitution and nonenforceable
if contested. - Watson v. Stone (1941).
Forbes, Malcolm Steve (Editor-in-Chief of FORBES Magazine) - The Gettysburg Address runs about 200 words. The Declaration of Independence
runs about 1,300 words. The Holy bible runs about 773,000 words. But our federal income tax code runs about seven million words and is growing
longer every year. - The Moral Case for the Flat Tax, IMPRIMIS, October 1996.
Forced “charity” is slavery.
Formal education will make you a living. Self education will make you a fortune.
Forstmann, Theodore J. (investor and philanthropist) - No government has ever borne the cost of anything. Taxes cost people. Tax cuts do not cost
government.
Franklin, Benjamin - In free governments, the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns. For the former, therefore, to
return among the latter is not to degrade but to promote them. - 1787.
Franklin, Benjamin - Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.
Franklin, Benjamin - They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Historical Review
of Pennsylvania. 1759.
Franklin, Benjamin - Where Liberty Dwells, There is My Country.
Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
Free people are not equal, and equal people are not free.
Freedom is the birthright of every man.
Freedom means not having to ask the government for permission.
Freedom Works!
Freeh, Louis (Director of FBI under Pres. William Clinton) - [The FBI] should be scrutinized harder than any other agency in the government,
because potentially we’re the most dangerous agency, given the awesome powers that we have and the constitutional protections that are at issue.
- during the 1995 Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information’s hearings on the federal law
enforcement disaster at Ruby Ridge, Idaho involving Randy Weaver; quoted by Jim Norell and Bill Parkerson, Ruby Ridge: Federal Law
Enforcement on Trial, AMERICAN RIFLEMAN, January, 1996, p. 61.
Freeh, Louis (Director of FBI under President William Clinton) - Those trusted to protect the people become the instruments of terror. ... For the
police, more than any other segment of society or government, the rule of law must always remain sacrosanct. - In a speech in Poland on the
Holocaust, quoted by James Bovard, The New J. Edgar Hoover, THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR, August, 1995.
Friedman, Milton - The long-range solution [to high unemployment] is to increase the incentive for ordinary people to save, invest, work, and
employ others . . . . We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork. - U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT; March 7, 1977
Friedman, Milton - The long-range solution is to increase the incentive for ordinary people to save, invest, work, and employ others . . . . We have a
system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork." - U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT; March 7, 1977
Friedman, Milton - The usual arguments for licensure, and in particular the paternalistic arguments for licensure, are satisfied almost entirely by
certification alone. If the argument is that we are too ignorant to judge good practitioners, all that is needed is to make the relevant information
available. If, in full knowledge, we still want to go to someone who is not certified, that is our business. - CAPITALISM AND FREEDOM.
Funk, Markus T. - Of the “good Samaritans” that come to a victim’s aid ... eighty-one percent are gun owners. - Comment: Gun Control and
Economic Discrimination: The Melting Point Case-in Point, 85 J. CRIM. L. 764, 792 (1995).
Gandhi, Mohandas - Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.
Gandhi, Mohandas – Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Gandhi, Mohandas – Live as is you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Gandhi, Mohandas – A small body of determined spirits, fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.
Gandhi, Mohandas - Good government is no substitute for self-government.
Gandhi, Mohandas – In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.
Gardiner, Richard E. and David B. Kopel - If the “state’s rights-only” argument of the Second Amendment were to be followed to its logical
conclusion, then state governments have a right to maintain military organizations independent from the federal military, and to arm those
organizations with nuclear weapons or whatever else the state may choose. Moreover, the Supreme Court decisions recognizing that the federal
government has final authority over the deployment and use of the National Guard must be incorrect. - The Sullivan Principles: Protecting
the Second Amendment from Civil Abuse, 19 Seton Hall Legis. J. 737, 738 (1995).
Gardiner, Richard E. and David B. Kopel (Richard Gardiner is an attorney, Fairfax, VA, J.D. 1978 George Mason University Law School, B.S.
1985 Union College; Research Director, Independence Institute, Golden, Colorado. J.D. 1985, University of Michigan, B.A.1982, Brown University)
– [T]he Second Amendment is under a concerted assault, designed to achieve through illegitimate litigation, what cannot be achieved democratically
through legislation. - The Sullivan Principles: Protecting the Second Amendment from Civil Abuse, 19 Seton Hall Legis. J. 737, 739 (1995).
Gaylor, Matthew - Refusing to attend school, failure to pay child support, or violating non-driving-related local ordinances are not indicative of a
person’s skill, knowledge, or judgment as a driver. Nor are they legitimate grounds for suspending or revoking a person’s driver’s license. - written
on his internet mailing list.
GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES - 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. - October 14, 1789, at 211, col. 2.
GEORGIA CONSTITUTION - The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but the General Assembly shall have power to prescribe
the manner in which arms may be borne. - article I, section 1,8.
Georgia Supreme Court - It is true, that these adjudications are all made on clauses in the State Constitutions; but these instruments confer no new
rights on the people which did not belong to them before.... The language of the Second Amendment is broad enough to embrace both Federal and
State Governments nor is there anything in its terms which restricts its meaning .... [D]oes it follow that because the people refused to delegate to the
general government the power to take from them the right to keep and bear arms, that they designed to rest it in the State governments? Is this a right
reserved to the States or to themselves? Is it not an unalienable right, which lies at the bottom of every free government? We do not believe that,
because the people withheld this arbitrary power of disfranchisement from Congress, they ever intended to confer it on the local legislatures....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
used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken upon, in the smallest degree. ... Our opinion is, that any law, State or Federal, is
repugnant to the Constitution, and void, which contravenes this right, originally belonging to our forefathers, trampled under foot by Charles I, and
his two wicked sons and successors, reestablished by the revolution of 1688, conveyed to this land of liberty by the colonists, and finally incorporated
conspicuously in our own Magna Carta! And Lexington and Concord ... plead eloquently for this interpretation! - Nunn v. State, 1 GA. 250 (1846)
(Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin).
Gifford, Dan ( Producer of the Academy Award nominated documentary Waco: The Rules of Engagement) – The government set up to murder these
people, no question about it. ... Quite simply today ... Americans seem frightened of people who espouse deep religious beliefs and convictions. In
short, if you believe wholeheartedly in God, you’re crazy who “ought to be killed,” according to many people who have spoken to me about the film.
- in an interview with Jon E. Dougherty of World Net Daily April 20, 1999.
Gilder, George – The combination of welfare and other social services enhance the mother’s role and obviate the man’s. As a result, men tend to
leave their children, whether before or after the marriage. Crises that would be resolved in a normal family way break up a ghetto family. Perhaps not
the first time or the fifth, but sooner or later the pressure of the subsidy state dissolves the roles of fatherhood, the discipline of work, and the rules of
marriage. - WEALTH AND POVERTY.
Government control, not gun control.
Government Kills!
Governments do not grant people rights. The people grant government power in order to protect their pre-existing rights.
Grassley, Senator Charles E. (R-IA) - Public trust in federal law enforcement has been fractured. ... the swashbucklers are in control ... the
militarization of the FBI... [with] shoot-to-kill rules... When they do negotiate, they violate every rule in the training manual... There is no room for
this culture in law enforcement. It needs to be stopped and stopped now. - during the U.S. Senate Ruby Ridge hearings, quoted by James L. Pate,
Amateurs and Assassins, SOLDIER OF FORTUNE, p. 43, December 1995.
Grayson, Senator William (Virginia) - Last Monday a string of amendments were presented to the lower house; these altogether respect personal
liberty... - in a letter to Patrick Henry.
Gun control is not about guns. It’s about control!
Gun control is simply victim control.
Gun control is the visualization of world bondage.
Gun control kills.
Gun control laws only serve to protect criminals.
Guns are no more responsible for killing people than a spoon is responsible for making Rosie O’Donnell fat.
Guns don’t kill people, the government does.
Halbrook, Steven P. - [N]ot a single original source quoted in Tot substantiates its assertion that the Second Amendment ‘was not adopted with
individual rights in mind,’ [and] at least two of [the articles cited by the court] directly contradict the Tot thesis. - THAT EVERY MAN BE ARMED: THE
EVOLUTION OF A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT 190-91 (1984).
Hamilton, Alexander – [T]he courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the
correspondence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure for that of the legislative body. - THE FEDERALIST No. 78.
Hamilton, Alexander - If it [the federal government] cannot avail itself of the former [the armed citizenry], it will be obliged to recur to the latter
[the military]. To render an army unnecessary will be a more certain method of preventing its existence than a thousand prohibitions on paper.... This
will not only lesson the call for military establishments, but if the 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 the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute
that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist. - THE FEDERALIST No. 29.
Hamilton, Alexander - Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped;
and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year. - FEDERALIST PAPER No.
Harlan, Justice - [T]he full scope of the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause cannot be found in or limited by the precise terms of the
specific guarantees elsewhere provided in the Constitution. This “liberty” is not a series of isolated points pricked out in terms of the taking of
property, the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms. - Poe v. Ullman, 367 U.S. 497, 543 (1961) (dissent).
HAWAII CONSTITUTION - A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not
be infringed. - article I, section 17.
Hayes, Rep. James (R-LA) - In Nevada, developments in the midst of cactus and parched earth are now being classified as “wetlands” because
standing water can occur seven days in a hole dug for a foundation ... [Nevada] is now the “Great Wetlands State.” - 1991.
He who plays with snakes gets bitten.
Heinlein, Robert A. - Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.
Heinlein, Robert A. - Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense.
Heinlein, Robert A. - The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
Heinlein, Robert A. - Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.
Heinlein, Robert A. (author) - Be wary of strong spirits. It can make you shoot at tax collectors ... and miss.
Henry, Patrick – If this be treason, then make the most of it!
Henry, Patrick - The war has already begun!
Henry, Patrick - They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be next
week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength
by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of
hope, until our enemies have bound us hand and foot? We are not weak if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature has placed in
our power. Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible. Besides, we
shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for
us. The battle is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Many cry “Peace, Peace”—but there is no peace. The war
is actually begun! ... Why stand here idle? 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! - 1775
Henry, Patrick – You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great and powerful people, but how your
liberties can be secured; for liberty ought to be the direct end of your government.
Henry, Patrick (1736-1799; American statesman and orator) - Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that
jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... The militia Sir is our ultimate
safety. We can have no security without it. ... The great object is that every man be armed.... Every one who is able may have a gun. - In the
Virginia Convention on ratification of the Constitution. DEBATES AND OTHER PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION OF VIRGINIA (taken in shorthand by David
Robertson of Petersburg, at 271, 275 (2nd ed. Richmond, 1805.); Also 3 Jonathan Elliot, DEBATES IN THE SEVERAL STATE CONVENTIONS ON THE ADOPTION OF
THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION at 45, 386, (2nd ed. Philadelphia, 1836).
Herbert, Frank - Governments do not know what they cannot do until after they cease to be governments. Each government carries the seeds of its
own destruction.
Heritage Foundation, The - In a major study funded by the pro-gun control Carter Administration, three top liberal academics carefully reviewed all
existing research and could find no persuasive scholarly evidence that America’s 20,000 gun control laws (in various jurisdictions) had any effect in
reducing criminal violence. Even the Federal Gun Control Act of 1968, which banned most interstate gun sales, had no discernible impact on the
interstate acquisition of guns by criminals. - ISSUES ‘94, 1994.
Heston, Charlton – Because there is no such thing a free nation where police and military are allowed the force of arms but individual citizens are
not. That’s a “big brother knows best” theater of the absurd that has never boded well for the peasant class, the working class or even for reporters.
- September 11, 1997 speech to the National Press Club, Washington D. C.
Heston, Charlton – I say the Second Amendment is, in order of importance, the first amendment. It is America’s First Freedom, the one right that
protects all the others. - September 11, 1997 speech to the National Press Club, Washington D. C.
Heston, Charlton (Film, stage and television actor, President NRA) – I’ve come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which,
with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated. - Harvard Law School Forum, February 16, 1999.
History proves that people ignore history.
Hoar, William P. - In the case of sex education (which, as the author shows, isn’t as much about the facts of life as it is about indoctrinating children
with attitudes often opposed by their families), this pattern held. The “crisis,” supposedly a need for more contraceptive education and prevention of
sexually transmitted diseases, came at a time when rates for both teen fertility and venereal diseases were on the decline. Nevertheless, federal money
for “family planning services” increased from $14 million in 1968 to $279 million just a decade later. Birth rates among unmarried girls then shot up,
and abortion rates doubled. In an unusual bit of candor, Sargent Shriver, former head of the Office of Economic Opportunity, admitted in 1978:
“Just as venereal disease has skyrocketed 350 percent in the last 15 years when we have had more clinics, more pills, and more sex education than
ever in history, teen-age pregnancy has risen.” That didn’t stop proponents of even more “sex education.” - The Hallowed Men, THE NEW AMERICAN,
March 4, 1996, p. 31-32, a book review of Thomas Sowell’s The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy (New York:
Basic Books, 1995).
Hoffman, Bob (BATF Agent) - [T]he people I put in jail have more honor than the top administration in this organization[BATF]. - January,
1993, during an interview with Mike Wallace on CBS’ 60 MINUTES.
Hoover, Bud - I don’t give a fat rat’s ass. I’m keeping my gun anyway. - letter to the editor, SOLDIER OF FORTUNE, January, 1997.
Hornberger, Jacob G – [A]s history has repeatedly shown, the vital importance of the fundamental right to own arms is to resist tyranny by one’s
own government, should such tyranny ever become unendurably evil and oppressive. - THE TYRANNY OF GUN CONTROL, 27-28 (Future of Freedom
Foundation 1997).
Hornberger, Jacob G. – [P]resident Clinton says that the Branch Davidians instead killed themselves. How does he arrive at this conclusion?
Clinton told the accused killers and terrorists-Attorney General Janet Reno, the BATF, and the FBI—to investigate themselves. Their report: “Mr.
President, we investigated, and we determined that we did nothing wrong.” Suppose the federal judge in Oklahoma says to Mr. McVeigh: “Sir, I
want you to investigate whether you have done anything wrong.” Mr. McVeigh returns to court and says, “Your honor, I investigated, and I
determined that I did nothing wrong.” Would you be happy if the judge released him? Would you say that justice had been done? -
Terrorism—Public and Private, THE TYRANNY OF GUN CONTROL, 77 (Future of Freedom Foundation 1997).
Hornberger, Jacob G. - As our American ancestors understood so well, the bedrock of a free society is private ownership of property. And there are
few more important rights than the unfettered right to own weapons. - Gun Control, Patriotism and Civil Disobedience, Pamphlet published by
International Society for Individual Liberty.
Hornberger, Jacob G. – If on my deathbed, someone says to me, “We reduced income taxes by 30%,” my response is going to be “Big deal. I
wanted to be free.” - Compromise and Concealment—The Road to Defeat: Part I, FREEDOM DAILY, September 1997.
Hornberger, Jacob G. – O mighty state, we worship and adore you. You provide us our sustenance when we are in need—our food, our housing,
our medical care, our schooling. ... You provide us our daily bread with no sweat at all. You make us good, O mighty state, because you provide
welfare for the poor, the elderly, businessman, foreigners, and all others who benefit from your largess. We praise you, O mighty state. We give you
thanks. - The Statist’s Prayer, Waco and the Cult of the Omnipotent State, THE TYRANNY OF GUN CONTROL, 69-70 (Future of Freedom
Foundation 1997).
Hornberger, Jacob G. – The ultimate barrier to the ultimate tyranny lies not with the ballot box. It lies not with the soapbox. It lies not with the jury
box. The ultimate barrier to the tyranny of one’s own government lies with the cartridge box. - The Nazi Mind-Set in America, THE TYRANNY OF
GUN CONTROL, 62 (Future of Freedom Foundation 1997).
Hornberger, Jacob G. - Those who believe that democratically-elected rulers lack the potential and inclination for destructive conduct against their
citizenry are living in la-la land. - Gun Control, Patriotism and Civil Disobedience, Pamphlet published by International Society for Individual
Liberty.
Howard, Philip K. - How many people do you think comply with all the requirements of EPA or OSHA? OSHA itself has estimated that 80 percent
of workplaces are not in compliance with the law. It has to be true that no one is in full compliance. Even on paper an accountant couldn’t comply
with four thousand rules. Is your supply closet neatly organized so that everything is “stable and secure,” as required by Section 1910.176(b)? Have
you checked recently? One observer has noted that it is common knowledge in the meat-packing industry, “denied only by USDA spokesmen, that if
all meat-inspecting regulations were enforced to the letter, no meat-processor in America would be open for business.” - THE DEATH OF COMMON
SENSE: HOW LAW IS SUFFOCATING AMERICA (New York: Random House 1994).
Howard, Philip K. - The ratio of funding or special education programs to gifted programs is about eleven dollars to one cent. I doubt many
legislators or officials think this balance makes sense. But Congress took away everyone’s power to balance the competing needs. - THE DEATH OF
COMMON SENSE: HOW LAW IS SUFFOCATING AMERICA (New York: Random House 1994).
Howard, Senator Jacob Meritt (MI) - [The first clause of the Amendment prevents the states from] abridging the personal rights guarantied and
secured by the first eight amendments of the constitution; such as the freedom of speech and of the press; the right of the people peaceably to
assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances, a right appertaining to each and all the people; the right to keep and bear arms; the
right to be exempted from the quartering of soldiers in a house without the consent of the owner; the right to be exempt from unreasonable searches
and seizures; [etc.] ... The great object of the first section of this amendment is, therefore, to restrain the power of the States and compel them at all
times to respect these great fundamental guarantees. - 1866, commenting on the purpose of the proposed 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
CONG. GLOBE 39th Congress, 1st Session 2765; there was no dissent from this description of the clause.
Howard, Senator Jacob Merritt - To these privileges and immunities, whatever they may be “for they are not and cannot be fully defined in their
entire extent and precise nature” to these should be added the personal rights guarantied and secured by the first eight amendments of the
Constitution ... [including] the right to keep and bear arms ... The great object of the first section of this amendment is, therefore, to restrain the power
of the States and compel them at all times to respect these great fundamental guarantees. - commenting on section one of the Fourteenth
Amendment, 14 CONG. GLOBE, 39th CONG. 2765-66 (1866).
I would rather make the gravest of mistakes then surrender my right to choose.
IDAHO CONSTITUTION - The people have the right to keep and bear arms, which right shall not be abridged; but this provision shall not prevent the
passage of laws to govern the carrying of weapons concealed on the person nor prevent the passage of any legislation providing penalties for the
possession of firearms by a convicted felon, nor prevent the passage of any legislation punishing the use of a firearm. No law shall impose licensure,
registration or special taxation on the ownership or possession of firearms or ammunition. Nor shall any law permit the confiscation of firearms,
except those actually used in the commission of a felony. - article I, section 11.
Idaho Supreme Court - The second amendment to the federal constitution is in the following language: “A well-regulated militia being necessary to
the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Section 11, article 1, of the Idaho constitution reads:
“The people have the right to bear arms for their security and defense, but the legislature shall regulate the exercise of this right by law.” Under these
constitutional provisions, the legislature has no power to prohibit a citizen from bearing arms in any portion of the state of Idaho, whether within or
without the corporate limits of cities, towns, and villages. The legislature may, as expressly provided in our state constitution, regulate the exercise of
this right, but may not prohibit. - In re Brickey, 70 P. 609 (1902).
If at first you don't secede, ...
If guns are outlawed only the outlaws and the government will have guns.
If guns cause crime, why do we arm the cops?
If I cut myself, you are not going to bleed.
If liberals really believed their own economic rhetoric on the minimum wage, then why not raise the minimum wage to $1000.00 an hour. That way,
we can all be rich.
If the government cannot trust the people, then the people cannot trust the government.
If you are not prepared to learn the principles and responsibilities of liberty, then be prepared to learn the principles of slavery
If you are thinking a year ahead, sow seed. If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the
people. - Chinese proverb.
If you want something, go out and achieve it. If you deserve something, prove it and make it happen. If you need something, earn it and claim it as
your own.
If you want to live in a “liberal” utopian society—a nation with free medical care, guaranteed employment for life, and first-rate gun control—then
I’d suggest moving to Cuba.
If you work for a living trying to make a humble existence, and make an accounting error, they will send the IRS, BATF, and FBI to confiscate your
property, to give it to others, to buy votes and power !
Illegal acts of government are not legitimized through repetition.
ILLINOIS CONSTITUTION - Subject only to the police power, the right of the individual citizens to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. - article I,
section 22.
INDIANA CONSTITUTION - The people shall have a right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State. - article I, section 32.
It doesn’t matter which road you take if you don’t know where you are going.
It is better to own a gun and never need it, than to not own a gun when you need it.
It is better to regret that which you’ve done, than that which you haven’t.
It is not my job to not offend you or to try protect you from ever being offended.
It is the lazy, slothful and selfish who love taxes.
It was guns that allowed Americans to win their freedom from a despotic King and repressive British Parliament. It was guns that enabled us to
defeat the genocidal Adolf Hitler. It is a gun that protects the innocent and thwarts the criminal. By contrast, it was the lack of guns that permitted the
extermination of 13 million “undesirables” in Germany, the execution of 1.5 million Armenians by the Turks, the systematic slaughter of 300,000
Ugandan citizens by Idi Amin Dada, the murder of millions (1/7th of the population) of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge, the slaying of 20 million
Jewish and Russian citizens by the Stalin regime, the slaughter of millions Chinese citizens by the Japanese and then 20 million more Chinese at the
hands of their own government, the extermination by machete of the Tutsis by the Rwandan Hutus, the killing of 100,000 Mayan Indians by the
government of Guatemala, and the multitude of other mass murders of unarmed citizens by their governments including Pol Pot, Sudan, Iraq, Haiti,
former Yugoslavia, and the list goes on and on. It is the lack of a gun that makes the innocent defenseless and subject to the assaults and desires of
the criminal. Guns save lives, and gun control kills.
It’s easy to be generous with other people’s money.
Jackson, James J. - Liberals are blatantly inconsistent in deciding which issues will raise their collective ire. The Democrats and their friends in the
media pine for kinder and gentler rhetoric whenever conservatives disagree with Clinton Administration policies. Dissenting views are labeled “hate
speech,” while liberals are allowed to lie about their opponents with little fear of exposure. - Let’s call it “selective indignation”, THE UNREPORTED
NEWS, p. 11, January 31, 1996.
Jackson, Robert H - There is no such thing as an achieved liberty; like electricity, there can be no substantial storage and it must be generated as it is
enjoyed, or the lights go out. - 1953.
Jacob's Law Dictionary definition of juries - ... twelve men [who] attend courts to try matters of fact in civil causes, and to decide both the law and
the fact in criminal prosecutions. - 1782.
Jefferson, Thomas - [H]e who knows nothing is nearer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
Jefferson, Thomas – [I]n questions of power ... let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the
constitution.
Jefferson, Thomas - [W]here annual election ends, tyranny begins. - February 26, 1800, in a letter to Samuel Adams, as reprinted in THE LIFE &
SELECTED WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON pg 510
Jefferson, Thomas – A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.
Jefferson, Thomas - A morsel of genuine history is a rare thing, so rare as to be always valuable.
Jefferson, Thomas - A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, 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. - advice to his fifteen year old nephew, Peter
Carr, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 318 (Foley ed. 1967); 8 PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 407 (J. Boyd ed. 1953).
Jefferson, Thomas - Above all I hope that the education of the common people will be attended to so they won’t forget the basic principles of
freedom.
Jefferson, Thomas - An elective despotism was not the government we fought for. - THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON at 245.
Jefferson, Thomas – As government grows, freedom yields.
Jefferson, Thomas – Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated. -
1798.
Jefferson, Thomas - Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found
victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master
Jefferson, Thomas - Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to admit it.
Jefferson, Thomas – Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow
operations, perverted it into tyranny. - Bill for the More General diffusion of Knowledge (1778).
Jefferson, Thomas - 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 only those 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 strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty—so dear to men, so
dear to the enlightened legislator—and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the quality alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things
worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they act 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 preventative 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. - quoting 18th
century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in ON CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT, 1764.
Jefferson, Thomas - Government’s natural course is to take power.
Jefferson, Thomas – Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form
of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it. - DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
Jefferson, Thomas - I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That “all powers not delegated to the United States, by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved to the States or to the people. - 1791.
Jefferson, Thomas - I hold that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical . . . It
is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
Jefferson, Thomas - I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not
enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by
education.
Jefferson, Thomas - I sincerely believe with you, that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies...The issuing power should be
taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs. - letter to John Adams, 1818
Jefferson, Thomas - If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. - letter to
Colonel Charles Yancey.
Jefferson, Thomas - If the American people ever allow the banks to control issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the
banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent
their fathers occupied.
Jefferson, Thomas - If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be
happy.
Jefferson, Thomas - In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his
abuses in return for protection to his own. - 1814.
Jefferson, Thomas - My reason for fixing them in office for a term of years, rather than for life, was that they might have in idea that they were at a
certain period to return into the mass of the people and become the governed instead of the governors which might still keep alive the regard to the
public good that otherwise they might perhaps be induced by their independence to forget. - letter to Edmund Pendleton, August 26, 1776.
Jefferson, Thomas - No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. 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. - June, 1776, Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1 JEFFERSON PAPERS 344
(Julian P. Boyd Ed., 1950).
Jefferson, Thomas - No Freeman shall be debarred the use of arms in his own lands or tenements. - proposed Virginia Constitution, Third Draft,
1 T. JEFFERSON PAPERS 334 (C. J. Boyd ed. 1950).
Jefferson, Thomas – No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to
restrain him. - letter to Francis Gilmer, 1816.
Jefferson, Thomas - 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 invented against it,
conform to the probable one in which it was passed. - Letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, THE COMPLETE JEFFERSON, 322.
Jefferson, Thomas - One precedent in favor of power is stronger than an hundred against it
Jefferson, Thomas - Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.
Jefferson, Thomas - Rightfully, liberty is unobstructed action according to our own will within the limits drawn around us by equal rights of others.
I do not add “within the limits of the law” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
Jefferson, Thomas - Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government
of others?
Jefferson, Thomas - The Greeks by their laws, and the Romans by the spirit of their people, took care to put into the hands of their rulers no such
engine of oppression as a standing army. Their system was to make every man a soldier, and oblige him to repair to the standard of his country when
ever that was reared. This made them invincible; and the same remedy will make us so. - letter to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
Jefferson, Thomas – The majority oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks
up the foundations of society. - to P. Dupont, 1816.
Jefferson, Thomas - The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. Men fight for freedom; then they begin to
accumulate laws to take it away from themselves.
Jefferson, Thomas - To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful
and tyrannical. - 1779, A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, reprinted in JEFFERSON: MAGNIFICENT POPULIST, p. 319 (Edited by Martin Larson;
Greewich, Conn.: Devin-Adair, 1981).
Jefferson, Thomas – To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to
others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to
every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it. - Note in Tracy’s Political Economy, 1816.
Jefferson, Thomas - We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it. -
letter to William Roscoe, December 27, 1820
Jefferson, Thomas - WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness - That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is
the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers
in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses
and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to
throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. - Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson, Thomas - With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not think their relations are correctly understood by foreigners. They
generally suppose the former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the case. They are co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. To
the State governments are reserved all legislative and administration, in affairs which concern their own citizens only, and to the federal government
is given whatever concerns foreigners, or the citizens of the other States; these functions alone being made federal. The one is domestic, the other the
foreign branch of the same government; neither having control over the other, but within its own department. - WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON quote
number VII 355-61, from correspondence to Major John Cartwright, June 5, 1824 (Taylor & Maury, Washington DC, 1854).
Jefferson, Thomas - You seem...to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and
one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.... The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal. - 1820.
Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826) - God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well
informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under
such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it’s rulers are not
warned from time to time, that the people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon
and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots
and tyrants. It is its natural manure. - letter to William Stephens Smith (Nov. 13, 1787) Reprinted in THOMAS JEFFERSON, A BIOGRAPHY IN HIS OWN
WORDS (Newsweek Books) also reprinted in 12 THE PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 356 (J. Boyd ed., 1955).
Jefferson, Thomas (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826; President U.S.) - I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man, by which a
government can be held accountable to the principles of its constitution. - letter to Thomas Paine (1789).
Jefferson, Thomas –[R]ightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.
- to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819.
Jefferson, Thomas -The capital and leading object of the Constitution was to leave with the States all authorities which respected their citizens only,
and to transfer to the United States those which respected citizens of foreign or other States, to make us several as to ourselves, but one as to all
others" - Letter to Judge William Johnson, June 12, 1823
Jillette, Penn (of the magical comedy team Penn & Teller, libertarian) – The First Amendment says nothing about your getting paid for saying
anything. It just says you can say it. - interview in REASON magazine.
Johnson, Nicholas J. - [T]he ruthless exercises of collective power, particularly against political minorities, that have all too frequently characterized
our “civilized society,” are the very reasons I want a gun and hope that other good people will have them too. - Essay: Shot’s Across No Man’s
Land: A Response to Handgun Control, Inc.’s Richard Aborn, 22 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 441, 445 (1995).
Johnson, Nicholas J. - Even a successful nationwide ban on legitimate manufacturing would likely create an instant and lucrative black market for
replacements that are simple to manufacture and assemble—a market that would cater to criminals and by its very nature would exclude many decent
people. - Essay: Shot’s Across No Man’s Land: A Response to Handgun Control, Inc.’s Richard Aborn, 22 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 441, 445 (1995).
Johnson, Nicholas J. - For years the Israelis and Palestinians could not talk to one another. It is after all rather senseless to compromise on small
things with one who aims ultimately to drive you into the sea. The bad gun formula, the vital issues it submerges and the trivialization of the Second
Amendment make it reasonable for gun owners to attribute similar motives to the anti-gun lobby. Mr. Aborn's essay suggests no real changes on the
horizon. We seem doomed to exchanging shots across no-man's land. - Essay: Shot’s Across No Man’s Land: A Response to Handgun Control,
Inc.’s Richard Aborn, 22 Fordham Urb. L.J. 441, 451 (1995).
Johnson, Nicholas J. (associate professor of law, Fordham University of Law; B.S.B.A., 1981, West Virginia University, Magna Cum Laude; J.D.,
1984, Harvard Law School) - Why should we believe that a new round of strong words in the U.S. Code will suddenly control people who already
ignore the prohibitions against murder, robbery and rape? - commenting on gun control, Essay: Shot’s Across No Man’s Land: A Response to
Handgun Control, Inc.’s Richard Aborn, 22 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 441, 444 (1995).
Johnson, Paul - The state was the great gainer of the twentieth century; and the central failure. . . . But whereas, at the time of the Versailles Treaty,
most intelligent people believed that an enlarged state could increase the sum total of human happiness, by the 1980s that view was held by no one
outside a small, diminishing and dispirited band of zealots. The experiment had been tried innumerable ways, and had failed in nearly all of them.
The state had proven itself an insatiable spender, an unrivaled waster. Indeed, in the twentieth century it has also proved itself the great killer of all
time. . . To . . . the new class . . . politics—by which they meant the engineering of society for lofty purposes—was the one legitimate form of
moral activity, the only sure means of improving humanity. . . . By the 1980s, the new ruling class was still, by and large, in charge, but no longer so
confident. . . . Was it possible to hope that the “age of politics” was now drawing to a close? - MODERN TIMES.
Johnson, Pres. Lyndon - You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the
wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered. - quoted in GUN CONTROL by Robert J. Kukla, p. 130 (edited by
Harlon Carter, 1973, Stackpole Books, ISBN 0-8117-1190-0.)
Johnson, Pres. Lyndon Baines - If there is one word that describes our form of society in America, it may be the word “voluntary.”
Johnston, Zachariah (1742-1800) - [T]he people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them.... The
government will depend on the assistance of the people in the day of distress. - 3 DEBATES ON THE ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION at 646 (J.
Elliot ed., 1836).
John-Wyatt, Rebecca (founder of SWARM—Safety for Women and Responsible Motherhood, Dept. GA, 3440 Youngfield #204, Wheat Ridge,
Colorado 80033) - Women are physically disadvantaged to men and are most often attacked by men. When citizens are told that they can’t carry
guns, it logically follows that it is women who are hurt most. - quoted in THE PROPONENT, published by The People’s Rights Organization.
Jones, Joseph - [The proposed Bill of rights] is “calculated to secure the personal rights of the people so far as declarations on paper can effect the
purpose. - 12 THE PAPERS OF JAMES MADISON 258-59 (Rutland & Hobson eds., 1977).
Just say no to government.
Just Say NO to Taxes.
Juvenal - Vitam impendere vero. (Give life to truth)
KANSAS CONSTITUTION - The people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves and the State. - article I, section 32.
Kates, Don B., Jr. - Far from proving invincible, in the vast majority of cases in this century in which they have confronted popular insurgencies,
modern armies have been unable to suppress the insurgents. This is why the British no longer rule in Israel and Ireland, the French in Indo-china,
Algeria, and Madagascar, the Portuguese in Angola, the whites in Rhodesia, or General Somoza, General Battista, or the Shah in Nicaragua, Cuba,
and Iran respectively—not to mention the examples of the United States in Vietnam and the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. - Handgun Prohibition
and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment, 82 MICH. L. REV. 204, 270 (1983).
Kates, Don B., Jr. – The right of arms is one of the first to be taken away by tyrants, not only for the physical security despotism gains in
monopolizing armed power in the hands of the state, but also for its moral effects. The tyrant disarms his citizens in order to degrade them; he knows
that being unarmed “palsies the hand and brutalizes the mind: an habitual disuse of physical forces totally destroys the moral; and men lose at once
the power of protecting themselves, and of discerning the cause of their oppression.” Thus, when Machiavelli said that “to be disarmed is to be
contemptible,” he meant not simply to be held in contempt, but to deserve it; by disarming men tyrants render them at once brutish and
pusillanimous. - The Second Amendment and the Ideology of Self-Protection, 9 CONST. COMMENTARY 87, 90-91
Kates, Don B., Jr. and Daniel D. Polsby – [G]enocide has cost the lives of more innocents this century than all the soldiers killed on all sides in all
the world’s wars in the same period.... [Genocide] has overtaken countries both rich and poor, urban and agrarian. Most of the people who were
murdered by their own governments in this century would undoubtedly have said, before the fact, that their becoming the victims of any such
wholesale mass-atrocities was a simply unthinkable eventuality. - Of Genocide and Disarmament, 86 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 247, 255, 250
(1995).
Kates, Don B., Jr. and Glenn H. Reynolds – [T]he compelling interest must not be of a kind, or pursued in a manner, that is fundamentally
inconsistent with the right. - The Second Amendment and States’ Rights: A Thought Experiment, 36 WM. & MARY L. REV. 1737, 1740 n. 8 (1995).
Kelck, Dr. Gary & Marc Gertz – [M]easures that effectively reduce gun availability among the noncriminal majority also would reduce DGUs
[defensive gun uses] that otherwise would have saved lives, prevented injuries, thwarted rape attempts, driven off burglars, and helped victims retain
their property. - Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun, 86 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 150, 180
(1995).
Kennedy, President John F. - The tax on capital gains directly affects investment decisions, the mobility and flow of risk capital ... the ease or
difficulty experienced by new ventures in obtaining capital, and thereby the strength and potential for growth in the economy. - 1963.
Kennedy, President John F. - Today, we need a nation of Minute Men, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard
their basic preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. -
1961, in a speech given to Americans for Democratic Action.
Kennedy, President John F. (1917-1963; Senator Massachusetts; U.S. President 1961-1963; assassinated; Life member of the National rifle
Association) – By calling attention to the 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 fears of governmental tyranny,
which gave rise to the second amendment, will ever be a major danger to our Nation, the amendment still remains an important declaration of our
basic military-civilian relationships, 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. – 1960.
KENTUCKY CONSTITUTION - All men are, by nature, free and equal, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights, among which may be reckoned: ...
Seventh: The right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and of the State, subject to the power of the General Assembly to enact laws to
prevent persons from carrying concealed weapons. – KY Bill of Rights 1,7.
Kilday, Representative Paul (D-TX) - I go further than that and say if they do not intend to require the registration of all firearms they would not
object to this provision being in the bill. Judge Patterson said they had already made their plans to require registration.... Remember that registration
of firearms is only the first step. It will be followed by other infringements of the right to keep and bear arms until finally the right is gone. It is no
shallow pretext. The right to keep and bear arms is a substantial and valuable right to a free people, and it should be preserved. - 87 Cong. Rec.
7101 (1941).
King, David (of Ohio-West Virginia YMCA) - The national service movement and the National Corporation are not about encouraging volunteering
or community service. The national service movement is about institutionalizing federal funding for national and community service. It is about
changing the language and understanding of service to eliminate the words “volunteer” and “community service” and in their place implant the idea
that service is something paid for by the government.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. - One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to
disobey unjust laws.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. – There are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they’re worth dying for.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. – In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Kinsley, Michael – Gun nuts are unconvincing (at least to me) in their attempts to argue that the individual right to bear arms is still as vital to
freedom as it was in 1792. But the right is still there. - WASHINGTON POST, February 8, 1990.
Kleck, Dr. Gary - Personal defense with firearms in America occurs more than 2,000 times per day. . . . there are 645,000 defensive uses of
handguns against criminals per year (excluding police and military uses). . . . civilian ownership and use of guns has a deterrent and social control
effect on violent crimes and burglary. - Social Problems, February, 1988 issue.
Kopel, David – In St. Louis, gun ownership permits have routinely been denied to homosexuals, nonvoters, and wives who lack their husbands
permission. Although New Jersey law requires authorities to act on gun license applications within 30 days, delays of 90 days are routine, some
applications are delayed for years, for no valid reason. - Trust the People: The Case Against Gun Control, Cato Institute, POLICY ANALYSIS NO.
109, July 11, 1988.
Kopel, David B. - The military history of the twentieth century shows rather clearly that if guerrillas are willing to wage a prolonged war, they can
be quite successful. ... guerrillas need not overthrow a government in order to accomplish their purposes. During World War II, Yugoslav partisans
did not directly overthrow the occupying Nazi government, but they did tie down a large fraction of the German army.... A popular guerrilla
resistance can also deprive an occupying government of much or all of the economic benefit that would normally be gained by occupation. ... an
armed populace can ensure that any efforts to kill people or to send them to prisons and concentration camps carry a price that must be paid by the
government. - Book Review: LETHAL LAWS. by Jay Simpkin, Aaron Zelman, & Alan M. Rice, Jews for The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc.,
2872 South Wentworth Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207, (414) 769-0760, 15 N.Y.L. SCH. J. INT’L & COMP. L. 355, 375-376 (1995).
Kopel, David B. - [E]ven in cases where resistance saves not a single victim’s life, resistance is better than submission. - Book Review: LETHAL
LAWS. by Jay Simpkin, Aaron Zelman, & Alan M. Rice, Jews for The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc., 2872 South Wentworth Avenue,
Milwaukee, WI 53207, (414) 769-0760, 15 N.Y.L. SCH. J. INT’L & COMP. L. 355, 376 (1995).
Kopel, David B. - [T]he most important benefit of defensive arms is their deterrent power. As long as a potential dictator (or a potential genocidal
dictator) must take into account very serious risks involved with taking action against the American people, then the prospect for such actions being
taken becomes markedly smaller. - commenting on the feasibility of Americans resisting a tyrannical or genocidal government in Book Review:
LETHAL LAWS. by Jay Simpkin, Aaron Zelman, & Alan M. Rice, Jews for The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc., 2872 South Wentworth
Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207, (414) 769-0760, 15 N.Y.L. SCH. J. INT’L & COMP. L. 355, 374-375 (1995).
Kopel, David B. - [T]he police and military combined (assuming that every soldier and every police officer would assist a genocidal government)
comprise only about one percent of the U.S. population. - commenting on the feasibility of Americans resisting a tyrannical or genocidal
government in Book Review: LETHAL LAWS. by Jay Simpkin, Aaron Zelman, & Alan M. Rice, Jews for The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc.,
2872 South Wentworth Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207, (414) 769-0760, 15 N.Y.L. SCH. J. INT’L & COMP. L. 355, 378 (1995).
Kopel, David B. - [There are] three key preconditions of genocide: hatred, government, and gun control. Without any of these three elements,
genocide is not possible. - Book Review: LETHAL LAWS. by Jay Simpkin, Aaron Zelman, & Alan M. Rice, Jews for The Preservation of Firearms
Ownership, Inc., 2872 South Wentworth Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207, (414) 769-0760, 15 N.Y.L. SCH. J. INT’L & COMP. L. 355, 381-382 (1995).
Kopel, David B. - Although the American federal government is the best-armed and wealthiest in the world, so is the American populace.
Approximately half of all American households possess a gun. In the United States, there is more than one gun for every adult American. Hundreds
of thousands (or millions) of Americans practice “reloading”—the home manufacture of ammunition—as a hobby. As of the fall of 1994,
commercial American ammunition makers were producing well over a million rounds of ammunition per day and yet cannot keep up with the
immense consumer demand. In response to the gun control laws being enacted and proposed in 1993 and 1994, the American gun-owning public has
begun stockpiling weapon and ammunition in quantities that may be without historical precedent. Now that Guns and Ammo, a magazine with a
circulation of half a million, has begun publishing tips about how to bury guns for long-term storage, it is safe to assume that a rather large number of
gun owners are putting away a great deal of provisions for a rainy day. - commenting on the feasibility of Americans resisting a tyrannical or
genocidal government in Book Review: LETHAL LAWS. by Jay Simpkin, Aaron Zelman, & Alan M. Rice, Jews for The Preservation of Firearms
Ownership, Inc., 2872 South Wentworth Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207, (414) 769-0760, 15 N.Y.L. SCH. J. INT’L & COMP. L. 355, 374-375 (1995).
Kopel, David B. – American gun owners—even more than their counterparts in other countries—will massively resist any form of gun control . . .
Registration laws for semiautomatic firearms in Denver and Boston have achieved a 1 percent compliance rate. It is evident that New York City’s
near-prohibition is not voluntarily obeyed; estimates of the number of illegal guns in the city range from seven hundred thousand to three million.
The New York state commissioner of prisons testified that if 1 percent of illegal handgun owners in New York City were caught, tried, and sent to
prison for a year, the state prison system would collapse. - THE SAMURAI, THE MOUNTIE, AND THE COWBOY.
Kopel, David B. - Genocide is a human rights violation that dwarves all other crimes. If we are to be serious—and not merely sanctimonious—about
human rights, then we must be serious about eradicating genocide. Jay Simpkin, Aaron Zelman, and Alan M. Rice have shown that a well-armed
population which is prepared to resist is much less likely to be murdered by its government than is a disarmed population. If the people of the world
were better armed, many fewer people would be the victims of genocide. - Book Review: LETHAL LAWS. by Jay Simpkin, Aaron Zelman, & Alan M.
Rice, Jews for The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc., 2872 South Wentworth Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207, (414) 769-0760, 15 N.Y.L.
SCH. J. INT’L & COMP. L. 355, 397-398 (1995)
Kopel, David B. - Hitler, Stalin, and Mao [Tse Tung] all enforced rigorous gun control policies.... - Crime and Punishment Symposium: A System
in Collapse: Peril or Protection? The Risks and Benefits of Handgun Prohibition, 12 ST. LOUIS U. PUB. L. REV. 285, 353 note 263 (1993).
Kopel, David B. - Population groups which are highest in handgun ownership rates—namely wealthier people, Protestants, whites, and rural
populations—all have lower homicide rates than other groups. - Crime and Punishment Symposium: A System in Collapse: Peril or Protection?
The Risks and Benefits of Handgun Prohibition, 12 ST. LOUIS U. PUB. L. REV. 285, 300 (1993).
Kopel, David B. - The most common argument against an armed population as an antidote to genocide is that, in the late twentieth century, the
balance of power between governments and the people has tipped decisively towards the government side. How can a rag-tag collection of citizens
with rifles, pistols, and shotguns hope to resist a modern standing army with artillery, helicopters, tanks, jets, and nuclear weapon? Such a question is
most frequently posed by persons who have neither personal nor intellectual familiarity with the military or with guerrilla warfare. If we try to answer
the question, rather than presuming the government will win, then the case for the uselessness of citizen resistance becomes weak indeed. First the
purpose of civilian small arms in any kind of resistance scenario is not to defeat the federal army in a pitched battle, and then triumphantly march into
Washington, D.C. Citizen militias and other popular forces, such as guerrilla cadres, have rarely been strong enough to defeat a professional army
head-on in battle. Guerrilla warfare aims to conduct quick surprise raids on the enemy, at a time and place of the guerrillas’ choosing. Almost as soon
as the first casualties have been inflicted, the guerrillas flee, before the army can bring its superior firepower to bear. In the early years of a guerrilla
war, Mao Tse-Tung explained, before guerrillas are strong enough to attack a professional army head on, heavy weapons are a detriment, impeding
the guerrillas mobility. As a war progresses, the guerrillas use ordinary firearms to capture better small arms and eventually heavy equipment. -
Book Review: LETHAL LAWS. by Jay Simpkin, Aaron Zelman, & Alan M. Rice, Jews for The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc., 2872 South
Wentworth Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207, (414) 769-0760, 15 N.Y.L. SCH. J. INT’L & COMP. L. 355, 374-375 (1995).
Kopel, David B. (lawyer, Research director-Independence Institute, Golden Colorado; Associate Policy Analyst - Cato Institute, Washington, D.C.;
B.A. 1982, Brown University; J.D. 1985, Univ. of Michigan, author) - The creeping, sometimes galloping, statism in twentieth-century Great Britain
that has reduced the right to arms to a small fragment of its former self has had a similarly destructive effect on other traditional British rights,
including the right to jury trial and the right to grand jury indictment. To a lesser degree, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the
press, and freedom from warrantless search and seizure have also suffered. - Courts and Constitutions: It isn’t about Duck Hunting: The British
Origins of the Right to Arms, 93 MICH. L. REV. 1333, 1352 footnote 68 (1995).
Kpzinski, Alex (Judge 9th Cir. U.S. Ct. of Appeals) – The Second Amendment embodies the right to defend oneself and one’s home against physical
attack. - United States v. Gomez, 92 F.3d 770, 774 n. 7 (9th Cir. 1996).
Krauthammer, Charles (syndicated columnist) - Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic—purely symbolic—move ... 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. - THE
WASHINGTON POST. April 5, 1996.
Lee, Richard Henry - A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves, and render regular troops in a great measure unnecessary ...
[T]he Constitution ought to secure a genuine [militia], and guard against a select militia, ... and include all men capable of bearing arms. ... to
preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them. -
ADDITIONAL LETTERS FROM THE FEDERAL FARMER 53, at 169, 170 (1788) (Philadelphia,1787-1788).
Lee, Richard Henry - Whenever, therefore, the profession of arms becomes a distinct order in the state ... the end of the social compact is defeated...
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.
Levinson, Sanford – I cannot help but suspect that the best explanation for the absence of the Second Amendment from the legal consciousness of
the elite bar, including that component found in the legal academy, is derived from a mixture of sheer perhaps subconscious fear that altogether
plausible, perhaps even “winning” interpretations of the Second Amendment would present real hurdles to those of us supporting prohibitory
regulations. - The Embarrassing Second Amendment, 99 YALE L.J. 637, 642 (1989).
Levinson, Sanford – If one does accept the plausibility of any of the arguments on behalf of a strong reading of the Second Amendment, but
nevertheless, rejects them in the name of social prudence and the present-day consequences produced by finicky adherence to earlier understandings,
why do we not apply such consequentialist criteria to each and every other part of the Bill of Rights? As Ronald Dworkin has argued, what it means
to take rights seriously is that one will honor them even when there is significant social cost in doing so. If protecting freedom of speech, the rights of
criminal defendants, or any other part of the Bill of Rights were always (or even most of the time) costless to the society as a whole, it would truly be
impossible to understand why they would be as controversial as they are. The very fact that there are often significant costs—criminals going free,
oppressed groups having to hear viciously racists speech, and so on—helps to account for the observed fact that those who view themselves as
defenders of the Bill of Rights are generally antagonistic to prudential arguments. Most often, one finds them embracing versions of textual,
historical, or doctrinal argument that dismiss as almost crass and vulgar any insistence that times might have changed and made too “expensive” the
continued adherence to a given view. - The Embarrassing Second Amendment, 99 YALE L.J. 637, 657-58 (1989)
Levinson, Sanford - It is simply silly to respond [to the value of an armed citizenry] that small arms are irrelevant against nuclear-armed states:
Witness contemporary Northern Ireland and the territories occupied by Israel, where the sophisticated weaponry of Great Britain and Israel have
proved almost totally beside the point. The fact that these may not be pleasant examples does not affect the principal point, that a state facing a totally
disarmed population is in a far better position, for good or ill, to suppress popular demonstrations and uprisings than one that must calculate the
possibilities of its soldiers and officials being injured or killed. - The Embarrassing Second Amendment, 99 YALE L.J. 637, 657 (1989).
Levinson, Sanford (University of Texas law professor) - [I]f all the Chinese citizens kept arms, their rulers would hardly have dared to massacre the
[Tiananmen Square] demonstrators.... - The Embarrassing Second Amendment, 99 YALE L.J. 637, 657 (1989).
Lincoln, Abraham - Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and
force a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right—a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is
this a right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government, may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can,
may revolutionize, and make their own, of so much territory as they inhabit. - January 12, 1848.
Lincoln, Abraham - Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the
bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law
strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. - Speech, 18 Dec. 1840, to Illinois House of Representatives.
Lincoln, Abraham - The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. - letter from Abraham Lincoln to H.L. Pierce and
others (April 6, 1859), reprinted in ABRAHAM LINCOLN: SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 1859-1865 at 18, 19.
Lincoln, Abraham - This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing
government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it. - First Inaugural
Address, March 4, 1861.
Lincoln, Abraham - You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
Lincoln, Pres. Abraham - At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some
trans-Atlantic military giant to step across the ocean and crush us with a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined with a
Bonaparte at their head and disposing of all the treasure of the earth, our own excepted, could not by force make a track on the Blue Ridge or take a
drink from the Ohio in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it is ever to reach us it
must spring up from amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of
free men, we must live through all times, or die by suicide. – 1838.
Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere “To arms, to arms, to spades and hoes: bury all your guns before the
king knows!” Imagine the redcoats filled with delight: Not one armed colonist stood ready to fight! Lexington and concord were burned to the
ground, crackling flames the only heard sound. Higher taxes were levied, more rights were denied For lack of arms many patriots died. So
listen my children and you shall hear, No country was born, only suffering and fear. If tyranny you want then bury and pray, for the speedy
arrival of the “Brighter day.” But if liberty you love, and you yearn to be free, than live by this motto: “DON’T TREAD ON ME!”
Locke, John - Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
Locke, John - If a Roman Catholick believe that to be really the Body of Christ, which another man calls Bread, he does no injury thereby to his
Neighbour. If a Jew does not believe the New Testament to be the Word of God, he does not thereby alter things in men’s Civil Rights. If a Heathen
doubt both Testaments, he is not therefore to be punished as a pernicious Citizen. - Epistola de Tolerantia published in Latin in Gouda Holland in
May 1689, and again in English in October 1689 as A Letter Concerning Toleration.
Locke, John - The great and chief end therefore, of men’s uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the
preservation of property. - SECOND TREATISE OF GOVERNMENT, p. 75 (Richard H. Cox ed.).
Lodge, Henry Cabot (1850-1924, U.S. statesman, author, senator) - I would rather see the United States respected than loved by other nations.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth - Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in
Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, “If the British march by land or sea
from the town tonight, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch of the North Church tower as a signal light—One, if by land, and two, if by sea; And I
on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm.
Then he said, “Good night!” and with muffled oar silently rowed to the Charleston shore, Just as the moon rose over the bay, where
swinging wide at her moorings lay The Somerset, British man-of-war; A phantom ship, with each mast and spar Across the moon like a prison bar
and a huge black hulk, That was magnified by its own reflection in the tide. You know the rest. In the books you have read, how the British
Regulars fired and fled—How the farmers gave them ball for ball, from behind each fence and farmyard wall, Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
then crossing the fields to emerge again Under the trees at the turn of the road, and only pausing to fire and load. So through the night rode Paul
Revere; And so through the night went his cry of alarm to every Middlesex village and farm—A cry of defiance, and not of fear, a voice in the
darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo forevermore! For, borne on the night wind of the Past, through all history, to the
last, In the hour of darkness and peril and need, the people will waken and listen to hear The hurrying hoofbeats of that steed, and the midnight
message of Paul Revere. - Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride.
LOUISIANA CONSTITUTION - The right of each citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged, but this provision shall not prevent the passage of
laws to prohibit the carrying of weapons concealed on the person. - article I, section 11.
Lukas, Aaron - Free trade has been good for both workers and the environment. By promoting economic growth, it enables less-developed countries
to afford higher environmental standards and helps create an educated middle class to support them. [It's] a similar story with wages and labor
conditions, all of which are improving in those places where globalization has taken hold. Hurtling oneself against a police barricade in protest of
free trade is great fun. But it's hardly a brave act for spoiled children of affluence to blindly rail against the instruments of their own prosperity.
Doubtless many of the Quebec marchers are genuinely concerned for the welfare of the world' s poor. Yet through their opposition to open markets,
they make themselves the enemies of the poor. - Quoted by UPI News, April 19, 2001.
Lund, Nelson – [A]n armed populace can and does continue to create some deterrent against the threat of oppressive government. - The
Past and Future of the Individual’s Right to Bear Arms, 31 GA LAW REV. 1, 26-27 (1996).
Lund, Nelson – [I]n eighteenth century military usage, “well regulated” meant “properly disciplined,” not “government controlled.” - The
Second Amendment, Political ?Liberty and the right to Self-Preservation, 39 Ala L. Rev. 103, 107 (1987).
Lund, Nelson – [L]eaving legislatures free to engage in whimsical infringements on fundamental rights prepares the way for more serious assaults
on individual liberty. - The Past and Future of the Individual’s Right to Bear Arms, 31 GA LAW REV. 1, 71 (1996).
Lund, Nelson – [T]he operative language of the Second Amendment unambiguously establishes an individual right to keep and bear arms.
- The Past and Future of the Individual’s Right to Bear Arms, 31 GA LAW REV. 1, 26 (1996).
Lund, Nelson - The Second Amendment unambiguously and irrefutably establishes an individual right to keep and bear arms. - The Past and
Future of the Individual’s Right to Bear Arms, 31 GA LAW REV. 1, 76 (1996).
Lund, Nelson - The states’ right interpretation implies that the right to keep and bear arms applies only to those members of the militia who are
organized into military units by their state governments. Apart from the fact that there is no reason to suppose that the word “militia” was used in this
narrow sense by those who framed the Second Amendment, the states’ right interpretation would seem to imply that the word “people” actually
refers to the “militia,” so that the text should read: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the militia to
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” But why would the draftsmen have used two different words, within the space of one short sentence, to
refer to the same entity? If this bald rewriting of the text is rejected, as it obviously must be, the states’ right interpretation can only be saved by
interpreting “the people” to mean “The state governments.” This is equally absurd, however, because governments cannot bear arms. While a
government might be thought capable of keeping arms, only an individual can bear them. And if this were not proof enough, the states’ right
interpretation’s assumption that the Second Amendment protects state military organizations from federal interference is flatly inconsistent with
Article I’s prohibition against the states keeping troops without the consent of Congress. Can anyone honestly believe that this provision of the
original Constitution was repealed by the Second Amendment? - The Past and Future of the Individual’s Right to Bear Arms, 31 GA LAW REV.
1, 26-27 (1996).
Lund, Nelson - Thus, no matter which way one turns the argument, the states’ right interpretation dissolves into nonsense when one tries to square it
with the constitutional language. In addition to the manifest irreconcilability of the states’ right interpretation with the language of the Constitution,
the purpose attributed to the Second Amendment by the states’ right interpretation has implications that are so radical that they simply could not have
gone unnoticed or unremarked upon during the process of framing and ratifying the Amendment. That purpose, we are apparently expected to
believe, was to prevent the federal government, through hostility or apathy, from eliminating the state military organizations that served as a
counterweight to the power of federal standing armies. But this must imply that the Second Amendment silently repealed or amended the provision
of Article I of the Constitution that gives the federal government plenary authority to organize, arm, and discipline the militia, subject only to the
states’ rights to appoint the militia’s officers and to train the militia according to the congressionally prescribed discipline. This provision of Article I
has allowed the federal government to virtually eliminate the state militias as independent military forces by turning them into adjuncts of the federal
army through the National Guard system. This transformation, which is not forbidden by the language of either Article I or the Second Amendment,
is manifestly inconsistent with the purpose attributed to the Second Amendment by the states’ right theory. Thus, that theory implies that our modern
National Guard system must be unconstitutional. Similarly, the states’ right interpretation would seem to imply that state gun regulations preempt
those of the federal government. Thus, for example, if a state decided to regulate its militia by requiring or authorizing all of its adult citizens to arm
themselves with fully automatic battle carbines, such legislation would have to override the current federal restrictions on such weapons. Indeed, if
one truly took the purpose attributed to the Second Amendment by the states’ right theory seriously, it might well follow that all federal gun control
regulations are invalid because control over the private possession of arms lies exclusively in the state governments. - The Past and Future of the
Individual’s Right to Bear Arms, 31 GA LAW REV. 1, 57-58 (1996).
Macauley, Thomas Babbington (1800-1859; British historian) – [The right to be armed] is the security without which every other is insufficient.
-Critical and Historical Essays, Contributed to the Edinburgh Review 162 (1850).
Machiavelli, Niccolo - [A]mong other ills which ensue from being disarmed is contempt. ... There can be no proper relation between one who is
armed and one who is not; nor is it reasonable to expect that one who is armed will voluntarily obey one who is not, or that the latter will feel secure
among servants who are armed. - commenting on the relationship between an unarmed people (the master) and an armed government (the
servant) - THE PRINCE 54 (Daniel Donno ed. & trans., Bantam Books 1966).
Machiavelli, Niccolo di Bernardob – To be disarmed is to be contemptible.
Madison, James - [The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other
nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. - THE FEDERALIST No. 46.
Madison, James - [The] amendments [Bill of rights] may be employed to quiet the fears of many by supplying those further guards for private
rights. - letter of October 20, 1788 to Edmund Pendleton; reprinted in 12 The Papers of James Madison 307 (Rutland & Honson eds., 1977).
Madison, James – All men in power ought to be distrusted. History has informed us that bodies of men are susceptible to the spirit of tyranny.
Madison, James - Americans have a right and advantage of being armed—unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to
trust the people with arms. - THE FEDERALIST No. 46.
Madison, James - Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. - THE FEDERALIST No. 10.
Madison, James - Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however, be made. 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 government: still it would not be going too far to say that the State governments with the
people on their side would be able to repel the danger. 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 this 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.... Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess
over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia
officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can
admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear,
the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. - THE FEDERALIST No. 46 at 321-22; also published in a newspaper article January 29,
1788 under the penname Publius (after Publius Cornelius Tacitus 55 A.D.? – 120 A.D.?, the great Roman public official who authored ANNALS and
HISTORIES).
Madison, James - If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its
sinister views by regular vote: It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under
the forms of the Constitution. When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government on the other hand enables it to sacrifice to its
ruling passion or interest, both the public good and the rights of other citizens. To secure the public good, and private rights, against the danger of
such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our enquiries are
directed. - THE FEDERALIST No. 10, at 45 (Buccaneer Books 1992).
Madison, James - If there be a principle that ought not to be questioned within the United States, it is that every man has a right to abolish an old
government and establish a new one. This principle is not only recorded in every public archive, written in every American heart, and sealed with the
blood of American martyrs, but is the only lawful tenure by which the United States hold their existence as a nation.
Madison, James – Read the amendments—They relate 1st to private rights. - 1 annals of Congress 64 (J. Gales ed., 1789).
Madison, James - Resistance to tyranny is service to God.
Madison, James - Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the
gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. - Virginia Conv. 1788.
Madison, James - The adversaries of the Constitution seem to have lost sight of the people altogether in their reasonings on this subject; ... These
gentlemen must here be reminded of their error. They must be told that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the
people alone, and that it will not depend merely on the comparative ambition or address of the different governments, whether either, or which of
them, will be able to enlarge its sphere of jurisdiction at the expense of the other. - THE FEDERALIST No. 46.
Madison, James - The invasion of private rights is cheifly [sic] to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its
constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents. - letter to Thomas Jefferson
(Oct. 17, 1788), 11 THE PAPERS OF JAMES MADISON 295, 298 (R. Rutland & C. Hobson ed., 1977).
Madison, James - The people are the only legitimate fountain of power. - THE FEDERALIST No. 49, at 255 (Buccaneer Books 1992).
Madison, James - The right of the people to keep and bear... arms shall not be infringed. 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... - I ANNALS OF CONGRESS 434, 8 June 1789.
Madison, James - To trace the mischievous effects of a mutable government would fill a volume. I will hint a few only, each of which will be
perceived to be a source of innumerable others. - THE FEDERALIST No. 62.
Malcolm, Dr. Joyce Lee (Prof. of political history at Bentley College in Massachusetts) - Blackstone was the most cited English writer.... Blackstone
was firmly convinced that subjects needed to be armed to defend themselves and to avoid dependence on professional armies, but he also expanded
the role of the armed citizenry beyond the individual’s own preservation to the preservation of the entire constitutional structure. He dubbed the right
of the people to be armed an “auxiliary” right of the subject that served “to protect and maintain inviolate the three great and primary rights, of
personal security, personal liberty, and private property.” - TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS: THE ORIGINS OF AN ANGLO-AMERICAN RIGHT (1994) citing
Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England.
Malcolm, Dr. Joyce Lee (Prof. of political history at Bentley College in Massachusetts) - The Second Amendment was meant to accomplish two
distinct goals, each perceived as crucial to the maintenance of liberty. First, it was meant to guarantee the individual’s right to have arms for self-defense
and self-preservation.... These privately owned arms were meant to serve a larger purpose as well.... The second and related objective
concerned the militia, and it is the coupling of these two objectives that has caused the most confusion. The customary American militia necessitated
an armed public and Madison’s original version of the amendment, as well as those suggested by the states, described the militia as either being
“composed of” or “including” the body of the people. A select militia was regarded little better than a standing army. The argument that today’s
National Guardsmen, members of a select militia, would constitute the only persons entitled to keep and bear arms has no historical foundation.
- TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS 162-63 (1994).
Man is an end in himself—which means each individual must live by his own mind and for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor
others to himself.
Manley, Marisa - Although everyone needs housing—and politicians bemoan the lack of affordable housing—land use restrictions discourage
entrepreneurs from trying to build it. - Why Laws Backfire, THE FREEMAN, p. 545, August 1996.
Many a person seems to think it isn’t enough for the government to guarantee him the pursuit of happiness. He insists it also run interference for him.
Marley, Bob - Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds. - Redemption Song, LEGEND (Island Records,
Inc.).
Mason, George – A well-regulated Militia, composed of the Gentlemen, Freeholders, and other Freemen was necessary to protect our ancient laws
and liberty from the standing army ... And we do each of us, for ourselves respectively, promise and engage to keep a good Fire-lock in proper Order
& to furnish Ourselves as soon as possible with, & always keep by us, one Pound of Gunpowder, four Pounds of Lead, one Dozen Gun Flints, and a
pair of Bullet Moulds, with a Cartouch Box, or powder horn, and Bag for Balls. - Stephen P. Halbrook, That Every Man Be Armed (Albuquerque,
N.Mex., Univ. of New Mexico Press 1984) p. 61.
Mason, George - I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. ... [F]orty years ago, when the resolution of enslaving America was formed in
Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man [Sir William Keith], who was the governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people;
that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, ... -
3 Jonathan Elliot, DEBATES IN THE SEVERAL STATE CONVENTIONS ON THE ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 380 (2d Ed. 1836) p. 425-426.
Mason, George (1725-1792) - Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers. - (June 14, 1788) during
Virginia’s ratification convention, 3 J. Elliot, DEBATES IN THE SEVERAL STATE CONVENTIONS ON THE ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 425 (2d Ed.
1836); reprinted in Levinson, The Embarrassing Second Amendment, 99 Yale L. Rev. 637, 647 (1989).
Maugham, William Sommerset (1874-1965, English novelist, dramatist, short story writer) - If a nation or an individual values anything more than
freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony is that if it is comfort or money it values more, it will lose that too.
McClurg, Andrew Jay – [T]he extreme views of many gun control supporters make the slippery slope argument understandable. ... Many Brady
Bill supporters want to prohibit private possession altogether. This is what differentiates the Second Amendment slippery slope arguments from most
other arguments. – The Rhetoric of Gun Control, 42 Am. U. L. Rev. 53, 89 (1992).
Mencken, H. L. - The saddest life is that of a political aspirant under democracy. His failure is ignominious and his success is disgraceful.
Mermeistein, Reuven (Rabbi) – We must take the good with the bad in the arena of free expression of ideas. - The Militia Movement and
The Anti-Defamation League, THE FIREARMS SENTINEL 12, Fall 1998.
Metaksa, Tanya K. - In the Second Amendment, we see preserved the greatest human right. In this amendment, we see enshrined the ultimate civil
liberty—the right to defend one’s own life—without which there are no rights. - SELF-DEFENSE, A Primary Civil Right, AMERICAN RIFLEMAN, p.
41, November 1995.
Mike and the Mechanics (music group) – Don’t believe the church and state and everything they tell you ... There's a gun and ammunition
Just inside the doorway. Use it only in emergency. ... Swear allegiance to the flag, whatever flag they offer. Never hint at what you really feel.
Teach the children quietly. For some day sons and daughters Will rise up and fight while we stood still - Silent Running.
Mill, John Stuart - Trade barriers are chiefly injurious to the countries imposing them.
Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873, English philosopher and economist) - If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the
contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing
mankind. ... The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing
generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity
of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced
by its collision with error. - Essay On Liberty.
Miller, Vincent and James Elwood – [A]ccording to the U.S. Department of Labor’s own statistics, “protectionism” destroys eight jobs in the
general economy for every one saved in a protected economy. - Free Trade vs. Protectionism.
Montezuma (pen name for Antifederalist) – WE have taken pains to leave the legislatures of each free and independent state, as they now call
themselves, in such a situation that they will eventually be absorbed by our grand continental vortex, or dwindle into petty corporations, and have
power over little else than yoaking logs, of determining the width of cartwheels. - THE ANTIFEDERALISTS 63 (Cecelia M. Kenyon ed., 1966).
Moore, Marvin M. (Law professor at the University of Akron School of Law) - In a free society it is the curtailment of liberty that must be justified,
not the existence of liberty. - Premarital Agreements, 10 OHIO N. U. L. REV. 11, 19 (1983).
Moore, Stephen and John Silvia - Ultimately, the most pro-growth and fairest tax treatment of capital gains would be to abolish the tax entirely
(and end the deductibility of interest). To the extent that a zero capital gains tax paradigm promotes economic growth, the policy change would
benefit Americans from all income classes, not just the wealthy. - The ABCs of the Capital Gains Tax, CATO INSTITUTE POLICY ANALYSIS No. 242, p.
55, October 4, 1995.
Moore, Stephen and John Silvia (Stephen Moore is director of fiscal policy studies at Cato Institute. John Silvia is chief economist at Kemper
Financial Services in Chicago, Illinois) - It is our conclusion from reviewing the historical evidence and more than 50 studies that the ... [capital
gains] tax reduction plan ... would increase taxes collected from the rich; increase the rates of capital formation, economic growth, job creation, and
real wages over the next decade; and unlock hundreds of billions of dollars of unrealized capital gains, thus promoting a more efficient capital
market. An even more economically compelling reform would be to eliminate the capital gains tax entirely. Abolishing the capital gains tax would
promote entrepreneurship, business creation, U.S. competitiveness, and higher wages for American workers—especially for the most economically
disadvantaged among us. - The ABCs of the Capital Gains Tax, CATO INSTITUTE POLICY ANALYSIS No. 242, p. 3, October 4, 1995.
Morgan, Eric C. - Foes of the right to bear arms have exhibited an elitist willingness to misinform and disinform. They exploit ignorance according
to one of their reports: “The weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semiautomatic
assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support
for restrictions on these weapons.” - Note, Assault Rifle Legislation: Unwise and Unconstitutional, 17 AM. J. CRIM. L. 143 (1990).
Morgenstern, George - [N]o amount of excuses will palliate the conduct of President [Franklin] Roosevelt and his advisers. The offense of which
they stand convicted is not failure to discharge their responsibilities, but calculated refusal to do so. They failed—with calculation—to keep the
United States out of war and to avoid a clash with Japan. They reckoned with cold detachment the risk of manipulating a delegated enemy into firing
the first shot, and they forced 3,000 unsuspecting men at Pearl Harbor to accept that risk. The “warnings” they sent to Hawaii failed—and were so
phrased—and so handled as to insure failure. - PEARL HARBOR: THE STORY OF THE SECRET WAR (1947).
Moynihan, Senator Daniel Patrick (D-NY) - Liberalism faltered when it turned out it could not cope with truth. Even the tentative truths of social
science. - 1995, in a profile written for the NEW YORK TIMES about James S. Coleman who died in 1995; quoted by Suzanne Fields, Conservatives
must confront social realities, THE WASHINGTON TIMES National Weekly Edition, Volume 3, No. 3, January 15-21, 1996.
Moynihan, Senator Daniel Patrick (D-NY, liberal) - With a 10,000% tax we could tax them [guns] out of existence. - WASHINGTON POST,
November 4, 1993.
Murray, Charles - To stop trying is to lose self-respect.
Murray, Charles (libertarian) - The practice of virtue has the characteristics of a habit and of a skill. People may be born with the capacity of being
generous, but become generous only by practicing generosity. People have the capacity for honesty, but become honest only by practicing honesty. . .
. People tend not to do a chore when someone else will do it for them. At the micro-level, the dialogue between the government and the
citizen goes roughly like this: “Do you want to go out and feed the hungry or are you going to sit here and watch television?” “I’m tired. What’ll
happen if I don’t go?” “Well, if you don’t go I guess I’ll just have to do it myself.” “In that case, you go.”
58
New Jersey painting contractor - You’re looking at a poor man who thinks the capital gains tax [cut] is the best thing that could happen to this
country, because that’s when the work will come back. People say capital gains are for the rich, but I’ve never been hired by a poor man.
NEW YORK EVENING POST - [T]he mischiefs for which the Civil Rights bill seeks to provide a remedy ...—that there will be no obstruction to the
acquirement of real estate by colored men, no attempts to prevent their holding public assemblies, freely discussing the question of their own
disabilities, keeping firearms .... - commenting on the 1866 Civil Rights Act (passed by two-thirds of Senate over Pres. Johnson’s veto on April 6,
1866), The Civil Rights Bill in the Senate, NEW YORK EVENING POST, April 7, 1866, at 2, col. 1.
Nicholas, William (Governor of Virginia, and delegate to the Virginia convention that ratified the Constitution) - [Members of] Congress have
power to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the laws of nations; but they cannot define or
prescribe the punishment of any other crime whatsoever without violating the Constitution.
No one escapes when freedom fails. The best men rot in filthy jails, and those who cried, “Appease, appease!” are hanged by those they tried to
please.
No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.
Nutting, General Wallace - We today do not have a single soldier, airman, or sailor solely dedicated to the security mission within the U.S. -
quoted by Doug Bandow in Needed: Real Military Cuts, INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY, April 17, 1996.
Nye, Senator James W. (NV) - As citizens of the United States they have equal right to protection, and to keep and bear arms for self-defense. They
have long cherished the idea of liberty ... - February 28, 1866, Congressional Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Session 1073.
O’Connor, Justice Sandra Day (U.S. Supreme Court) – One can fairly dispute whether our federal system has been quite as successful in checking
government abuse as Hamilton promised, but there is no doubt about the design. If this “double security” is to be effective, there must be a proper
balance between the States and the Federal Government. These twin powers will act as mutual restraints only if both are credible. ... In the tension
between federal and state power lies the promise of liberty. - Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452, 459 (1991).
O’Rourke, P.J. – [G]overnment should be against the law. - The Liberty Manifesto, delivered May 6, 1993 at the gala dinner celebrating
the opening of the Cato Institute’s new headquarters in Washington.
O’Rourke, P.J. - Distracting a politician from governing is like distracting a bear from eating your baby. - AGE AND GUILE BEAT YOUTH, INNOCENCE
AND A BAD HAIRCUT (Atlantic Monthly Press 1995) p. 268.
O’Rourke, P.J. - Government is a health hazard. Governments have killed many more people than cigarettes or unbuckled seat belts ever have. -
AGE AND GUILE BEAT YOUTH, INNOCENCE, AND A BAD HAIRCUT.
O’Rourke, P.J. – I don’t know what’s good for you. You don’t know what’s good for me. We don’t know what’s good for mankind. - The
Liberty Manifesto, delivered May 6, 1993 at the gala dinner celebrating the opening of the Cato Institute’s new headquarters in Washington.
Orwell, George (1903-1950, penname for Eric Arthur Blair) - Though I have no doubt exceptions can be brought forward, I think the following rule
would be found to be generally true: that in ages in which the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people will have a chance... -
Essays, Volume IV.
Our representatives claim not only the right of making the laws, but of breaking the very laws they have made.
Ours is a living Constitution so long as the courts do not attempt to amend it by judicial decree through creative interpretations. Once that happens,
our Constitution is of no value, and dead.
Out of dependence grows bondage.
Paine, Thomas – [An observer of British government would conclude] that taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry
on taxes.
Paine, Thomas – ... the greedy hand of government, thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.
Paine, Thomas - Danger and deliverance make their advances together; and it is only in the last push that one or the other takes the lead. - The
American Crises, December 23, 1776.
Paine, Thomas – Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice. - COMMON SENSE.
Paine, Thomas - The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason. - THE AGE OF REASON.
Patman, Congressman John William Wright (1893-1976; D-TX, Chairman, House Banking Committee) - The people have a right to bear arms.
The people have a right to keep arms; therefore, if we should have some Executive who attempted to set himself up as dictator or king, the people can
organize themselves together and, with the arms and ammunition they have, they can properly protect themselves.... - 87 Cong. Rec. 7102 (1941).
Paul, Congressman Ron - There is absolutely no constitutional basis for the NEA, it is simply a function which the federal government has no
business funding. How can we justify this spending? A $100 million a year is what this organization has been costing us: a $100 million every year
would have either meant a serious tax cut for Americans, or, at the very least, could have been used to slow the bankruptcy of the Social Security
trust fund. Even if you can get past the fact that the NEA's existence is unconstitutional, we cannot afford it. I have a hard time with Congress telling
our nation's veterans that we have to play games with their benefits to save money, while at the same time we spend money on these kinds of
programs. How does one publicly fund the arts? What gives the NEA the absolute authority to dictate what is and is not art? What we have seen the
NEA call art is what people in the 14th District of Texas rightly call pornographic, blasphemous trash. It's easy to be generous with taxpayers' money,
with other people's money, and the NEA's supporters like to say this is 'only a $100 million;' well, that's a lot of money to me and my constituents, so
I cannot help but wonder why those people who feel so strongly about this don't just fund this program themselves and not bilk the taxpayers.
America's century-long experiment with unconstitutional government has failed. It's time to eliminate unconstitutional programs and agencies and
return to a government of enumerated powers as envisioned by the founding fathers.
Paul, Dr. Ron – ...why the American people would even give the slightest consideration for government health programs. They don't want the
government to deliver their automobiles, or their videocassette recorders, or their food... The best way to deliver healthcare is the way we deliver all
goods and services in a free society. - TV interview, 1987
Paul, Dr. Ron – A nation without secure borders is no nation at all. It makes no sense to fight terrorists abroad when our own front door is left
unlocked. - RonPaul2008.com, May 2007
Paul, Dr. Ron – First reason is, it's not authorized in the Constitution, it's an illegal institution. The second reason, it's an immoral institution,
because we have delivered to a secretive body the privilege of creating money out of thin air; if you or I did it, we'd be called counterfeiters, so why
have we legalized counterfeiting? But the economic reasons are overwhelming: the Federal Reserve is the creature that destroys value. This station
talks about free market capitalism, and you can't have free market capitalism if you have a secret bank creating money and credit out of thin air. They
become the central planners, they decide what interest rates should be, what the supply of money should be... Question: How does the gold standard
solves that? Ron Paul: It maintains a stable currency and a stable value. If the Fed concentrated more on stable money rather than stable
prices... They push up new money in stocks and in commodities and in houses, and then they have to come in to rescue the situation. They create the
bubbles, then they come in and rescue it, and they do nothing more than try to do price fixing. Capitalism depends, and capital comes from savings,
but there's no savings in this country, so this is all artificial. It creates the misdirection and the malinvestment and all the excessive debt, and it always
has to have a correction. Since the Fed has been in existence, the dollar has lost about 97% of its value. You're supposed to encourage savings, but if
something loses its value, why save dollars? There's no encouragement whatsoever. [...] Gold is 6000 years old, and it still maintains its purchasing
power. Oil prices really are very stable in terms of Gold. [...] Both conservatives and liberals want to enhance big government, and this is a seductive
way to tax the middle class. - CNBC debate with Faiz Shakir, March 20, 2008
Paul, Dr. Ron – Good morning, Mr. Greenspan. I understand that you did not take my friendly advice last fall. I thought maybe you should look for
other employment, but I see you have kept your job. - Hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services,
February 17, 2000
Paul, Dr. Ron – Howard Fineman: The people who don't pay their taxes on principle are heroic people, in the manner of Gandhi and Martin Luther
King? Ron Paul: I think if they're defending the constitution and they know what they're doing, and this money is supporting some real evil in the
world. Preemptive war? That's pretty evil as far as I'm concerned. And so much waste in a system of government that has just overrun our liberties?
Yes, I think that in many ways it's heroic for people willing to risk their freedom in order to defend what they believe is freedom. - Newsweek
interview by Howard Fineman, December 2007
Paul, Dr. Ron – It is ironic that the proliferation of guns in the hands of bureaucrats is pushed by the anti-gun fanatics who hate the Second
Amendment and would disarm every law-abiding American citizen. - Is Federal Police Force Constitutional?, THE LIBERTY POLE, October,
1997.
Paul, Dr. Ron – Question: You wanna gut that safety net...Ron Paul: But the safety net doesn't work. Question: Tell me why it doesn't work.
Ron Paul: It does work for some people, but overall it ultimately fails, because you spend more money than you have, and then
you borrow to the hilt. Now we have to borrow $800 billion a year just to keep the safety net going. It's going to collapse when the dollar collapses,
you can't even fight the war without this borrowing. And when the dollar collapses, you can't take care of the elderly of today. They're losing ground.
Their cost of living is going up about 10%, even though the government denies it, we give them a 2% cost of living increase. Question: So do
you think the gold standard would fix that? Ron Paul: The gold standard would keep you from printing money and destroying the middle
class. Every country where you have runaway inflation, there's no middle class. Mexico, there's no middle class, you have a huge poor class, and a lot
of wealthy people. Today we have a growing poor class, and we have more billionaires than ever before. So we're moving into third world status...
Question: Who is the safety net that you're speaking of, who does benefit from all those programs and all those agencies? Ron
Paul: Everybody on a short term benefits for a time. If you build a tenement house by the government, for about 15 or 20 years somebody might live
there, but you don't measure who paid for it: somebody lost their job down the road, somebody had inflation, somebody else suffered. But then the
tenement house falls down after about 20 years because it's not privately owned, so everybody eventually suffers. But the immediate victims aren't
identifiable, because you don't know who lost the job, and who had the inflation, the victims are invisible. The few people who benefit, who get some
help from government, everyone sees, "oh! look what we did!", but they never say instead of what, what did we lose. And unless you ask that
question, we'll go into bankruptcy, we're in the early stages of it, the dollar is going down, our standard of living is going down, and we're hurting the
very people that so many people wanna help, especially the liberals... Interview by Mac McKoy on KWQW, December 17, 2007
Paul, Dr. Ron – The American people have been offered two lousy choices. One, which is corporatism, a fascist type of approach, or, socialism. We
deliver a lot of services in this country through the free market, and when you do it through the free market prices go down. But in medicine, prices
go up. Technology doesn't help the cost, it goes up instead of down. But if you look at almost all of our industries that are much freer, technology
lowers the prices. Just think of how the price of cell phones goes down. Poor people have cell phones, and televisions, and computers. Prices all go
down. But in medicine, they go up, and there's a reason for that, that's because the government is involved with it... I do [think that prices will go
down without government involvement], but probably a lot more than what you're thinking about, because you have to have competition in the
delivery of care. For instance, if you have a sore throat and you have to come see me, you have to wait in the waiting room, and then get checked, and
then get a prescription, and it ends up costing you $100. If you had true competition, you should be able to go to a nurse, who could for 1/10 the cost
very rapidly do it, and let her give you a prescription for penicillin. See, the doctors and the medical profession have monopolized the system through
licensing. And that's not an accident, because they like the idea that you have to go see the physician and pay this huge price. And patients can sort
this out, they're not going to go to a nurse if they need brain surgery... - Interview by Laura Knoy on NHPR, June 5, 2007
Paul, Dr. Ron – The do-good liberal who said we have to take care of everybody -- and they are well intentioned -- the more debt they run up to give
to the poor, the poorer the people get because they cannot keep up. - The Glenn Beck Program, January 23, 2008
Paul, Dr. Ron – Those who seek a pro-life culture must accept that we will never persuade all 300 million Americans to agree with us. A pro-life
culture can be built only from the ground up, person by person. For too long we have viewed the battle as purely political, but no political victory can
change a degraded society. No Supreme Court ruling by itself can instill greater respect for life. And no Supreme Court justice can save our freedoms
if we don't fight for them ourselves. - Federalizing Social Policy, January 30, 2006
Paul, Dr. Ron – Truth is treason in the empire of lies. The Revolution: A Manifesto, 2008
Paul, Dr. Ron – you have to develop the transition, and eventually the next step would be to prohibit the Fed from monetizing debt. This is the real
evil. The politicians spend for war, welfare, and they don't have to do it responsibly. Question: When you say monetize the debt, you mean they
would only be able to spend the cash that they had on hand. They couldn't write any checks for which they don't have in their account any money?
Ron Paul: That's right. And that is the key to it. Because when the Fed comes along, and there's starvation for capital and liquidity, and
politicians are spending too much, the Fed can create 20, 30, 50 billion dollars in a day, just like they did trying to bail out this housing bubble crash.
So they create money out of thin air endlessly, eventually that has to stop because that drives the value of the dollar down. - Fox
Business Network, October 16, 2007
***************************************************
Penny, Timothy and Major Garrett - Most lawmakers find it easier to vote courageously when one of three conditions is at play. They are new to
Congress and less frightened by the entrenched interests, they have decided to leave and are no longer beholden to the entrenched interests, or they
have built a political career around votes that defy the entrenched interests. - COMMON CENTS (Little, Brown 1995).
Pink Floyd – Mother, should I trust the Government? - Mother, THE WALL.
Polsby Daniel D. (Northwestern University law professor) – [A]most all the qualified historians and constitutional-law scholars who have studied the
subject [concur]. The overwhelming weight of authority affirms that the Second Amendment establishes an individual right to bear arms, which is
not dependent upon joining something like the National guard. - ATLANTIC MONTHLY, June 1994 at 13.
Polsby, Daniel D. and Don B. Kates, Jr. – [A] connection exists between the restrictiveness of a country’s civilian weapons policy and its liability
to commit genocide. - Of Holocausts and Gun Control, 75 Wash. L. L. Q. 1237, 1237 (1997).
Polsby, Daniel D. and Don B. Kates, Jr. – [W]hen intended victims resist robbers or rapists with firearms, they are only half as likely to be injured
as those who submit, and are much less likely to be robbed or raped. - Of Holocausts and Gun Control, 75 WASH. L. L. Q. 1237 (1997).
Polsby, Daniel D. and Don B. Kates, Jr. – What is most important for present purposes, after what must have been millions of additional personhours
of public gun-toting, is that there has been not a single reported instance of an "O.K. Corral” scenario involving a lawfully carried concealed
handgun. In fact, jurisdictions with more relaxed concealed-carry laws have experienced falling murder rates. - Of Holocausts and Gun
Control, 75 WASH. L. L. Q. 1237 (1997).
Powe, L. A., Jr. - If the drafters’ goal was to create an individual right to bear arms, they hardly could improve on the statement that “the right of the
people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Conversely, if the goal were to create instead a collective right, no amendment would have
been necessary because existing traditions and the explicit text of the Constitution already recognized such a right. The Framers apparently split the
differences between these opposing positions in drafting the Second Amendment. - Guns, Words, and Constitutional Interpretation, 38
WILLIAM & MARY L. R. 1311, 1335 (1997).
Powe, L. A., Jr. (Anne Green Regents Chair Univ. of Texas) – The Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms because the
Second Amendment is about fear of tyranny. - Guns, Words, and Constitutional Interpretation, 38 WILLIAM & MARY L. R. 1311, 1318 (1997).
PROPONENT, THE - [I]f you are a woman walking each day to your car in a distant parking lot, stop thinking about what gang bangers might be lurking
around the corner and give a little thought to the ideas of your governor and the Columbus Dispatch. If you are assaulted and beaten to a bloody pulp,
remember that “America has enough bloody problems” without you trying to defend yourself. I mean, it’s bad enough that the cops will have to clean
up your blood with out having to clean up the blood of some poor victims of “society” whose “diversity” you don’t appreciate. So let your attackers
do as they will, because they say self-defense should be a crime and nobody wants to be bothered by having to keep convicted rapists in our jails for
two or three weeks when there is such an overcrowding problem already. - commenting on Ohio governor George Voinovich’s (R) opposition to a
law recognizing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons for defense, February, 1996.
Prosperity is not a static quantity to be divided, but an unlimited achievement to be earned.
Pruden, Wesley - [President Clinton] who hates foolhardy government puts a dollar value on personal prudence too. The Wall Street Journal
reported February 8 that he had the foresight back in Arkansas to take out sexual harassment insurance, thus becoming a role model for us all. -
The prudent man in the White House, THE WASHINGTON TIMES National Weekly Edition, February 12-18, 1996.
Psykosonik (techno-rock band) - A boot into the face the dreams that fills your night Decades later it seems George Orwell might be right
Your dead polemics have sent millions to their graves Despite your armies still we'll never be your slaves ... Servitude
is in the mind a death in life Don't be confused by the terms of left and right Statism is statism by any name the same Apathy is suicide
and we will bear the blame ... Huge berserk rebel warthog error Zeroboys unleash domestic terror Jack it in and burn the data
Violence a religion they can relate to So let them hear this and let them fear this Don't forget that the power always comes
Through the barrel of a loaded gun - Teknojihad, on album PSYKOSONIK.
Pure democracy is tyranny by the majority: Mob rule.
Quayle, Dan - ...[C]apitalism, far more than socialism, was consistent with compassion.... [C]ompare the record of free-market capitalism with that
of statism. If you want to see poverty, environmental disaster and human misery, visit any major city in the former communist empire. The socalled
planned economies were based, as they had to be, on coercion. Coercion required enforcers—bureaucrats, secret police, dictators. Personal
freedom being inconsistent with the plan, had to be snuffed out. The state had to exert full control over production and wages, so individuals had
almost no incentive to work harder, be innovative or produce new inventions. Black markets arose in the hope of alleviating massive shortages. A
corrupt and paranoid bureaucracy poisoned the well of trust and public virtue. The economies were hopelessly backward and moribund. Freedom
works. Socialism doesn’t. Such is the verdict of history—and that’s one verdict that is supported by the evidence. - Capitalism is surest route to
prosperity, CONSERVATIVE CHRONICLE, October 18, 1995.
Quinlan, Michael J, (Judicial Law Clerk to Honorable Thomas M. Welch, Illinois Appellate Court for the Fifth District, B.A. 1989 Mallinckrodt
College of the North Shore, J.D. 1993 Southern Illinois University School of Law) – “For almost 100 years, federal courts followed the holding in
Swift v. Tyson and developed an elaborate body of federal common law in areas such as torts, as well as contracts and commercial law.” By
overruling Swift v. Tyson in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins the Court erased nearly a century of federal common law as “an unconstitutional
assumption of powers by courts of the United States which no lapse of time or respectable array of opinion should make us hesitate to correct.”
- Is there a Neutral Justification for Refusing to Implement the Second Amendment or is the Supreme Court just “Gun Shy?”, 22 Cap. L. R.
641, 692 (1993).
Rand, Ayn - The "magic government plan" "...will reconcile all conflicts. It will protect the property of the rich and give a greater share to the poor.
It will cut down the burden of your taxes and provide you with more government benefits. It will lower prices and raise wages. It will give more
freedom to the individual and strengthen the bonds of collective obligations. It will combine the efficiency of free markets with the generosity of a
planned economy. - ATLAS SHRUGGED
Rand, Ayn – [W]ithout property rights, no other rights are possible.
Rand, Ayn – A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race—and a moron is a moron, regardless of the
number of geniuses who share his racial origin. - Racism, THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS, 127.
Rand, Ayn - Every infringement of human rights has begun with the suppression of a given right’s least attractive practitioners. - Censorship
Rand, Ayn - From the first catch-phrases flung at a child to the last, it is like a series of shocks to freeze his motor, to undercut the power of his
consciousness. “Don’t ask so many questions, children should be seen and not heard!”—“Who are you to think? It’s so, because I say so!”—“Don’t
argue, obey!”—“Don’t try to understand, believe!”—“Don’t rebel, adjust!”—“Don’t stand out, belong!”—“Don’t struggle, compromise!”—“Your
heart is more important than your mind!”—“Who are you to know? Your parents know best!”—“Who are you to know? Society knows best!” “Who
are you to know? The bureaucrats know best!”—“Who are you to object? All values are relative!”—“Who are you to want to escape a thug’s bullet?
That’s only a personal prejudice!” - ATLAS SHRUGGED, p. 915 (1957).
Rand, Ayn – I am interested in politics so that one day I will not have to be interested in politics.
Rand, Ayn – Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and
a free market are corollaries. - For the New Intellectual.
Rand, Ayn – Like every other form of collectivism, racism is a quest for the unearned. It is a quest for automatic knowledge—for an automatic
evaluation of men’s characters that bypasses the responsibility of exercising rational or moral judgment—and, above all, a quest for an automatic
self-esteem (or pseudo-self-esteem). - Racism, THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS, 127.
Rand, Ayn - Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth—the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an
heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his
money? Do you envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been
distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a
living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. - ATLAS SHRUGGED, p. 384 (1957)
Rand, Ayn - The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the
difference on his own hide—as, I think, he will. - ATLAS SHRUGGED, p. 386-87 (1957)
Rand, Ayn - Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard—the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create
the value of their looted money—the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to
protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law—men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed
victims—then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they’ve passed a law to disarm them.
But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to
those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of
ruins and slaughter. - ATLAS SHRUGGED, p. 385 (1957)
Rand, Ayn – There’s nothing I’ve got to do except die. - Causality versus Duty.
Rand, Ayn – This country—the product of reason—could not survive on the morality of sacrifice. It was not built by men who sought selfimmolation
or by men who sought handouts. - ATLAS SHRUGGED.
Rand, Ayn - To reverse the current and economic trend in America, we must reverse men’s fundamental philosophy.
Rand, Ayn – Today, racism is regarded as a crime if practiced by a majority—but as an inalienable right if practiced by a minority. The notion that
one’s culture is superior to all others solely because it represents the traditions of one’s ancestors, is regarded as chauvinism if claimed by a majority
—but as “ethnic” pride if claimed by a minority. Resistance to change and progress is regarded as reactionary if demonstrated by a majority—but
retrogression to a Balkan village, to an Indian tepee or to the jungle is hailed if demonstrated by a minority. - The Age of Envy, Return of
the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, 142
Rasor, Sergeant First Class Edward (U.S. Army, special forces Green Beret) - I will not serve under a foreign officer or the United Nations
command. - at a November 9, 1995 press conference in Washington, D.C., quoted by William Norman Grigg, More Soldiers Saying “No!”, THE
NEW AMERICAN, p. 19, December 11, 1995.
Reason is man’s only source of knowledge and his basic tool of survival.
Reese, Charlie - “[F]ederal aid” [is] giving yourself a blood transfusion, drawing from one arm and injecting into the other, but with a leaky hose.
- CONSERVATIVE CHRONICLE, September 20, 1995.
Reese, Charlie - Perhaps the most damning thing said about journalism today is most often said by journalists—that having to tell the truth will have
a “chilling effect” on journalism. - CONSERVATIVE CHRONICLE, September 13, 1995.
Reiland, Ralph – Today, with 480 different tax forms, 17,000 pages of laws and regulations and a federal tax code that’s over 7 million words
(compared to 773,000 words in the Holy Bible, both Testaments), nearly 60 percent of Americans are paying a professional to help them negotiate
the tax maze. Each year, the IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions, enough paper to stretch 28 times around the earth. To conform
with this federal Rube Goldberg tax code, Americans are spending 5.4 billion hours and $200 billion a year just in compliance costs, not counting the
taxes paid, i.e., more time and money than it takes to produce every car, truck and van each year in the United States. - Taxed to Death
Reynolds, Glenn Harlan – [T]he “militia” referred to in the Second Amendment was to be composed of the entire populace, for only such a body
could serve as a check on the government. Indeed, both English and American history had led Americans to be very suspicious of “select” militias.
Such bodies, composed of those deemed politically reliable by authorities, had played unfortunate roles in the past, and were regarded with the same
suspicion as standing armies. ... The National Guard was never designed to resist a tyrannical government. Rather, the National Guard was created in
response to the perceived shortcomings of the militia as an offensive force; there were repeated incidents in which the militia refused to invade
Canada, Mexico, and various other locations, or in which federal attempts to so employ militia were held illegal. Under the current system, National
Guard officers have dual status: they are both members of the State Guard and members of the federal armed forces. They are armed, paid, and
trained by the federal government. They can be called out at will by the federal government, and such call-outs cannot be resisted, in any meaningful
fashion, by them or by their states. They are subject to federal military discipline on the same basis as members of the national government’s armed
forces. And they are required to swear an oath of loyalty to the United States government, as well as to their states. - A Critical Guide to the
Second Amendment, 67 TENN. L.R. 461, 475-76 (1995).
Reynolds, Glenn Harlan – [T]he Constitution, and particularly the Bill of Rights, is not a buffet line from which we can take those items that look
appetizing while leaving behind those that do not appeal. - A Critical Guide to the Second Amendment, 67 TENN. L.R. 461, 485 (1995).
Reynolds, Glenn Harlan – If states possess a constitutional right, as against the federal government, to maintain militias (or “state armies” as former
Chief Justice Burger calls them) then the Second Amendment works a pro tanto repeal of many of the restrictions on state military power contained
in Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution. Furthermore, if states have a right to maintain their own militias, independent of federal control, then they
obviously must have the right to equip those militias as they see fit. Otherwise, the “right” would be meaningless, as the federal government could,
by regulating weaponry, render the counterweight ineffectual. Since many states would balk at spending the money to buy guns for their
citizens, quite a few might do what Congress did in 1792: require (or at least permit) their citizens to own military-type weapons, perhaps even
including machine guns, howitzers, and the like. If they did so, federal gun-control laws would necessarily be preempted, since otherwise the right
would mean nothing. So the states’ rights interpretation necessarily leads to a power on the part of states to nullify federal gun control laws simply by
allowing their citizens to possess weapons as part of a militia. ... Second, if the National Guard is the militia, then it is unconstitutional .... After all,
an institution that is to serve as a counterweight to the federal standing army can hardly fulfill that function if it is as thoroughly dominated by the
federal government as the present-day National Guard is. Whatever the National Guard is, it is not a “state army.” It is rather, a federally funded and
controlled force with a (very) thin façade of state control. - The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Under the Tennessee Constitution, A Case
Study in Civic Republican Thought, 61 TENN. L. R. 647, 490-91 (1994).
Reynolds, Representative Mel (D-IL, congressman tried and convicted of sex crimes in 1995 and sentenced to five years imprisonment) - If it were
up to me we’d ban them all [guns]. - CNN Crossfire, December 9, 1993.
Richman, Sheldon (V.P. Future of Freedom Foundation, author) – [G]un control strikes at every individual’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. - The Right to Life Equals the Right to Possess Firearms, THE TYRANNY OF GUN CONTROL, 39 (Future of Freedom Foundation
1997).
Richman, Sheldon - The IRS issues over 50,000 erroneous levies per year, and individuals and businesses spend over 5.4 billion hours every year
complying with the tax code?
Roberts, Paul Craig - What ... about the Los Angeles and Detroit convictions of police officers who beat black motorists? Aren’t these signs that
checks and balances work and that we are free from the arbitrary application of power that medieval serfs had to endure? Alas, these police officers
were not done in because they were charged with racism and violating the civil rights of a member of a “preferred minority.” As incredible as it may
seem, in the United States only blacks have any protection from abusive state power. They have a special, racial civil-rights shield. - What
happens to a country when law enforcement becomes lawless? AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, September 2, 1993.
Rogers, Roy - They’ll have to shoot me first to take my gun. - discussing California’s proposed handgun freeze
Rogers, Will - Thank God we don’t get all the government we pay for.
Rogers, Will – Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.
Rohrabacher, Representative Dana (R-CA) - We have hundreds of thousands of people who have never contributed a cent into the system who are
sucking millions out. - ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Rule a large country the way you would handle a small fish. Leave it alone or it will fall apart from constant handling.
RUSH – His mind is not for rent, To any god or government. - Tom Sawyer, lyrics by Neal Peart
RUSH - Hold the flame ‘til the dream ignites. - Mission, HOLD YOUR FIRE album.
RUSH - The mob moves like demons possessed. Quiet in conscience, calm in their right, Confident their ways are best. The righteous rise with
burning eyes of hatred and ill-will. ... that those who know what’s best for us must rise and save us from ourselves. Quick to judge, quick to anger,
slow to understand. - Witch Hunt, MOVING PICTURES album.
RUSH - There is unrest in the forest, There is trouble with the trees, For the maples want more sunlight and the oaks ignore their pleas. The trouble
with the maples, (And they’re quite convinced they’re right) They say the oaks are just too lofty, and they grab up all the light. But the oaks can’t
help their feelings, if they like the way they’re made. And they wonder why the maples can’t be happy in their shade. There is trouble in the forest
and the creatures all have fled, as the maples scream “Oppression!” and the oaks just shake their heads. So the maples formed a union and demanded
equal rights. “These oaks are just too greedy; We will make them give us light.” Now there’s no more oak oppression, For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw. - The Trees, HEMISPHERES album and EXIT STAGE LEFT album, lyrics by Neil Peart.
RUSH - You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. You can choose from
phantom fears and kindness that can kill; I will choose a path that’s clear—I will choose Free Will. - Freewill, PERMANENT WAVES album, lyrics by
Neil Peart.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. – The Federal Reserve has an exclusive monopoly on currency issue. - HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 9.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. – How can our children learn to abhor aggression when we teach them in a school system built on it? - HEALING OUR
WORLD, Ch 10.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. – [E]lephant hunting has been banned in Kenya. In 1989, these animals numbered only 19,000, down from 65,000 in 1979. On
the other hand, in Zimbabwe, homesteading claims of natives to elephants on their land have been respected. Elephant products can be legally sold.
Naturally, the natives protect their valuable elephants from poachers. The natives raise as many elephants as possible so they can sponsor safaris and
sell elephant ivory, hide, and meat. As a result, the elephant population has increased from 30,000 to 43,000 over the past ten years. People will
protect the environment when they own it and profit from it. We never worry about cows and horses becoming extinct. They are plentiful because
we own them and profit from their use. We have motivation to make sure they propagate. Ownership encourages effective stewardship of wildlife,
just as it encourages protection of the land. - HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 21.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. – A little bit of communism is like a little bit of disease. - HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 19.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. – Honoring our neighbor’s choice means that we say “No!” to licensing laws and regulations first-strike force to prevent
voluntary exchange between consumers and suppliers, employers and employees. - HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 21.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. – If we each work on the piece of the puzzle that appeals to us most, the final picture will reflect the composite of our dreams.
- HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 21.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. – Imagine the total wealth in the world 2000 years ago. Did even the richest of the ancients have access to antibiotics,
anesthetics, or surgery when their children had appendicitis? Could their entertainers give them the same quality, selection, and special effects that
are now available on television.? Could they find out about events on the other side of the globe a few minutes after they occurred? Could they “reach
out and touch” family members who had migrated to faraway lands? Could they visit their distant relatives after a few hours in the “friendly skies”?
Even the wealthiest of the ancients did not have many things we take for granted. ... Our wealth has increased greatly. - HEALING
OUR WORLD, Ch 2.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. - In 1914, the Federal Reserve (Fed) received an exclusive monopoly to issue U.S. currency. Like AT&T, the Fed is a private
corporation, owned by its member banks. The Fed is a powerful institution; some believe it is the most powerful in the world. ... Before the creation
of the Fed, banks found they needed reserves of approximately 21% so that they would have enough money on hand when their customers wanted to
make a withdrawal. When the Fed took over the reserves of the national banks, it lowered the reserve requirement to half that. The Fed itself used a
reserve system: it kept only 35% of the reserves entrusted to it by the member banks! The balance was loaned out, mostly to the government, with the
wealth of the American people as collateral. Lowering reserves resulted in the creation of more money. As a result, the money supply doubled
between 1914 and 1920 and once again from 1921 to 1929. In contrast, gold in the reserve vault increased only 3% in the 1920s. The bankers would
obviously be unable to keep their promise to deliver gold to depositors if a large number of people withdrew their money at the same time.
Businesses could not use all the newly created money the banks wished to loan, so stock speculators were encouraged to borrow. Many people got
heavily into debt, thinking that the boom would continue. In 1929, the Fed started deflation by slowing the creation of new money. People who had
counted on renewing their loans to cover stock speculations or other investments found they could no longer borrow. They were forced to sell their
securities, and a stock market plunge ensued. The mini-crash in October 1987 also may have been triggered by the Fed’s slowing the creation of new
money. People who lost money spent less on goods and services; business began to slow. With banks unwilling to renew loans, businesses began to
reduce their work force. People nervously began withdrawing their gold deposits as banks in other countries quit honoring their promise to return the
gold. Rumors circulated that the Federal Reserve would soon be bankrupt as well. Naturally, there was no way for the banks to exchange the inflated
dollars for gold. As people withdraw their bank funds, the money supply decreases—just the reverse of what happens when they deposit it. The
banks’ failure to loan coupled with massive withdrawals, caused even greater deflation. People lost their savings and their purchasing power; in turn,
businesses lost their customers and laid off workers. Each loss contributed to the next, resulting in the most severe depression Americans had ever
known. Had this happened in Scotland between 1793 and 1845, bank owners (stockholders) would have to make their promises good by digging into
their own pockets. In our country, however, the government enforcement agents were instructed to come after the American citizenry instead!
Franklin Roosevelt convinced Congress to pass a bill making it illegal for Americans to own gold. Everyone had to exchange their valuable gold for
Federal Reserve notes, which had no intrinsic value. Gold was still given to foreigners who brought their dollars to be exchanged for gold, but not to
Americans! ... Why was the Fed introduced in the United States and relieved of its promise to return gold that was deposited by our greatgrandparents
and their contemporaries? Why did the Fed slow money creation in 1929, precipitating the stock market crash? Why does the Fed
alternate inflation and deflation at the expense of the American public today? Several authors have proposed that the evolution of central banks
represents a collusion between politicians and a small elite with ownership/control of major banking institutions. Bank owners want to create as much
money as possible, without having to dig into their own pockets when depositors want their money. Politicians long to fulfill their grandiose
campaign promises without visibly taxing their constituency. Central banking can give both groups what they want. First, through the aggression
of exclusive licensing, politicians give the central bank a monopoly on issuing currency. As long as banks must make good on their promises to
depositors, however, they are still subject to the regulation of the marketplace ecosystem. The politicians encourage the aggressive practice of fraud
by refusing to make banks and similar institutions (i.e., Savings & Loans, known as “S&Ls”) keep promises to depositors. Instead, owners and
managers who make risky loans can simply walk away from their mistakes, as President Bush’s son Neil did. Depositors either lose their life savings
or are reimbursed from taxes taken at gunpoint, if necessary from their neighbors. The bankers, of course, must give the politicians something in
return. When the ranchers, loggers, or other special interest groups want more subsides, our representatives need not incur the wrath of the populace
by suggesting more taxes. Instead, they borrow some of the Fed’s newly created money! When it comes time to pay the loan back with interest, the
politicians pay it back with a bigger loan using our wealth as collateral. The special interest groups thank the politicians by funding their reelections.
As a result, our national debt has grown so big that the interest alone consumed 25% of 1989 federal outlays! The single largest holder of the national
debt is the Federal Reserve itself. ... our pension and investment plans often buy the government I.O.U.s. For our pension funds to pay us, we may
first have to pay higher taxes to cover the I.O.U.s. How much higher will our taxes be? The 1989 national debt was more than $11,000 for every man,
woman, and child! Like any special interest group, the Fed is inclined to help the politicians who protect it. By manipulating the money supply to
cause boom or bust at the appropriate times, the Fed controls the illusion of prosperity an illusion that determines which politicians people will vote
for or against. Like any other special interest group, the Fed can control our government to a significant extent. For example, the exclusive monopoly
of the Second Bank of the United States was scheduled to end in 1836. Andrew Jackson swore not to renew it if he were reelected president in 1832.
Soon after his victory, he removed the government’s deposits from the central bank. The bank’s president, Nicholas Biddle, attempted to bring about
a depression by cutting back on the creation of money, just as the Federal Reserve would do almost 100 years later. Biddle hoped to blackmail
Congress into renewing the bank’s monopoly by making the voters miserable. Fortunately, these tactics were not successful. The American people
were not fooled and the bank charter was not renewed. Unfortunately, this lesson was forgotten, and central banking was reestablished with the
Federal Reserve. - HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 9.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. – Of those imprisoned, one third will be convicted again within three years of their release. Professional criminals average
more than 100 crimes per year. Only one prison term is served for every 164 felonies committed. Approximately $25,000 per year is spent to keep
someone in prison. - HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 13.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. - Sovereign immunity is probably responsible for more pollution in this country than any other single cause. For example, in
1984, a Utah court ruled that negligence in nuclear testing was responsible for health problems in 10 out of 24 cases brought before the court. The
court of appeals, however, claimed that sovereign immunity applied; therefore, the victims received nothing. In 1988, the Department of Energy
indicated that 17 weapons plants were leaking radioactive and toxic chemicals that would cost $100 billion and 50 years to clean up! The
Departments of Energy and Defense refused to comply with EPA orders to do so. Meanwhile, taxpayers are expected to “Superfund” toxic waste
cleanup. ... It [sovereign immunity] allows government officials to do what individuals cannot. We would not claim sovereign immunity if we
dumped trash on George’s lawn nor could we expect to enjoy a prosperous and peaceful neighborhood. Somehow we think our country can be
bountiful and harmonious even if our government officials can poison the property or body of our neighbors without having to undo the harm they
have done. We go along with this sleight of hand because we think that we benefit when our government hurts others in seeking the common good.
As usual, our aggression backfires. Our lawmakers have extended the concept of sovereign immunity to include favored private monopolies. For
example, in 1957, a study by the Atomic Energy Commission predicted that a major accident at a nuclear power plant could cause up to $7 billion in
property damage and several thousand deaths. ... Congress passed the Price-Anderson Act to limit the liability of the power plants to $560 million. In
the event of an accident, the insurance companies would have to pay only $60 million; the other $500 million would be paid through the further
aggression of taxation! - HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 13.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. – We are well aware that if we commit certain actions against our neighbors, fighting and impoverishment will result.
Somehow we think these same actions create peace and plenty if applied to our community, state, nation, and world. - HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch. 1.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. - We cannot protect people from themselves. - HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 15.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. – Welfare, which is charity by aggression, ensnares the poor in a never ending cycle known as the poverty trap. In the
1970s, welfare payments and other forms of aid available to poor families (e.g., food stamps, medical care, etc.) increased to such an extent that total
benefits exceeded the median income of the average U.S. family! In 1975, working heads of households needed to make $20,000 to give their
families benefits equivalent to what they could have on welfare. Only 25% of U.S. families earned this much! In 1979, the median family income
was $1,500 less than the potential welfare benefits for a family of the same size. In the 1970s, two working parents had to make more than the
minimum wage to match what they would receive on the dole. A young working couple with children might find that their net income after childcare
costs would be less than what they could receive on welfare. In these circumstances, accepting aid instead of working would seem like the smart
thing to do. Opting out of the work force at a young age has grave consequences later on, however. While a working person might start out with less
than those on aid, experience would eventually result in raises and a higher standard of living. On welfare, however, little progress is made over time.
Since most welfare benefits can be used only for food, medical care, and shelter, saving is almost impossible. When their working contemporaries are
ready to buy their first house, those on welfare are still unable to afford a car. The attraction of the short-term gain encourages many individuals to
choose poverty for life. One study estimated that one-sixth of aid recipients could have worked but chose leisure and the other benefits of being
supported by tax dollars instead. An elaborate study involving almost 9,000 people documented the deleterious results of a guaranteed income. One
group of subjects, who served as controls, received no benefits. An experimental group was told everyone would be given enough money to bring
total individual income to a specified target amount. Those in the experimental group who worked would receive less money than those who didn’t,
so everyone would have the same income for three consecutive years. When the control and experimental groups were compared, the results were
unequivocal. Young men who stayed unmarried throughout the experiment worked 43% less when income was guaranteed. These young men
jeopardized their future earnings by getting less work experience than their peers. Wives in the experimental group cut their hours by 20%, and their
husbands reduced their work week by 9%. If a female head of household lost her job, it took over a year for her to find a new one if she was
receiving guaranteed income. Her counterpart in the control group found new employment in less than half the time. Clearly, welfare payments
decreased the incentive to work, especially for individuals with no family responsibilities.- HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 11.
Ruwart, Dr. Mary J. (B.S. biochemistry, Ph.D. biophysics Michigan State University, Co-owner SciCom, author) – When we use aggression to
increase the wealth of disadvantaged workers we succeed only in making them poorer. - HEALING OUR WORLD, Ch 3.
Scalia, Justice Antonin - The law is perfectly well settled that the ... Bill of Rights, [was] not intended to lay down any novel principles of
government, but simply to embody certain guaranties and immunities which we had inherited from our English ancestors. - Pacific Mutual
Life Ins. Co. v. Haslip, 499 U.S. 1, 34 (1991) (concurring).
Scalia, Justice Antonin (U.S. Supreme Court) - It would... be strange to find in the midst of a catalog of the rights of individuals a provision
securing to the states the right to maintain a designated Militia' -- and to find that purely institutional guarantee accorded a position of great
prominence immediately following freedom of religion and freedom of speech." - A MATTER OF INTERPRETATION: FEDERAL COURTS AND THE LAW
(Princeton University Press, 1997, 159 pages.)
Self-Learning is the real objective of education.
Shales, Amity (editorial write for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL) – Today, our tax code doesn’t stop at merely taking its share. It also wants to
tell people how to live their lives. - THE GREEDY HAND: HOW TAXES DRIVE AMERICANS CRAZY AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT (Random House).
Shalholpe, Robert – When James Madison and his colleagues drafted the Bill of rights they ... firmly believed in two distinct principles: (1)
Individuals had the right to possess arms to defend themselves and their property; and (2) states retained the right to maintain militias composed of
these individually armed citizens ... Clearly, these men believed that the perpetuation of a republican spirit and character in their society depended
upon the freeman’s possession of arms as well as his ability and willingness to defend both himself and his society. - The Ideological Origins
of the Second Amendment, 69 JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY 599 (1982).
Shaw, George Bernard (1856-1950, Irish dramatist, critic, novelist, Nobel prize 1925) - Revolutionary movements attract those who are not good
enough for established institutions as well as those who are too good for them.
Smith, Bradley A. - Campaign finance reform measures, in particular limits on contributions and overall spending, insulate the political system from
challenge by outsiders, and hinder the ability of challengers to compete on equal terms with those already in power. - Faulty Assumptions and
Undemocratic Consequences of Campaign Finance Reform, 105 YALE L. J. 1049, 1072.
Smith, Bradley A. (Assistant professor of law at Capitol University Law School in Columbus, Ohio) -[S]ince the 1974 amendments to the Federal
Election Campaign Act, spending has risen sharply, the number of political action committees and the amount of PAC spending are up, and
incumbents have increased both their reelection rate and the rate at which they outspend their challengers. . . . Money is of much greater value to
challengers than to incumbents, so higher spending opens the political system to new people and ideas. . . . Our current campaign finance
regulations favor incumbents, stifle grassroots activity, distort and constrict political debate, and infringe on traditional First Amendment
freedoms. . . . In fact, efforts to regulate campaign finance have been little short of disastrous. They have distorted the political process, hindered
grassroots political involvement, infringed on First Amendment rights, and helped to entrench incumbents in office while doing nothing to address
the allegedly corrupting influence of money in politics. - CATO INSTITUTE POLICY ANALYSIS No. 238, CAMPAIGN FINANCE REGULATION Faulty
Assumptions and Undemocratic Consequences, September 13, 1995.
Smith, L. Neil, - [T]he Republicans and Democrats had been professional athletic teams, striving mightily to defeat each other for money, the
spectacle, for the victory itself, but for nothing else. They might even exchange members, who would be expected to play as hard for their new team
as they had for their old. - PALLAS, 70 (Ton Doherty Associates, Inc. 1993).
Smotherman, Ron – True free enterprise is consistent with the nature of all humans. - TRANSFORMING #1.
Snell, Bertrand H. - Why is it, whenever a group of internationalists get together, they always decide that Uncle Sam must be the goat?
Snyder, Jeffrey R. - Call for a cop, call for an ambulance, and call for a pizza. See who shows up first. - A Nation of Cowards, 113 PUBLIC INTEREST
40, 43 (Fall 1993).
Snyder, Jeffrey R. - Rape, robbery, and attempted murder are not typically actions rife with ambiguity or subtlety, requiring special powers of
observation and great book-learning to discern. When a man pulls a knife on a woman and says, “You’re coming with me,” her judgment that a crime
is being committed is not likely to be in error. There is little chance that she is going to shoot the wrong person. It is the police, because they are
rarely at the scene of the crime when it occurs, who are more likely to find themselves in circumstances where guilt and innocence are not so clearcut,
and in which the probability for mistakes is higher. - A Nation of Cowards, 113 PUBLIC INTEREST (Fall 1993).
Snyder, Jeffrey R. - Should you ever be the victim of an assault, a robbery, or a rape, you will find it very difficult to call the police while the act is
in progress, even if you are carrying a portable cellular phone. - A Nation of Cowards, 113 PUBLIC INTEREST (Fall 1993).
Snyder, Jeffrey R. (Attorney and Author) - Ultimately, it is the support and esteem of our neighbors that we must win, for it is upon them that the
continued enjoyment of our rights depend.
Where taxation exists, freedom cannot.
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SOUTH CAROLINA CONSTITUTION - The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be denied. - article VI,
section 24.
South Carolina Constitutional Ratification Convention - This Convention doth also declare that no Section or paragraph of the said Constitution
warrants a Construction that the states do not retain every power not expressly relinquished by them and vested in the General Government of the
Union. - THE MAKING OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC: THE GREAT DOCUMENTS, 1774-1789 p. 1023 (ed. Charles Callan Tansil, New Rochelle, N.Y.:
Arlington House 1972).
SOUTH DAKOTA CONSTITUTION - The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be denied. - article VI, section
24.
Sowell, Thomas - In the anointed we find a whole class of supposedly “thinking people" who do remarkably little thinking about substance and a
great deal of verbal expression. In order that this relatively small group of people can believe themselves wiser and nobler than the common herd, we
have adopted policies which impose heavy costs on millions of other human beings, not only in taxes but in lost jobs, social disintegration, and loss
of personal safety. Seldom have so few cost so much to so many. - THE VISION OF THE ANOINTED: SELF-CONGRATULATIONS AS THE BASIS FOR PUBLIC
POLICY.
Sowell, Thomas - Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with
what sounded good.
Sparks, Bertel M. - Suppose the tax rate had been fixed at 100 percent and extended to include the incomes of workers being employed to build the
pyramids as well as others. Under that arrangement the pharaoh could have returned to each worker what the pharaoh determined was sufficient for
minimum food, clothing, and housing needs, and retained any excess over that amount to buy materials for the pyramids and to otherwise enhance
the royal treasury. By bringing everyone into the system, it could have been used to administer equality of treatment, a doctrine that usually meets
with popular approval. But a freedom to work at an occupation of one’s choosing is an empty freedom if the worker loses control of the product of
his work. Another difficulty in such a system is that if the fruits of one’s work are not his, it is unlikely that there will be much work performed. -
Why Not Slavery?, THE FREEMAN, p. 745, November 1996.
Sparks, Bertel M. (1918-1994; professor of law New York University and Duke University; trustee of the Foundation for Economic Freedom) -
[C]inematic productions ... have made most of us intensely aware of the cruelty of Egyptian slavery. ... But suppose the Egyptian pharaohs had not
used slave labor. Suppose the workers had been left free to seek their own employment and to follow whatever work, trade, or craft they chose. If the
pharaohs had then seized the workers’ wages through taxation and used that revenue to hire other workers to build the pyramids, would the people
whose incomes were being seized be in any better position than they were as slaves? If our attention is centered upon the inhumanity of the lashings
that were applied to slaves when they failed to meet their production quotas, we might tend to believe the “free” workers whose substance was being
taken were in the more favored position. But if our attention is centered upon the failure of the worker to have any choice as to how the product of his
labor is to be used, we will see little difference between the two situations. In either event the worker is being deprived of any choice as to how his
productive capacity will be used. - Why Not Slavery?, THE FREEMAN, p. 744, November 1996.
Speak the truth , even if your voice shakes.
Spencer, Herbert – [T]hat every man may claim the fullest liberty to exercise his faculties compatible with the possession of like liberty by every
other man. - SOCIAL STATICS, 1851
Stark, General - Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils.
Stern, Howard - You don’t know what it’s like to grow up in the real world, to actually have to work for a living.... My grandfather wasn’t a
criminal who passed down his money to a series of leeches who are so non-productive that they’ve just about pissed away the family fortune.... My
uncle never drowned a poor young woman and got away with it. My aunt never married an old Greek just so she could raid his coffers. My uncles
never gang banged Marilyn Monroe. - In An Open Letter to All the Third Generation Kennedy’s (Except for my friend, Arnold Schwarzenegger),
MISS AMERICA (New York: Harper Collins).
Stevenson, Adlai E(wing) (1900-1965, U.S. statesman & diplomat, grandson of Adlai Ewing Stevenson—1835-1914, V.P. of U.S.) - Communism is
the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity—in short, of tyranny—and it is committed to making tyranny universal.
Stevenson, Adlai E. - Every man has a right to be heard, but no man has a right to strangle democracy with a single set of vocal cords.
Stone, Chief Justice Harlan F. (12th Chief Justice, US Supreme Court) - The law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is to be decided.
- 1941.
Story, Chief Justice Joseph - One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purpose without resistance is, by disarming the people,
and making it an offense to keep arms. - COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 646 (5th ed. 1891); A FAMILIAR EXPOSITION OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 264 (republished 1893) (1840).
Story, Chief Justice Joseph Story – Contemporary construction is properly resorted to illustrate and confirm the text, to explain a doubtful phrase,
or to expound an obscure clause; and in proportion to the universality of that construction, and the known ability and talents of those, by whom it is
given, is the credit, to which it is entitled. It can never abrogate the text; it can never fritter away its obvious sense; it can never narrow down its true
limitations; it can never enlarge its natural boundaries. - 1 COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 288 (3d. ed. 1858).
******************************************************************************************************************
Taney, Chief Justice Roger - It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognized as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to
enter every other State whenever they pleased, ... and it would give them the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon
which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went. - commenting
on what rights American citizens have, and that black slaves would also have these rights if the courts were to treat them as citizens. Dred Scott v.
Sanford, 60 U.S. 393, 417 (19 How. 1, 20) (1857).
Tax evasion is a public service.
Taxation is theft.
Taxation punishes productive virtues while rewarding parasitic vices.
Taxes are the measure of our failure to civilize society.
Taxes are what we pay for an uncivilized society.
TENNESSEE CONSTITUTION – That all power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their
peace, safety, and happiness, for the advancement of those ends they have at all times, an unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or
abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper. - Article 1 Section 1.
TENNESSEE CONSTITUTION - That the citizens of this state have a right to keep and bear arms for their common defense; but the Legislature shall have
power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime. - Article I, Section 26.
TENNESSEE CONSTITUTION – That the sure and certain defense of a free people, is a well regulated militia; and, as standing armies in time of peace are
dangerous to freedom, they ought to be avoided as far as the circumstances and safety of the community will admit, and that in all cases the military
shall be kept in strict subordination to the civil authority. - Article 1, Section 24.
TENNESSEE CONSTITUTION – The declaration of rights heretofore prefixed is declared to be a part of the Constitution of this State, and shall never be
violated on any pretense whatever. And to guard against transgression of the high powers we have delegated, we declare that everything in the bill
of rights contained, is excepted out of the General powers of government, and shall forever remain inviolate. - Article 11, Section 16.
Tennessee Supreme Court – Bearing arms for the common defense may well be held to be a political right, or for protection and maintenance of
such rights, intended to be guaranteed; but the right to keep them, with all that is implied fairly as an incident to this right, is a private individual
right, guaranteed to the citizen, not the soldier. - Andrews, v. State, 50 TENN. 141, 156, 3 HEISK. 165, 182 (1871).
TEXAS CONSTITUTION - Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State; but the Legislature shall
have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime. - article I, section 23.
Texas Supreme Court - [T]he arms which every person is secured the right to keep and bear (in defense of himself or the State, subject to legislative
regulation), must be such arms as are commonly kept, ... and are appropriate for ... self-defense, as well as such as are proper for the defense of the
State. - State v. Duke, 42 Tex. 455, 458 (1875).
The American Dream is liberty.
The broader the reach of government the more arbitrary its actions.
The conventions of a number of the States having, at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent
misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, and as extending the ground of public
confidence in the government will but ensure the beneficent ends of its institution: Resolved, By the Senate and the house of Representatives
of the United States of America, In Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the
legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the constitution of the United States; all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of
the legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said constitution, namely: - Preamble to the Bill of Rights. (emphasis
added).
The federal government has no real checks and balances. The Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary are all tentacles of the same octopus. They
all receive their sustenance from the same nipple. They all have a single common interest—power.
The government that governs least is no government at all.
The Government uses guns to enforce gun bans.
The idea of State sovereignty was to ensure that the federal government would be kept in a box. The power of the United States was to be scattered to
the four corners of the country, to ensure that no man would have enough power to be a tyrant.
The income tax is a tax on prosperity.
The majority can never be a substitute for the individual.
The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. When you're inside, you look around -- what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers,
carpenters... the very minds of the people we're trying to save, but until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our
enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert -- so helplessly dependant on
the system – that they will fight to protect it.... "Were you listening to me, Neo, or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?"
The more laws, the more offenders.
The only speech ever in need of First Amendment protection is speech deemed to be offensive.
The problem’s source is not the abuse of power, but rather the power to abuse.
The result of government dependence is bondage.
The right to keep and bear arms saves lives, insures safety, deters oppression, and prevents genocide.
The root cause of all crime is criminals.
The Second Amendment means exactly what it says.
The Swiss do not have an army, they are the army - A Swiss publication.
The U.S. Constitution may be flawed, but it’s a whole lot better than what we have now.
89
The United Nations is an unaccountable, ineffective, giant, oppressive, power hungry bureaucracy, whose favorite pastime is attacking anything and
everything American, while demanding more and more money from the U.S.A. to support it.
The major Press in the United States is merely a great musical instrument on which the government plays.
There’s no government like no government.
Thomas, Justice Clarence - Be a hero, not a victim. You can’t be both at the same time. It’s one or the other. - spoken to the graduating class at
Liberty University in Virginia.
Thomas, Justice Clarence – The Second Amendment similarly appears to contain an express limitation on the government’s authority .... This
Court has not had recent occasion to consider the nature of the substantive right safeguarded by the Second Amendment. If, however, the Second
Amendment is read to confer a personal right to “keep and bear arms,” a colorable argument exists that the Federal Government’s regulating scheme,
at least as it pertains to the purely intrastate sale or possession of firearms runs afoul of that Amendment’s protections. As the parties did not raise
this argument, however, we need not consider it here. Perhaps, at some future date, this Court will have the opportunity to determine whether Justice
Story was correct when he wrote that the right to bear arms “has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of the republic.” -
Printz v. United States, 117 S. Ct. 2365, 2386 (1997).
Those who wish to save their neighbors by forcibly bending them to their own will (seatbelt laws, helmet laws, drug prohibition) are prescribing the
recipe for eternal war.
Tillinghast, Towers, Perrin (accounting firm) - Between 1930 and 1994, U.S. tort costs rose by a factor of 400. - quoted by Dave Shifflett,
Alabama Jury Booty, THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR, p. 36, April, 1996.
TIME MAGAZINE - Dog tags . . . will be replaced by a microchip embedded in a molar. . . . Scanners will read bar code data off the tooth, such as blood
type, allergies, medical history. - The Soldier of the Future, February 12, 1992.
Tolkien, J.R.R. – I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo. So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that
is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING.
Tolkien, J.R.R. - Courage is found in unlikely places.
Trenchard, John and Thomas Gordon [authors of Cato’s Letters, written under the pen name Cato in honor of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis
a.k.a. Cato the Younger (95-46 BC, staunch defender of republican principles and opponent of Julius Caesar), Cato’s Letters were published weekly
for 3 years in the LONDON JOURNAL in the 1720s] - Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus. [virtue is the one and only nobility].
Trenchard, John and Thomas Gordon a.k.a. Cato - Tyranny is not government but a dissolution of it. - Cato’s Letters, LONDON JOURNAL
.
Troy, Daniel E. – [If Bill Clinton were to murder someone] respected “scholars” would ... argue that it was “private” and did not “threaten” our
constitutional system. - AMERICAN SPECTATOR, April, 1999.
Truth is the first casualty of war.
Twain, Mark - For in a Republic, who is “the country?” Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is
merely a servant- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot
and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.
Twain, Mark - I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
Twain, Mark - If you can’t stand solitude, perhaps others find you boring as well.
Twain, Mark - In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man and brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid
join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
Twain, Mark - What if I were a member of Congress, and what if I were an idiot? But I repeat myself.
Twain, Mark - Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to stop and reflect.
Tyrrell, R. Emmett, Jr. - ...[W]ords and actions have no meaning. The Constitution and its laws can be manipulated. Power is all that matters. -
CONSERVATIVE CHRONICLE, June 28, 1995.
Tyrrell, R. Emmett, Jr. - Over the past three years I have come to admire Bill Clinton as quite possibly the greatest liar in the history of presidential
politics. We began with George Washington who could not tell a lie, and here we are with Bill Clinton who cannot avoid telling one. - Lying Still,
The AMERICAN SPECTATOR, p. 19, March 1996.
U.S. Congress – [T]he right ... to have full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings concerning personal liberty, personal security, and the
acquisition, enjoyment, and disposition of estate, real and personal, including the constitutional right to bear arms, shall be secured to and enjoyed by
all the citizens of such State or district without respect to race or color or previous condition of slavery. - passed by the reconstructionist
Congress as the Freedman’s Bureau Act, 14 STAT. 173, 176, 177 (1866).
U.S. Congress - CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS—The Congress finds that—(1) the rights of citizens—(A) to keep and bear arms under the second
amendment to the United States Constitution; (B) to security against illegal and unreasonable searches and seizures under the fourth amendment; (C)
against uncompensated taking of property, double jeopardy, and assurance of due process of law under the fifth amendment; and (D) against
unconstitutional exercise of authority under the ninth and tenth amendments; require additional legislation to correct existing firearms statutes and
enforcement policies; and (2) additional legislation is required to reaffirm the intent of the Congress, as expressed in section 101 of the Gun Control
Act of 1968, that “it is not the purpose of this title to place any undue or unnecessary Federal restrictions or burdens on law-abiding citizens with
respect to the acquisition, possession, or use of firearms appropriate to the purpose of hunting, trap shooting, target shooting, personal protection, or
any other lawful activity, and that this title is not intended to discourage or eliminate the private ownership or use of firearms by law-abiding citizens
for lawful purposes.” Firearms Owners Protection Act § 1(b), 100 Stat. 449 (1986) codified at 18 U.S.C. § 921 et seq.
U.S. Congress - Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed—(1) to authorize the requisitioning or require the registration of any firearms
possessed by any individual for his personal protection or sport (and the possession of which is not prohibited or the registration of which is not
required by existing law), (2) to impair or infringe in any manner the right of any individual to keep and bear arms, or (3) to authorize the
requisitioning of any machinery or equipment which is in actual use in connection with any operating factory or business and which is necessary to
the operation of such factory or business. - Property Requisition Act, ch. 445, 55 Stat. 742 (1941).
U.S. CONSTITUTION - A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not
be infringed. - Second Amendment.
U.S. CONSTITUTION - Before he [the President] enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation: “I DO
SOLEMNLY SWEAR (OR AFFIRM), THAT I WILL FAITHFULLY EXECUTE THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES, AND WILL TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY, PRESERVE, PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED
STATES.” - Article II, Section 1, clause 8.
U.S. CONSTITUTION - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. - First
Amendment.
U.S. CONSTITUTION - Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. - Eighth
Amendment.
U.S. CONSTITUTION - In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and
district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature
and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to
have the Assistance of counsel for his defense. - Sixth Amendment.
U.S. CONSTITUTION - In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved,
and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United states, than according to the rules of common law. - Seventh
Amendment.
U.S. CONSTITUTION - No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. - Article I, Section 9, clause 2.
U.S. CONSTITUTION - No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a
manner to be prescribed by law. - Third Amendment.
U.S. CONSTITUTION - The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and
judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this constitution; but no
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. - Article VI, clause 3.
U.S. CONSTITUTION - The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said
crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law
have directed. - Article III, Section 2, clause 3.
U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia – [W]hether a government hiring program imposes hard quotas, soft quotas, or goals. Any one of these
techniques induces an employer to hire with an eye toward meeting the numerical target. As such, they can and surely will result in individuals being
granted a preference because of their race. - Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod v. FCC, 141 F. 3d 344, 354 (1998).
U.S. Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit - The right to defend oneself from a deadly attack is fundamental. - United States v. Panter, 688 F.2d 268,
271 (1982).
U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit – [T]he Second Amendment embodies the right to defend oneself and one’s home against physical attack.
- United States v. Gomez, 1996 U.S. APP. LEXIS 7815 at *9, n. 7 (1996).
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas – [T]he framers saw the personal right to bear arms as a potential check against tyranny. ... The
framers thought the personal right to bear arms to be a paramount right by which other rights could be protected. ... [T]he federalists agreed with
Blackstone that an armed populace was the ultimate check on tyranny. - United States v. Timothy Joe Emerson, 46 F. Supp 2d 598 Case No.
6:98-CR-103-C (March 30, 1999).
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas – A historical examination of the right to bear arms, from English antecedents to the drafting of the
Second Amendment, bears proof that the right to bear arms has consistently been, and should still be, construed as an individual right. ... After
declaring independence from England and establishing a new government through the Constitution, the American founders sought to codify the
individual right to bear arms, as did their forebears one hundred years earlier in the English Bill of Rights. - United States v. Timothy Joe
Emerson, 46 F. Supp 2d 598 Case No. 6:98-CR-103-C (March 30, 1999).
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas – The plain language of the [Second] amendment, without attenuate inferences there from, shows
that the function of the subordinate clause was not to qualify the right, but instead to show why it must be protected. The right exists independent of
the existence of the militia. ... [A] textual analysis of the Second Amendment clearly declares a substantive right to bear arms recognized in the
people of the United States. - United States v. Timothy Joe Emerson, 46 F. Supp 2d 598 Case No. 6:98-CR-103-C (March 30, 1999).
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Alabama, Southern District - The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees to all
Americans the right “to keep and bear arms” and further provides that this right “shall not be infringed.” - Gilbert Equipment Company, Inc. v.
Higgins, 709 F. Supp. 1071, 1090 (1989) affirmed 894 F.2d 412 (11th Cir. 1990).
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Military Affairs - In view of the fact that certain totalitarian and dictatorial nations are now
engaged in the willful and wholesale destruction of personal rights and liberties, our committee deems it appropriate for the Congress to expressly
state that the proposed legislation shall not be construed to impair or infringe the constitutional right of the people to bear arms.... There is no
disposition on the part of this Government to depart from the concepts and principles of personal rights and liberties expressed in our Constitution.
H.R. Rep. No. 1120, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 2 (1941).
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Military Affairs - It is not contemplated or even inferred that the President, or any executive board,
agency, or officer, would trespass upon the right of the people in this respect. There appears to be no occasion for the requisition of firearms owned
and maintained by the people for sport and recreation, nor is there any desire or intention on the part of the Congress or the President to impair or
infringe the right of the people under section 2 of the Constitution of the United States, which reads, in part, as follows: “the right of the people to
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” However, in view of the fact that certain totalitarian and dictatorial nations are now engaged in the willful
and wholesale destruction of personal rights and liberties, your committee deem[s] it appropriate for the Congress to expressly state that the proposed
legislation shall not be construed to impair or infringe the constitutional right of the people to bear arms. In so doing, it will be manifest that,
although the Congress deems it expedient to grant certain extraordinary powers to the Executive in furtherance of the common defense during critical
times, there is no disposition on the part of this Government to depart from the concepts and principles of personal rights and liberties expressed in
our Constitution. - H.R. Rep. No. 1120, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 2 (1941).
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee – [A]pproximately 75 percent of BATF gun prosecutions were aimed at ordinary citizens who had neither
criminal intent nor knowledge, but were enticed by agents into unknowing technical violations. - December 9 & 1, 1981, and February 8, 1992.
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee - The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms therefore, is a right of the individual citizen to privately
possess and carry in a peaceful manner firearms and similar arms. Such an “individual rights” interpretation is in full accord with the history of the
right to keep and bear arms, as previously discussed.... [This interpretation] accurately reflects the majority of the proposals which led up to the Bill
of Rights itself. A number of state constitutions, adopted prior to or contemporaneously with the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, similarly
provided for a right of the people to keep and bear arms. If in fact this language creates a right protecting the states only, there might be a reason for it
to be inserted in the federal Constitution but no reason for it to be inserted in state constitutions. State bills of rights necessarily protect only against
action by the state, and by definition a state cannot infringe its own rights; to attempt to protect a right belonging to the state by inserting it in
limitation of the state’s own powers would create absurdity.... The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the second
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half-century after
its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of private citizens to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner. - The Right
to Keep and Bear Arms, Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, S. Doc. No. 2807, 97th Congress, 2nd
Session at 10-12 (1982).
U.S. Supreme Court - The signification attributed to the term Militia appears from the debates in the Convention, the history and legislation of
Colonies and States, and the writings of approved commentators. These show plainly enough that the Militia comprised all males physically capable
of acting in concert for the common defense ... and further, that ordinarily when called for service these men were expected to appear bearing arms
supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time. - U.S. v. Miller 307 U.S. 174, 179 (1939).
U.S. Supreme Court – [T]he power to tax is the power to destroy. - McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat 316 (1819).
U.S. Supreme Court – [The Jury], having been conceived as the bulwark between the citizen and the government is now a tool of the executive.
– 1973.
U.S. Supreme Court – [The] full scope of ... liberty [is not limited to] the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms;
the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. - Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992).
U.S. Supreme Court - “[T]he people” seems to have been a term of art employed in select parts of the Constitution. The Preamble declares that the
Constitution is ordained and established by “the People of the United States.” The Second Amendment protects “the right of the people to keep and
bear Arms,” and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments provide that certain rights and powers are retained by and reserved to “the people.” - United
States v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 U.S. 259, 265 (1990).
U.S. Supreme Court - Each [freedom in the Bill of Rights] establishes a norm of conduct which the Federal Government is bound to honor—to no
greater or lesser extent than any other inscribed in the constitution.... Moreover, we know of no principled basis on which to create a hierarchy of
constitutional values.... - Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church & State, Inc., 454 U.S. 464, 484 (1982).
U.S. Supreme Court - However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the
competition of other ideas. - Gerta v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 339-340 (1974).
U.S. Supreme Court - In interpreting the act, we must assume that it is a taxing measure, for otherwise it would be no law at all. If it is a mere act
for the purpose of regulating and restraining the purchase of the opiate and other drugs, it is beyond the power of Congress, and must be regarded as
invalid .... Everything in the construction of Section 2 must be regarded as directed toward the collection of the taxes imposed and Section 1 of the
prevention of evasion by persons subject to the tax. ... Congress by merely calling an act a taxing act can not make it a legitimate exercise of taxing
power under Section 8 of article 1 of the Federal Constitution, if in fact the words of the act show clearly its real purpose is otherwise. - Nigro
v. United States, 276 U.S. 332, 341-32 (1928).
U.S. Supreme Court - It cannot be presumed that any clause in the constitution is intended to be without effect; and therefore such a construction is
inadmissible, unless the words require it. - Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 174 (1803).
U.S. Supreme Court - It is also conceivable that some applications of [the Gun Free School Zones Act] might raise Second Amendment concerns.
Lopez does not raise the Second Amendment and thus we do not now consider it. Nevertheless, this orphan of the Bill of Rights may be something of
a brooding omnipresence here. - United States v. Lopez, 2 F.3d 1342 (5th Cir.1993) affirmed 115 S. Ct. 1624 (1995).
U.S. Supreme Court – It is the duty of the courts to be watchful for the Constitutional rights of the citizen, and against any stealthy encroachments
thereon. - Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 635 (1886).
U.S. Supreme Court - The assumption that respect for the judiciary can be won by shielding judges from published criticism wrongly appraises the
character of American public opinion. For it is a prized American privilege to speak one’s mind on all public institutions. And an enforced silence,
however limited, solely in the name of preserving the dignity of the bench, would probably engender resentment, suspicion, and contempt much more
than it would enhance respect. - Bridges v. California, 314 U.S. 252, 270-271 (1941).
U.S. Supreme Court - The constitutional protection does not turn upon “the truth, popularity, or social utility of the ideas and beliefs which are
offered.” As Madison said, “Some degree of abuse is inseparable from the proper use of every thing; and in no instance is this more true than in that
of the press.” ... [T]o persuade others to his own point of view, the pleader, as we know, at times, resorts to exaggeration, to vilification of men who
have been, or are, prominent in church or state, and even to false statement. But the people of this nation have ordained in the light of history, that, in
spite of the probability of excesses and abuses, these liberties are, in the long view, essential to enlightened opinion and right conduct on the part of
the citizens of a democracy. - New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 271 (1964).
U.S. Supreme Court - The first ten amendments ... were substantially contemporaneous and should be construed in pari materia. - Patton
v. United States, 281 U.S. 276, 298 (1930).
U.S. Supreme Court – The very purpose of a Bill of Rights is to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place
them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. - West Virginia State Board
of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 638 (1943).
U.S. Supreme Court - This constitutional protection must not be interpreted in a hostile or niggardly spirit .... As no constitutional guarantee enjoys
preference, so none should suffer subordination or deletion .... To view a particular provision of the Bill of Rights with disfavor inevitably results in
a constricted application of it. This is to disrespect the Constitution. - Ullmann v. United States, 350 U.S. 422, 426-29 (1956).
U.S. Supreme Court - Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them.
- Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 491.
Uncle Sam is watching you!
Under every government the dernier resort of the people, is an appeal to the sword; whether to defend themselves against 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. ... [Y]our liberties will be
safe as long as you support a well regulated militia. - signed “A Framer” and addressed “To The Yeomanry of Pennsylvania,” INDEPENDENT
GAZATEER, January 29, 1791, at 2, col. 3.
Under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the U.S. government arrested hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans of Japanese heritage and
imprisoned them in concentration camps. Although the U.S. government promised it would never use census data for anything other than raw totals
and statistical analysis, the U.S. government used the census information to determine what houses Japanese Americans were living in, how many
Japanese Americans were in each family, and how many Japanese American families were in each neighborhood. President Roosevelt further
intentionally violated the Constitution’s protections through enumerated powers with his court-packing threats to the Supreme Court which
“persuaded” enough justices to reverse their own holdings and uphold the president’s “New Deal” power grabs as “constitutional.” In July of
1944, at Port Chicago, California, a large contingent of black American soldiers disintegrated in a bright white fireball explosion (rating 3.4 on the
Richter scale, producing a 9000 foot high and 3 mile wide mushroom cloud, and a crater 66 feet deep, 300 feet wide and 700 feet long) which some
claim was probably the first detonation of “the gun” design uranium driven atomic bomb. (The government contends this explosion was not a nuclear
test, but an accidental explosion of 1,780 tons of TNT aboard the ship E. A. Bryan. Evidence suggests that this explosion was a nuclear detonation.
See The Proponent, September, 1995; Peter Voges, The Last Wave From Port Chicago, THE BLACK SCHOLAR, Spring, 1982.) Later, from 1944 through
1974, the U.S. government secretly carried out 1000s of radiation experiments on tens of thousands of unknowing Americans. See e.g., Tales from
the Crypt, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORTS, September 18, 1995. Some question whether a fascist/socialist tyranny could ever occur in the United States.
It has already started.
United Nations: visualize world police/world military/world bondage.
United States Code - The militia of the United states consists of all able bodied males at least 17 years of age and ... under 45 years of age who are,
or who have made declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States, and of female citizens of the United States who are members of
the National Guard. - 10 U.S.C. § 311(a).
United States District Court, Northern District of Texas – [T]he American Bill of rights, like the English Bill of Rights, recognized the
individual’s right to have weapons for his own defense, rather than for collective defense. ... In retrospect, the framers designed the Second
Amendment to guarantee an individual’s right to arms for self-defense. Such an individual right was the legacy of the English Bill of Rights.
American colonial practice, the constitutional ratification debates, and state proposals over the amendment all bear this out. - United States v.
Timothy Joe Emerson, Case No. 6:98-CR-103-C (March 30, 1999).
United States District Court, Northern District of Texas – The structure of the Second Amendment within the Bill of Rights proves that the right
to bear arms is an individual right, rather than a collective one. ... Furthermore, the very inclusion of the right to keep and bear arms in the Bill of
Rights shows that the framers of the constitution considered it an individual right. ... Thus, the structure of the Second Amendment, viewed in the
context of the entire Bill of rights, evinces an intent to recognize an individual right retained by the people. - United States v. Timothy
Joe Emerson, Case No. 6:98-CR-103-C (March 30, 1999).
United States Supreme Court – [T]here is a long tradition of widespread lawful gun ownership by private individuals in this country. - Staples
v. United States, 511 U.S. 600, 610 (1994).
UNREPORTED NEWS, THE - Have you ever wondered what happened to those men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were
captured by the British as traitors. At least a dozen of the fifty-six had there homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Continental
Army. Another had two sons captured. Several took part in various battles of the War for Independence, and many suffered wounds or other physical
hardships. ... They risked all and gave us a free and independent America. Can we keep it? - The price of freedom Declaration of Independence
not ‘politically correct’ in ’76, October 31, 1995.
UTAH CONSTITUTION - The individual right of the people to keep and bear arms for security and defense of self, family, others, property, or the state, as
well as for other lawful purposes shall not be infringed; but nothing herein shall prevent the Legislature from defining the lawful use of arms. -
article I, section 6.
VERMONT CONSTITUTION - That the people have a right to keep and bear arms for the defence of themselves and the State—and as standing armies in
time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to and governed by
the civil power. - ch. I, article 16.
VIRGINIA CONSTITUTION - 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, therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; 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. - article I, section
13.
Virtually all reasonable laws are obeyed, not because they are law, but because reasonable people would do that anyway. If you obey a law simply
because it is the law, that’s a pretty likely sign that it shouldn’t be a law.
Visualize No Taxes.
WALL STREET JOURNAL - We are a nation of lawbreakers.... Nearly all people violate some laws, and many people run afoul of dozens of others
without ever being considered, or considering themselves, to be lawbreakers. ... [L]aws that are broken with impunity make it difficult for people to
predict the consequences of their acts. - March 12, 1993, front page.
WALL STREET JOURNAL - What will happen if severe restrictions on semi-automatic rifles pass Congress or the state legislatures today? Millions of
citizens who still believe in the Constitution will not forfeit or register their firearms; squads of federal and state agents will snoop; massive no-knock
warrants will be issued; and both citizens and police will die in raids. While previously law-abiding citizens (now felons) and police battle each other,
the drug lords will continue their nefarious trafficking. Adding firearms prohibition to drug prohibition means war on the innocent (and perhaps a
police state), and by diverting police resources, will give armed pushers even more free reign.
Wanniski, Jude (economics consultant) - When the government puts a high tax on capital gains, the people who lose the most from a high rate are
the poorest, the youngest, those at the beginning of their careers, those who are furthest from the sources of capital.... the people who ultimately
benefit from a capital gains tax cut are those who have no wealth, but aspire to it. - testimony before the Senate Finance committee, February 15,
1995.
War is the health of the state.
Warning: Government may be hazardous to your health.
WASHINGTON CONSTITUTION - The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in
this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men. - article I, section
24.
WASHINGTON POST - Justice Department studies show that armed citizens are much less likely to suffer losses or personal injury from thieves. -
January 7, 1992.
WASHINGTON WATCH - Did the local schools notice the difference when 89 percent of the U.S. Education Department’s 5,500 employees were sent
home as “non-essential” federal workers during the recent budget showdown? Equally unnoticeable is any improvement resulting from Washington
D.C.’s recurrent attempts at top-down reform: National Education Goals, the Goals Panel, Goals 2000, the National Standards for U.S. History. With
all the rhetoric and frenzy over initiatives with such visionary titles you’d expect to see some results as 1995 draws to a close.
Washington, George - A free people ought . . . to be armed . . . . - speech of January 7, 1790 in the BOSTON INDEPENDENT CHRONICLE, January 8,
1790.
Washington, George - Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master. Never for a
moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
Washington, Pres. George - Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone
under independence. From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences and tendencies prove that to ensure peace, security
and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference—they deserve a
place of honor with all that's good.
Washington, Pres. George - The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would
reject. At other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and
pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim. - Farewell Address, September 17, 1796.
Washington, Pres. George (Feb. 22, 1732-Dec. 14, 1799) - The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our
commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. - Farewell Address, September 17, 1796.
Washington, President George – The very presence of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference.
We are not our brothers’ keepers. No one can justly saddle us with that responsibility, and no honorable person wishes to be kept.
well-regulated: examples of the term “well regulated” given by the Oxford English Dictionary: 1709 “If a liberal Education has formed in us ... well-regulated Appetites, and worthy Inclinations.”; 1714 “The practice of all well-regulated courts of justice in the world.”; 1812 “The equation of
time...is the adjustment of the difference of time, as shown by a well-regulated clock and a true sun dial.”; 1848 “A remissness for which I am sure
every well-regulated person will blame the Major.”; 1862 “It appeared to her well-regulated mind, like a clandestine proceeding.”; 1894 “The
newspaper, a never wanting adjunct to every well-regulated American embryo city.”
What part of “shall not be infringed” did you not understand?
Whatever you do, stay out of the middle of the road because there is nothing there except road kill and a yellow stripe.
Wheeler, Dr. Timothy, M.D. - America has plenty of gun control, but very little violence control. It is a lot tougher to deal with the person behind
the gun than the gun itself. Guns are not the root of violent behavior. - testimony at the Reducing Gun Violence: Hearings on S. 1882 before the
Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 103rd Congress, 1st Session (1994).
When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will have freedom.
When only the police have guns, it's called a police state.
When your local, state or federal government disarms you and me, it does nothing to stop brutal thugs. It empowers them.
Williams, Walter - [T]here’s something happening in our country far worse than the tragedy of black churches being torched. Part of that tragedy
might be that increasing numbers of white people are becoming insensitive toward acts of violence of this sort. .... Let’s look at just a
few things that may create such an attitude. According to the U.S. Justice Department’s 1993 report “Highlights From 20 Years of Surveying Crime
Victims,” there are about 6.6 million violent crimes committed each year (murder, rape, robbery and assault). Twenty percent of those crimes are
interracial, but 90 percent of the victims of interracial crimes are white. Blacks murder whites at 18 times the rate that whites murder blacks. Blackon-
white assaults are 21 times the rate of white-on-black assaults. In cases of rape, blacks are 64 times more likely to rape a white woman than whites
are to rape a black woman. If ... starkly differing interracial crime rates is not enough to sour race relations, there’s court sanctions and pockets of
vocal black support for black criminals. The most visible ... was the O.J. Simpson acquittal and the televised glee of many black people and black
“spokesmen.” Then there’s the failure of the national media to report black hate crimes such as that against Michael Westerman of Guthrie, Ky.,
murdered by a carload of blacks who were offended by his flying a Confederate flag on his pickup truck; or Mark Belmore, a white student at
Northeastern University stabbed to death by four black men who made a pact to kill the first white person they saw; or Melissa McLauchlin,
murdered by six black men in Charleston, S.C., several of whom told the police they made a sort of New Year’s resolution to kidnap a white woman,
rape her and then kill her. The same week Melissa McLauchlin was raped and murdered, a few hundred miles away in Tallahassee, Fla., a black man
was set on fire by two white youths. That incident made the national media, and President Clinton mentioned it in his State of the Union address ....
Neither ... mentioned the racially motivated murder of Melissa McLauchlin. ... Civility is fragile under the best of circumstances and can unravel
over night. Civility is in an even more precarious state in multi-ethnic, racial and religious societies. ... Americans are stacking piles of combustible
societal kindling, in the form of quotas, false reporting and implicit sanctioning of interracial crimes, waiting to be set ablaze by racial arsonists.
We’d better do something about it while we can. - Souring racial relationships, THE CONSERVATIVE CHRONICLE, p. 8, July 17, 1996.
Williams, Walter - Historically, blacks have faced far greater discrimination in non-profits such as colleges and government. In 1936, only three
black Ph.D.s were employed by the white universities in the United States, whereas 300 black chemists were employed in private industry. ... [N]onprofits
can more easily sacrifice efficiency and indulge racial preferences and still stay in business because they don't have the discipline of profits.
That means when it's politically popular to discriminate against blacks, non-profits will be at the forefront. And when it's politically popular to
discriminate in favor of blacks, non-profits also will be at the forefront. It's two sides of the same coin. - The Pretense of Superiority, JEWISH
WORLD REVIEW, August 24, 1998.
Williams, Walter E. (black American born in Philadelphia, PA; bachelor’s degree in economics from California State Univ., Master degree and
Ph.D. in economics from UCLA; has served as professor of economics for Los Angeles City College (1967-1969), California State University (1967-
1971), Temple University (1973-1980), and George Mason University (1980-present); he has authored THE STATE AGAINST BLACKS, AMERICA: A
MINORITY VIEWPOINT, ALL IT TAKES IS GUTS, and SOUTH AFRICA’S WAR AGAINST CAPITALISM; he sits on many advisory boards including the Review Board
of Economics Studies for the National Science Foundation, the Reason Foundation, the National Tax Limitation Committee, the Taxpayer’s
Foundation, and the Hoover Institute; member of American Economic Association, the Mont Pelerin Society, and Distinguished Scholar of the
Heritage Foundation; libertarian) - Among our God-given rights is the right of self-defense. The founders knew this well and charged Congress,
through the Second Amendment, to protect (not grant) that right. ... if America is to remain free, we must not compromise with those who would strip
us of our right to keep and bear arms.
WINCHESTER GAZETTE (Virginia) – There are other things so clearly out of the power of Congress, that the bare recital of them is sufficient. I mean
“rights of conscience, or religious liberty—the rights of bearing arms for defence, or for killing game—the liberty of fowling, hunting and fishing ...”
- February 22, 1788.
WYOMING CONSTITUTION - The right of citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and of the state shall not be denied. - article I, section 24.
Zelman, Aaron and Richard W. Stevens – a key element in the genocide formula is powerful government. So what happens when there is world
government? ... [T]he united Nations should more accurately be dubbed the united government. There has never been a worldwide vote of the
people to ratify the U.N. charter. There has never been a world election to select representatives from each nation to the UN. Rather, the delegates to
the UN are appointed by their respective governments. And who are these government? ... 55% of the world’s nations are not “free” countries.
Most of the “free” nations themselves labor under varying forms of “democratic” socialism (welfare statism). Perhaps a better name for the UN is
the union of Socialist and military Regimes: a collection of entities ... ranging in degrees of evil from “necessary” to “intolerable.” Not
surprisingly, the UN member governments seek to preserve and enlarge their powers. To concentrate political power into the hands of national and
then world governments ... - DEATH BY “GUN CONTROL” 263 (2001).
Zelman, Aaron and Richard W. Stevens – Minorities who fail to prepare for self defense against their own government are easy targets of the
Genocide formula. - DEATH BY “GUN CONTROL” 195 (2001).
PRO-FREEDOM/LIBERTY ORIENTED ORGANIZATIONS
Advocates for Self-Government – Excellent resource for learning and communicating libertarian ideas; publishes LIBERATOR, and markets tapes,
books, videos, plus; The Liberty Building, 213 South Erwin Street, Cartersville, GA 30120 (770) 386-8372. http://www.self-gov.org
American Jury Institute (FIJA) - dedicated to preserving the jury system as a check on oppressive government, preserving jury rights, and
informing people about jury power, publishes the FIJACTIVIST; P.O. Box 5570, Helena, MT 59604-5570. (406) 442-7800; for membership call (800)
TEL - JURY. http://www.fija.org
Campaign for Liberty - The U.S. Constitution is at the heart of what the Campaign for Liberty stands for, since the very least we can demand of
our government is fidelity to its own governing document. C4L promotes our Founding Fathers position of a noninterventionist foreign policy. C4L
promotes the free market, the most just and humane economic system and the greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever known. C4L opposes
the dehumanizing assumption that all issues that divide us must be settled at the federal level and forced on every American community, whether by
activist judges, a power-hungry executive, or a meddling Congress. http://www.campaignforliberty.com/
Center for Individual Rights - pro bono libertarian/conservative legal defense organization, dedicated to defending free speech and individual
rights; 1233 20th Street N.W., Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20036. (202) 833-8400, Fax: (202) 833-8410. http://www.cir-usa.org
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms - devoted to protecting and preserving the Second Amendment and the right of citizens
to keep and bear arms. 12500 N.E. Tenth Place, Bellevue, Washington 98005; http://ccrkba.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation – protecting free speech and privacy rights on the internet and electronic media. 454 Shotwell Street, San
Francisco, CA 94110, Phone: 415/436-9333 www.eff.org
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - Defending individual rights at America's increasingly repressive and partisan colleges and
universities and educating the public and communities about the threats to these rights on campuses and about the means to preserve them. These
rights include freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience. 210 West Washington Square, Suite 303,
Philadelphia, PA 19106, Phone: (215) 717-FIRE (3473). www.thefire.org/
Foundation for Economic Education - Founded in 1946 by Leonard E. Read to study and advance the freedom philosophy. FEE's mission is to
offer the most consistent case for the "first principles" of freedom: the sanctity of private property, individual liberty, the rule of law, the free market,
and the moral superiority of individual choice and responsibility over coercion. http://www.fee.org/
Future of Freedom Foundation – advancing freedom, free markets, individual liberty, private property and limited government. 11350 Random
Hills Road, Suite 800, Fairfax, VA 22030; (703) 934-6101, Fax: (703) 803-1480. http://www.fff.org/
Gun Owners of America – A hard hitting no-compromise organization dedicated to preserving the right to bear arms, the right of self-defense, and
defending the Second Amendment; 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151. Ph: (703) 321-8585. http://www.gunowners.org
Independence Institute – A libertarian think tank non-profit public policy research organization dedicated to providing timely information to
concerned citizens, government officials, and public opinion leaders. 14142 Denver West Parkway #185, Golden CO 80401 (303) 279-6536
http://i2i.org/
International Society for Individual Liberty - The International Society for Individual Liberty is an association of individuals and organizations
dedicated to building a free and peaceful world, respect for individual rights and liberties, and an open and competitive economic system based on
voluntary exchange and free trade. Members and affiliated organizations pursue these goals through independent action, using their freely chosen
strategies. http://www.isil.org/
Independent Institute, The - devoted to libertarian principles; 100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA 94603. (510) 632-1366. Website:
http://www.independent.org
Institute for Justice - Pro bono legal defense organization dedicated to defending and preserving individual rights; 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue
N.W., Suite 200 South, Washington, D.C. 20006. (202) 955-1300, Fax: (202) 955-1329. http://www.ij.org/index.shtml
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc. (501(C)(3))- dedicated to destroying “gun control” and promoting the defense of the Bill
of rights for all Americans. P.O. Box 270143, Hartford, WI 53027. (262) 673-9745. http://www.jpfo.org
Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA) – The nation’s largest, non-profit, non-partisan coalition of rank and file law enforcement officers
working together with citizens. LEAA strives to protect communities and prevent crimes while actively preserving the rights of citizens, particularly
the right to self defense and to keep and bear arms. 7700 Leesburg Pike, Suite 421, Falls Church, VA 22043. (703) 847 - COPS, (800) 766 - 8578.
Website: http://www.leaa.org/
LewRockwell.com - Unapologetically idiosyncratic news and commentary from a pro-freedom perspective. http://www.lewrockwell.com/
Ludwig Von Mises Institute - devoted to free market economics, and liberty; 518 West Magnolia Avenue Auburn, Alabama 36832-4528. (334)
321-2100, http://www.mises.org/
Pacific Legal Foundation - Public interest legal foundation litigating in support of limited government, private property rights, and the free
enterprise system. 3900 Lennane Drive, Suite 200, Sacramento, CA 95834, (916) 419-7111. http://www.pacificlegal.org/
People’s Rights Organization - Dedicated to preserving and defending the Second Amendment, the Bill of Rights, adhering to the Constitution, and
preserving gun ownership. 4444 Indianola Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43214. (614) 268 - 0122 http://www.peoplesrights.org/
Republican Liberty Caucus - liberty leaning Republicans; 1717 Apalachee Parkway Suite 434, Tallahassee, FL 32301. (904) 878-4464.
http://w3.ag.uiuc.edu/liberty/rlc/index.html
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Second Amendment Foundation - dedicated to defending and preserving the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; James Madison
Building, 12500 N.E. Tenth Place, Bellevue, Washington 98005. (206) 454-7012. http://saf.org
Separation of School and State Alliance – 4578 N. First #310, Fresno, CA 93726. http://www.sepschool.org
Young Americans for Liberty – Youth activists for individual liberty. http://blog.yaliberty.org/
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