Byrnes, David (Texas Ranger Captain) -- ...that for law enforcement to be effective it has to be accountable, and to be accountable it has to be controlled at the lowest possible level. It worries me to think that we're vesting ... a tremendous amount of authority in the FBI to take over every aspect of civil law enforcement in this country. ... I think it's detrimental to our continued freedom in this country. I don't believe anybody wants a national police force in this country. I certainly don't. -- testimony before Congress during the 1995 Waco hearings. Constance, Joseph (deputy chief of police, Trenton, N.J.) -- Since police started keeping statistics, we now know that assault weapons are/were used in an under whelming .026 of 1 percent of crimes in New Jersey. this means that my officers are more likely to confront an escaped tiger from the local zoo than to confront an assault rifle in the hands of a drug-crazed killer on the streets. -- told to Senate Judiciary Committee, August, 1993. Funk, Markus T. -- The law enforcement community is acutely aware of this state of affairs. In 1995, the National Association of Chiefs of Police polled the nation's 18,000+ police agencies. Of the respondents, 88.7% believed that banning all firearms would not reduce the ability of criminals to obtain firearms and 90.4% felt that law-abiding citizens should be able to purchase any legal firearm for either sport or self-defense; and 97.4% of the responding Chiefs of Police agreed that even if Congress approved a ban on all rifles, shotguns, and handguns, criminals would still be able to obtain "illegal weapons." Two of the nation's most distinguished law enforcement organizations also share these views -- both the American Federation of Police and the National Police Officers Association of America are on record favoring private gun ownership. -- Comment: Gun Control and Economic Discrimination: The Melting Point Case -- in Point, 85 J. CRIM. L. 764, 775 (1995) citing National Association of Chiefs of Police, 7th National Survey of Law Enforcement Officers in the United States 2, (1992). Hitler, Adolf -- The people, in an overwhelming majority, are so feminine in their nature and attitude that their activities and thoughts are motivated less by sober consideration than by feeling and sentiment.. -- MEIN KAMPF page 237. Korroch, Lieutenant Commander Robert E., and Major Michael J. Davidson -- The legal tradition of the jury as the protector of the rights of the accused in a criminal trial is deeply rooted in common law and predates the arrival of the first English colonists to America's shores. ... Jury nullification was common during the early nineteenth century in prosecutions for seditious statements. In particular, it proved to be an important tool for abolitionists in antebellum America, who often were charged with violating the fugitive slave laws. Acquittals in these cases proceeded from the belief that, because the laws themselves were wrong, jurors could refuse to enforce them. Until the end of the nineteenth century, juries were told frequently that they had the power to reject the judge's view of the law. From 1776 through 1800, only one judge in the United States was known to have denied the members of a jury the right to decide law in criminal cases, according to their own judgments and consciences. That judge, thereafter, was impeached and removed from the bench. -- Jury Nullification: A Call for Justice or an Invitation to Anarchy?, 139 MIL. L. REV. 131, 133, 134 -- 135 (1993). LaPierre, Wayne -- In a 1984 referendum campaign on "handgun management" in Broward County, Florida, two of the TV network affiliates refused to take the National Rifle Association's TV spots, and the third agreed to take them at "double the price" in order to allow the station to provide free time to the gun control proponents. -- GUNS, CRIME AND FREEDOM, p. 204 -- 5 (Harper Collins 1995). LaPierre, Wayne (CEO of NRA) -- The twentieth century provides no example of a determined populace with access to small arms having been defeated by a modern army. The Russians lost in Afghanistan, The United States lost in Vietnam, and the French lost in Indo-China. In each case it was a poorly armed populace that beat the "modern" army. -- GUNS CRIME AND FREEDOM, p. 20 (Regnery Publishing 1994). LaPierre, Wayne (CEO of NRA) -- Ultimately registration will let the government know who owns guns and what guns they own. History provides the outcome: confiscation. And a people disarmed is a people in danger. In Germany, firearm registration helped lead to the holocaust. Each year we solemnly remember in sorrow the survivors and those lost in the holocaust, but the part gun registration played in the horror is seldom mentioned. The German police state tactics left its citizens, especially Jews, defenseless against tyranny and the wanton slaughter of a whole segment of its population. -- GUNS, CRIME AND FREEDOM, p. 86 -- 87 (Harper Collins 1995). Liberty Pole, The -- Question 1: How many Jews with guns walked into Nazi ovens? Answer: None Question 2: How long would Slavery have lasted if Blacks had been able to buy as many guns as they wanted? No answer needed, right? -- A Letter to L. A. Times Advertiser Big 5., October, 1997. Lyon, Christopher, M.D. -- Nationalized health is synonymous with delays, waiting lists, rationing, and high taxes. Manley, Marisa -- In the United States, affirmative action laws are encouraging an ever-increasing number of officially recognized minorities to escalate their demands for preferential treatment. But displaced groups resent being victims of these laws. Anecdotal evidence suggests that racial hostility is increasing. -- Why Laws Backfire, THE FREEMAN, p. 547, August 1996. MARYLAND CONSTITUTION, Article XV, Section 5 -- In the trial of all criminal cases, the Jury shall be the Judges of Law, as well as of fact, except that the Court may pass upon the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction. McFadden, Congressman Lewis T. (Chairman of the Banking and Currency Committee) -- Every effort has been made by the Fed [Federal Reserve] to conceal its power, but the truth is the Fed has usurped the government and it controls everything here (in Congress) and it controls all of our foreign relations. It makes and breaks governments at will. -- 1933 McKenna, Reginald (Secretary of the Exchequer, Midland Bank of England) -- Those who create and issue money and credit direct the policies of government and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people. -- 1920. Mill, John Stuart -- Over himself, over his own mind and body, the individual is sovereign. -- On Liberty, 1859. NEW AMERICAN, THE -- The very fact that the Constitution additionally reserves to Congress the power to declare war ought to be sufficient evidence that the Founders believed the power of the purse to be an insufficient security against an arbitrary warfare by the executive branch. They knew the purse is a power after the fact, weakened by the natural reluctance of politicians to turn down support for troops already in the field and in the line of fire. Once troops are in the field, it is too late; failing to support the troops in the field amounts to failing to provide for one's own. And legislators who fail to support an executive war effort can expect to be labeled by the executive and his warlike colleagues as traitors. -- October 16, 1995. New Hampshire Trial Court (instructing jurors in a criminal trial) -- You are entitled to act upon your own conscientious feeling about what is a fair result in this case. -- State v. Weitzman, 427 A.2d 3, 7 (1981). New, Michael G. (U.S. Army Specialist) -- I have a problem with that because I am not UN. I explained this to my lieutenant and told him, "Sir, I don't think I should have to wear a UN arm band or a UN beret. I'm enlisted in the U.S. Army; I am not a UN soldier. I have taken no vow to the UN; I have taken an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America from enemies foreign and domestic. I regard the UN as a separate power. . . . Where does my oath say that I have to wear UN insignia? . . . If they kick me out of the Army, if they send me to jail, I want to know, in my mind, after all this is over, I did what I thought was right in the eyes of God. So if I'm in jail, I'll be there knowing that I did what's right. -- explaining his refusal to wear United Nations insignia on his uniform, and his refusal to serve under a United Nations commander in Macedonia; quoted in THE NEW AMERICAN, I Am Not a UN Soldier, October 2, 1995. Norquist, Grover G. -- Under the current system, all power derives from the length of the member's term -- it's not freshman who have powerful staff, or long-standing friendships with powerful lobbyists. -- on Term Limits, A Limited Future, THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR, August, 1995. NORTH CAROLINA 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; and as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they shall not be maintained, and the military shall be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. Nothing herein shall justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons, or prevent the General Assembly from enacting penal statutes against that practice. -- article I, section 30. North Carolina Supreme Court -- [the right to keep and bear arms is] a sacred right, based upon the experience of the ages in order that the people may be accustomed to bear arms and ready to use them for protection of their liberties or their country when the occasion serves. -- State v. Kerner, 107 S.E. 222, 223 (1921). North Carolina Supreme Court -- To him [the citizen] the rifle, the musket, the shotgun, and the pistol are about the only arms which he could be expected to "bear," and his right to do this is that which is guaranteed by the Constitution. To deprive him of bearing any of these arms is to infringe upon the right guaranteed to him by the Constitution. It would be a mockery to say that the Constitution intended to guarantee him the right to practice dropping bombs from a flying machine, to operate a cannon throwing missiles perhaps for a hundred miles or more, or to practice in the use of deadly gases .... The intention was to embrace the "arms," an acquaintance with whose use was necessary for their protection against the usurpation of illegal power -- such as rifles, muskets, shotguns, swords, and pistols. -- State v. Kerner, 107 S.E. 222, 224 (1921). NORTH DAKOTA CONSTITUTION -- All individuals are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing and protecting property and reputation; pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness; and to keep and bear arms for the defense of their person, family, property, and for lawful hunting, recreational, and other lawful purposes, which shall not be infringed. -- article I, section 1. Nugent, Ted (singer, musician) -- To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death. How feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How unnatural. How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic. OHIO CONSTITUTION, Article I § 4 -- The people have the right to keep and bear arms for their defense and security; but standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and shall not be kept up; and the military shall be in strict subordination to the civil power. Ohio Supreme Court -- The constitutional right to bear arms is intended to guaranty to the people, in support of just government, such right, and to afford the citizen means for defense of self and property. While this secures to him a right of which he cannot be deprived, it enjoins a duty in execution of which, that right is to be exercised. If he employs those arms which he ought to wield for the safety and protection of his country, his person, and his property, to the annoyance and terror and danger of its citizens, his acts find no violation in the bill of rights.... A man may carry a gun for any lawful purpose, for business or amusement, but he cannot go about with that or any other dangerous weapon to terrify and alarm a peaceful people. -- State v. Hogan, 58 N.E. 572, 575 (1900). OKLAHOMA CONSTITUTION -- The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person, or property, or in aid of the civil power, when thereunto legally summoned, shall never be prohibited; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the Legislature from regulating the carrying of weapons. -- article II, section 26. OREGON CONSTITUTION -- The people shall have the right to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State, but the Military shall be kept in strict subordination to the civil power. -- article I, section 27. OREGON CONSTITUTION -- We declare that all men, when they form a social compact are equal in right: 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; and they have at all times a right to alter, reform, or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper. -- article 1, section 1. Orwell, George -- Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism...Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole. -- Why I Write. Orwell, George -- Almost unconsciously he traced with his finger in the dust on the table: 2+2 = 5.... it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. -- 1984. Paul, Dr. Ron -- A paper monetary standard means there are no restraints on the printing press or on federal deficits. In 1971, M3 was $776 billion; today it stands at $8.9 trillion, an 1100% increase. Our national debt in 1971 was $408 billion; today it stands at $6.8 trillion, a 1600% increase. Since that time, our dollar has lost almost 80% of its purchasing power. Common sense tells us that this process is not sustainable and something has to give. So far, no one in Washington seems interested. -- Paper Money and Tyranny, September 5, 2003 Paul, Dr. Ron -- Mr. Speaker, I once again find myself compelled to vote against the annual budget resolution for a very simple reason: it makes government bigger. [...] We need to understand that the more government spends, the more freedom is lost. Instead of simply debating spending levels, we ought to be debating whether the departments, agencies, and programs funded by the budget should exist at all. My Republican colleagues especially ought to know this. Unfortunately, however, the GOP has decided to abandon principle and pander to the entitlements crowd. But this approach will backfire, because Democrats will always offer to spend even more than Republicans. When Republicans offer to spend $500 billion on Medicare, Democrats will offer $600 billion. Why not? It's all funny money anyway, and it helps them get reelected. [...] The increases in domestic, foreign, and military spending would not be needed if Congress stopped trying to build an empire abroad and a nanny state at home. -- Oppose the Spendthrift 2005 Federal Budget Resolution, March 25, 2004 Paul, Dr. Ron -- The long-awaited "campaign finance reform" vote finally took place last week, with the House ultimately passing the measure. The debate was full of hypocritical high-minded talk about cleaning up corruption, all by the very politicians of both parties who dole out billions in corporate subsidies and welfare pork. It was quite a spectacle watching the big-spending, perennially-incumbent politicians argue that new laws were needed to protect them from themselves! -- Don't Believe the Hype -- "Campaign Finance Reform" Serves Entrenched Interests, February 18, 2002 Paul, Dr. Ron -- The non-institutional elements of Bretton Woods, such as the gold-backed dollar standard, have gone by the wayside, but the World Bank and the IMF soldier on... Western governments tax their citizens to fund the World Bank, lend this money to corrupt Third World dictators who abscond with the funds, and then demand repayment which is extracted through taxation from poor Third World citizens, rather than from the government officials responsible for the embezzlement. It is in essence a global transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Taxpayers around the world are forced to subsidize the lavish lifestyles of Third World dictators and highly-paid World Bank bureaucrats who don't even pay income tax. -- World Bank Hearing, May 22, 2007 Paul, Dr. Ron -- What's happening is, there's transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy. This comes about because of the monetary system that we have. When you inflate a currency or destroy a currency, the middle class gets wiped out. So the people who get to use the money first which is created by the Federal Reserve system benefit. So the money gravitates to the banks and to Wall Street. That's why you have more billionaires than ever before. Today, this country is in the middle of a recession for a lot of people... As long as we live beyond our means we are destined to live beneath our means. And we have lived beyond our means because we are financing a foreign policy that is so extravagant and beyond what we can control, as well as the spending here at home. And we're depending on the creation of money out of thin air, which is nothing more than debasement of the currency. It's counterfeit... So, if you want a healthy economy, you have to study monetary theory and figure out why it is that we're suffering. And everybody doesn't suffer equally, or this wouldn't be so bad. It's always the poor people -- those who are on retired incomes -- that suffer the most. But the politicians and those who get to use the money first, like the military industrial complex, they make a lot of money and they benefit from it. -- GOP debate, Dearborn, Michigan, October 9, 2007 PENNSYLVANIA CONSTITUTION -- The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned. -- Article I Section 21. PENNSYLVANIA CONSTITUTION OF 1776 -- The community hath an indubitable, unalienable and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish government in such manner as shall be by that community judged most conducive to the public weal. -- Bill of Rights, article V, reprinted in 5 THE FOUNDER'S CONSTITUTION 7. PENNSYLVANIA DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF 1776 -- [T]he people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves, and the state. -- ARTICLE XIII.
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