Gun Crime Quotes

• Gun crime is a major cause of fear and distress throughout the UK. The problem is deeply entrenched in a wide range of social and cultural factors and therefore not an isolated issue.

  Diane Abbott

  Gun, Issues, Causes

  52 Copy quote

• My London constituency in Hackney has one of the highest levels of gun crime in the country. But the problem is no longer confined to inner city areas. Gun crime has spread to communities all over Britain.

  Diane Abbott

  Country, Gun, Cities

  52 Copy quote

• As long as there are guns, the individual that wants a gun for a crime is going to have one and going to get it.

  Ronald Reagan

  Gun, Long, Want

  23 Copy quote

• The laws that forbid the carrying of arms...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...will
  respect the less important and arbitrary ones... Such laws make things worse
  for the assaulted and better for the assailants, they serve rather to
  encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with
  greater confidence than an armed man.

  Cesare Beccaria

  Men, Gun, Law

  218 Copy quote

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

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Gun, Law

  323 Copy quote

• 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.

  Cesare Beccaria

  Real, Sacrifice, Men

  Cesare Beccaria (1963). “On Crimes and Punishments”, Pearson College Division

  95 Copy quote

  Show source

• Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Gun, Law, Strong Arms

  48 Copy quote

• If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of criminal acts reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying - that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the attempts at both Federal and State levels in 1965-1976 - establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable failure of gun laws to control serious crime.

  Orrin Hatch

  Gun, Should Have, Law

  "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms - Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary". Book by Dennis DeConcini and Orrin Hatch, February 1982.

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• The ruling class doesn't care about public safety. Having made it very difficult for States and localities to police themselves, having left ordinary citizens with no choice but to protect themselves as best they can, they now try to take our guns away. In fact they blame us and our guns for crime. This is so wrong that it cannot be an honest mistake.

  Malcolm Wallop

  Mistake, Gun, Class

  19 Copy quote

• Today's liberals wish to disarm us so they can run their evil and oppressive agenda on us. The fight against crime is just a convenient excuse to further their agenda. I don't know about you, but if you hear that Williams' guns have been taken, you'll know Williams is dead.

  Walter E. Williams

  Running, Taken, Fighting

  Walter E. Williams (1995). “Do the Right Thing: The People's Economist Speaks”, p.118, Hoover Press

  50 Copy quote

  Show source

• Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic - purely symbolic - move in that direction. Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation.

  Charles Krauthammer

  Real, Moving, Gun

  19 Copy quote

• I don't care about crime, I just want to get the guns.

  Howard Metzenbaum

  Gun, Care, Want

  53 Copy quote

• According to the National Crime Survey administered by the Bureau of the Census and the National Institute of Justice, it was found that only 12 percent of those who use a gun to resist assault are injured, as are 17 percent of those who use a gun to resist robbery. These percentages are 27 and 25 percent, respectively, if they passively comply with the felon's demands. Three times as many were injured if they used other means of resistance.

  Gary Kleck

  Mean, Gun, Justice

  "Policy Lessons From Recent Gun Control Research". Article by Gary Kleck, 1986.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• My excellent colleagues have forgotten these bitter lessons of history. The prospect of tyranny may not grab the headlines the way vivid stories of gun crime usually do. But few saw the Third Reich coming until it was too late. The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed only for those exceptionally rare circumstances when all other rights have failed. A free people can only afford to make this mistake once.

  Alex Kozinski

  Freedom, Mistake, Failure

  "United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit". openjurist.org. May 6, 2003.

  54 Copy quote

  Show source

• Not to our surprise, we discover that gun crime in Britain is up 10.9 percent since the disarmament of the private citizen.

  Jeff Cooper

  Gun, Citizens, Surprise

  7 Copy quote

• Knife crime and gun crime is poverty-driven, and poverty leads to insecurity.

  Emmanuel Jal

  Gun, Knives, Insecurity

  "I just wanted to kill" by Angus Batey, www.theguardian.com. April 7, 2008.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nobody is denying we should investigate and do what we can to prevent gun crime in our cities and towns. But, we should not scapegoat the American gun owner for complicated, cultural problems we are just beginning to understand.

  Bob Barr

  Gun, Cities, Towns

  4 Copy quote

• If a law could keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be virtually no gun crime at all.

  Harry Browne

  Gun, Hands, Law

  14 Copy quote

• Under President (George W.) Bush, prosecution of gun crimes was 30 percent higher than it is under President Obama.

  Ted Cruz

  Gun, President, Crime

  4 Copy quote