Right To Bear Arms Quotes - Page 3

• Arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order.

  Thomas Paine

  Gun, Order, Law

  Thomas Paine (2014). “Selected Writings of Thomas Paine”, p.4, Yale University Press

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• 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.

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• Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.

  Noah Webster

  Country, Army, Gun

  Noah Webster (1787). “An Examination Into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution Proposed by the Late Convention Held at Philadelphia: With Answers to the Principal Objections that Have Been Raised Against the System”, p.43

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• A well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

  George Mason

  Army, Gun, People

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• The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people.

  Fisher Ames

  Gun, Rights, Government

  Fisher Ames, John Thornton Kirkland (1854). “Works of Fisher Ames: With a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence”, p.54, Burt Franklin

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• With the right to bear arms comes a great responsibility to use caution and common sense on handgun purchases.

  Ronald Reagan

  Responsibility, Gun, Common Sense

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• Lethargy is the forerunner of death to the public liberty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Patriotism, Liberty, Civil Rights

  Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey (2008). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.66, Courier Corporation

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• 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.

  James Madison

  Ambition, Simple, Government

  James Madison, John Jay (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.192

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

  Patrick Henry

  Death, Sweet, Freedom

  Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Va., 23 Mar. 1775.

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• Everyone has a right to bear arms. If you take guns away from legal gun owners, then the only people who have guns are the bad guys.

  Bruce Willis

  Gun, People, Guy

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• I believe in a reasonable amount of "right to bear arms". But private citizens of the United States are not allowed to own nuclear weapons. I always wanted a nuclear weapon, if I could have gotten one. I'm every other kind of power, but I'm not a nuclear power.

  Ted Turner

  Funny, Clever, Smart

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• Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.

  St. George Tucker

  Army, Gun, Color

  William Blackstone, St. George Tucker (1996). “Blackstone's Commentaries: With Notes of Reference to the Constitution and Laws, of the Federal Government of the United States, and of the Commonwealth of Virginia: With an Appendix to Each Volume, Containing Short Tracts Upon Such Subjects as Appeared Necessary to Form a Connecte”, p.300, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• 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

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• To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, counties or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

  John Adams

  Men, Self, Hands

  "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government". Book by John Adams. Chapter 3: "Marchamont Nedham: Errors of Government and Rules of Policy", Sixth Rule, 1787.

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• I find it very odd that the amendment about the right to bear arms, laws that were written so long ago, still pertain and don't get adjusted properly. Because the right to bear arms doesn't mean automatic weaponry designed specifically for human combat.

  Jim Jarmusch

  Mean, Long Ago, Law

  Source: www.jonathanrosenbaum.net

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• The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpation of power by rulers. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally ... enable the people to resist and triumph over them.

  Joseph Story

  Country, Strong, People

  Joseph Story (1833). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.746

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• There are many advantages in their being accustomed to the use of arms, and no possible disadvantage.

  Joel Barlow

  Gun, Use, Arms

  Joel Barlow (1796). “The Political Writings of Joel Barlow ... A New Edition Corrected”, p.24

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• A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.

  Noah Webster

  Military, Law, People

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• The Second Amendment! It says you have the right to bear arms, or the right to arm bears, whatever the hell you want to do!

  Robin Williams

  Funny, Humor, Second Amendment

  "A Night at the Met". Studio album by Robin Williams, August 9, 1986.

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• The purpose of the right to bear arms is twofold; to allow individuals to protect themselves and their families, and to ensure a body of armed citizenry from which a militia could be drawn, whether that militia's role was to protect the nation, or to protect the people from a tyrannical government.

  Glenn Reynolds

  Government, People, Defense

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• I think people should have the right to bear arms, but they should be limited as to what kinds of guns they can have.

  Jim Jarmusch

  Gun, Thinking, Should Have

  Source: www.jonathanrosenbaum.net

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• Get rid of the guns. We had the Second Amendment that said you have the right to bear arms. I haven't seen the British really coming by my house looking for it. And besides, the right to bear arms is not an absolute right anyway, as New York's Sullivan Law proves. We talk about ourselves as a violent society, and some of that is right and some of it is claptrap. But I think if you took away the guns, and I mean really take away the guns, not what Congress is doing now, you would see that violent society diminish considerably.

  Roger Rosenblatt

  New York, Mean, Thinking

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• There's no doubt that I respect the Second Amendment, that I also believe there's an individual right to bear arms. That is not in conflict with sensible, commonsense regulation.

  Hillary Clinton

  Believe, Doubt, Second Amendment

  Transcript of the Third Presidential Debate, www.nytimes.com. October 20, 2016.

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• The Constitution has to be interpreted loosely, otherwise it becomes a straitjacket. You can't interpret it literally. You can pretend to, and go digging around in 18th Century dictionaries to figure out what 'cruel and unusual punishment' meant or what the 'right to bear arms' meant, but that is all fake really. The Constitution has to be interpreted in light of modern needs, and that's what they (the strict interpreters) end up doing in spite of all their investigations.

  Richard Posner

  Light, Punishment, Fake

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• My view is that we have the Second Amendment rights to bear arms, and in this country my view is that we should not add new legistlation. I do not believe in new laws restricting gun ownership and gun use.

  Mitt Romney

  Country, Believe, Gun

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