What the great minds have said about gun control

Norfolk Crime Examiner

What the great minds have said about gun control

April 16, 8:39 PM

The 2008 Supreme Court decision which struck-down Washington D.C.´s ban on handguns, also banned localities from interfering with a citizen´s right to keep and bear arms.

The Court´s 5-4 decision read: "The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home."

The framers of the constitution understood the necessity for American citizens to keep and bear arms. Unfortunately, our society has been so influenced by those on the left, that many of us now believe that we should give up that right...Thus leaving ourselves, our homes, and even our loved-ones at the mercy of the criminals. You see, gun laws only affect the law-abiding.

In most states, one needs a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Once again, the only people who observe this law are the law-abiding, thus making this measure useless. A few years ago, Virginia legislators passed a bill which banned citizens from carrying concealed weapons into an establishment which serves alcohol. Even with a concealed-carry permit, it became a felony to enter a bar with a gun which is hidden from plain view...Another piece of legislation giving an upper hand to the criminals.

Laws which prohibit law-abiding citizens from possessing and carrying firearms are not lost on criminals. It is no coincidence that in the 32 years since the District of Columbia placed a ban on the ownership of handguns, the number of crimes to individuals (rape, robbery, murder) soared.

Criminals are also keenly aware of the prospect of an armed citizen and will almost always steer clear of potential victims who may be armed.

In 1982, Kennesaw, GA passed a law which required heads of household to have at least one gun in the house. The burglary rate immediately dropped an astounding 89 percent. Ten years after the law was passed, the burglary rate was still 72 percent less than in 1981.

The idea of gun control and the need to defend one's self is not a new one. Much has been said on the subject, even before guns were invented. The need to protect you and yours is as natural as breathing. Of course, as with all natural instincts, there will be those attempting to legislate it away.

What follows is a small collection of what many of man's greatest minds have said on the right to possess arms:

Cicero :“Civilized people are taught by logic, barbarians, by necessity, communities by tradition; and the lesson inculcated even in wild beasts by nature itself. They learn that they have to defend their own bodies and persons lives from violence of any and every kind by all means within their power.”

James Madison, while criticizing the governments of Europe: which “were afraid to trust the people with arms” and argued for “the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over almost every other nation.”

Richard Henry Lee (a framer of the Bill of Rights): “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”

George Orwell: “Rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon -- so long as there is no answer to it -- gives claws to the weak.”

President of the Congress of Racial equality Roy Innis: “To make inexpensive guns impossible to get is to say that you're putting a money test on getting a gun. It's racism in its worst form.”

President John F. Kennedy: “Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.”

Mahatma Gandhi: “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.”

Even Jesus weighed in on the subject, in the Book of Luke: “When I sent you out barefoot without purse or pack, were you ever short of anything?...It is different now, whoever has a purse had better take it with him, and his pack too; and if he has no sword, let him sell his cloak to buy one.”

Since people have had the opportunity as well as the need to arm themselves, there have been those attempting to rob them of this right. It was as true in Colonial America as it is today, and just as it was in Hitler's Germany. In 1938, the Nazis enacted a gun-control act, which robbed not only Jews, but all citizens of the right to defend themselves.

In 1942, Hitler made the following statement: “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.”

Near the end of World War II, the Japanese Admiral Yamamoto once said that the reason Japan never invaded the mainland of the United States was because “there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.” Americans´ right to keep and bear arms has served us well. It is also a well known fact that well armed citizens prevent crimes from occurring, and many of those armed citizens have sent thousands of violent criminals on their way to hell.

The fact is, the police cannot be everywhere at once. If you choose not to defend yourself or your family, that is your absurd decision and I wish you luck. However, for those of us who choose to exercise our Second Amendment right…Remember the old adage: “It is better to be judged by twelve than carried by six!”