Here are some quotes by famous people on the subject of gun & weapon control:

 

"No free man shall be debarred the use of arms within his own land."

      -Thomas Jefferson

 

“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it."

      -Thomas Jefferson

 

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials."

      -George Mason

 

"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

      -Benjamin Franklin

 

"They tell us...that we are weak--unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger?...Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Three million people, armed in the holy cause of liberty...are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us."

      -Patrick Henry

 

"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."

      -Patrick Henry

 

 

"The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose."

      -James Earl Jones

 

"When they took the 4th Amendment, I was quiet because I didn't deal drugs. When they took the 6th Amendment, I was quiet because I am innocent. When they took the 2nd Amendment, I was quiet because I don't own a gun. Now they have taken the 1st Amendment, and I can only be quiet."

      -Lyle Myhur

 

"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."

      -Thomas Jefferson

 

"We say that the hour of death cannot be forecast, but when we say this we imagine that hour as placed in an obscure and distant future. It never occurs to us that it has any connection with the day already begun or that death could arrive this same afternoon, this afternoon which is so certain and which has every hour filled in advance."

      -Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

 

"Americans have the will to resist because you have weapons. If you don't have a gun, freedom of speech has no power."

      -Yoshimi Ishikawa

 

"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them."

      -Zachariah Johnson

 

"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. The only person who's going to be penalized and have difficulty is the law-abiding citizen, who then cannot have [it] if he wants protection-the protection of a weapon in his home, for home protection."

      -Ronald Reagan

 

"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 insure 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!"

      -George Washington

 

"The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which has proven to be always possible."

      -Hubert H. Humphrey

 

"Every good communist should know that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, the Communist Party must control the guns."

      -Mao Tse Tung

 

“When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, who was Governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should do it not openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually." I ask, who are the Militia? They consist now of the WHOLE people, except a few public officers."

      -George Mason

 

"Only an armed people can be the real bulwark of popular liberty."

      -Vladimir I. Lenin

 

"A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie."

      -Vladimir I. Lenin

 

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity."

      -Sigmund Freud

 

"Only a coward supports gun control, you know how to stop car jacking? Shoot the carjacker. If someone is going to kill me for my Buick, I'm gonna shoot until I'm out of ammo, and then I'll call 911."

      -Ted Nugent

 

"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass."

      -Japanese Admiral Yamamoto

 

"He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

      -Jesus Christ

 

"When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace."

      -Jesus Christ

 

"The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed unless they try to take it."

      -Thomas Jefferson

 

"Gun Bans don't disarm criminals, gun bans ATTRACT them."

      -Walter Mondale

 

"Americans (have) the right and advantage of being armed, unlike citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."

      -James Madison

 

"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!"

      -Thomas Jefferson

 

"No FREE man shall EVER be barred the use of arms"

      -Thomas Jefferson

 

"It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there is service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice speaks of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master."

      -Ayn Rand

 

"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws..........Create a nation of lawbreakers, and then you can cash in on the guilt."

      -Ayn Rand

 

"We are fast approaching the stage in the ultimate inversion; the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only permission; which is the stage of the darkest period of human history; the stage of rule by brute force."

      -Ayn Rand

 

"A Militia, when PROPERLY formed, are in fact the PEOPLE themselves, and include ALL men capable of bearing arms."

      -Elbridge Gerry

 

"Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense."

      -John Adams

 

"The PEOPLE have a RIGHT to keep and bear arms."

      -Patrick Henry

 

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of it's arms as the blackest."

      -Mahatma Ghandi

 

"If you carry a gun, people call you paranoid. That's ridiculous. If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have to be paranoid about?"

      -Clint Smith, director, Thunder Ranch

 

"This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future."

      -Adolph Hitler,

 

"An 'appeaser' is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

      -Winston Churchill

 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

      -George Santayana

 

"The most FOOLISH mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms; history shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms have prepared their own fall."

      -Adolph Hitler,

 

"Germans who wish to use guns should join the S.S., or the S.A. (Army), ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the state."

      -Heinrich Himmler

 

"The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were ALL the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. Horrible mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them, the weak will become prey to the strong."

      -Thomas Paine

 

"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them."

      -Thomas Jefferson

 

To own firearms is to affirm that freedom and liberty are not gifts from the state. It is to reserve final judgment about whether the state is encroaching on freedom and liberty, to stand ready to defend that freedom with more than mere words, and to stand outside the state's totalitarian reach."
      - Jeff Snyder

 

"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who don't."

      -Thomas Jefferson

 

"One man with a gun can control 100 men who have none."

      -Anon.

 

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."

      -Tacitu

"No greater wrong can ever be done than to put a good man at the mercy of a bad, while telling him not to defend himself or his fellows; in no way can the success
of evil be made surer or quicker."
      -Theodore Roosevelt

"Self defense is justly called the primary law of nature, so it is not, neither can it be in fact, taken away by the laws of society."
      -Sir William Blackstone

"If someone comes to kill you, arise quickly and kill him."
      - The Talmud (Code of Jewish Law)

"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

"When the world is at peace, a gentleman keeps his sword by his side."
      -Ho Yen-hsi

"Even in the best and most peacefully civilized countries many occasions arise when a woman versed in the knowledge and use of firearms may find that information and skill of great importance."
      -Annie Oakley

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) asserts that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is
their right and duty to be at all times armed."
      - Thomas Jefferson

"Without either the first or second amendment, we would have no liberty; the first allows us to find out what's happening, the second allows us to do something about
it!  The second will be taken away first, followed by the first and then the rest of our freedoms."
      -Andrew Ford

"The repeal of the Second Amendment would no more render the outlawing of firearms legitimate than the repeal of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment would authorize the government to imprison and kill people at will. A government that abrogates any of the Bill of Rights, with or without majoritarian approval, forever acts illegitimately, becomes tyrannical, and loses the moral right to govern."
      -"A Nation of Cowards", by Jeffrey R. Snyder

"If 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 rights and those of their fellow citizens."
      -Alexander Hamilton

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
      -George Washington

"When the government fears the People, that is Liberty. When the People fear the Government, that is tyranny."
      -Thomas Jefferson

"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty, teeth and keystone under independence. The church, the plow, the prairie wagon and citizens' firearms are indelibly related. 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. Every corner of this land knows firearms, and more than 99 and 99/100 percent of them by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil influence. They deserve a place of honor with all that's good. When firearms go, all goes. We need them every hour."
      -George Washington

 

Here are some quotes which are more on the humorous side:

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