Previous

Contents

Next

Who are the ideological forebears of the modern Gun Control Crowd?
by Neale Osborn
[email protected]

Attribute to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise

Recently, a friend of mine sent me a video of a tattoo'd man ranting against the Gun Control crowd, and told me that THIS is what my support of the 2nd Amendment would lead me to. The video's final words were "If it goes one inch further I'm gonna start killin' people!" He was not eloquent, but he summed up a lot of the frustration many of us feel. But I admit that to many, he would be a reason to ridicule support of the 2nd Amendment. So I thought that all people should read the words of the most famous people who support their desire to strip American citizens of their Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Some supporters claim only to want to restrict a "few extra dangerous types of weapons, and high capacity magazines. Others are opposed to carry, open or concealed, of handguns. And some admit to wanting ALL guns removed from private ownership. But ALL of them have one thing in common. Not one single historical figure who espoused the same ideas was a supporter of individual rights or personal freedoms. They were all dictators.

Josef Stalin said "If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves." He is responsible for the extermination of approximately 20 million dissidents who had no way to defend themselves. By the time of the fall of the Soviet Union, that number had risen to over 61.9 million.

Adolf Hitler, dinner talk on April 11, 1942:
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong-points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country."

Benito Mussolini, address to the Italian Senate, 1931:
"The measures adopted to restore public order are: First of all, the elimination of the so-called subversive elements. ... They were elements of disorder and subversion. On the morrow of each conflict I gave the categorical order to confiscate the largest possible number of weapons of every sort and kind. This confiscation, which continues with the utmost energy, has given satisfactory results."

Mao Tze Tung, Nov 6, 1938:
"All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party."

China established gun control in 1935. From 1949 (when Mao assumed control) to 1952, approximately 10 million dissidents were rounded up and exterminated. By 1987, another 35 millions are believed exterminated by the Communist government.

Fidel Castro:
"Armas para que? ("Guns, for what?")"
A response to Cuban citizens who said the people might need to keep their guns, after Castro announced strict gun control in Cuba.

And last but not least, Diane Feinstein, Statement on TV program 60 Minutes, Feb 5 1995:
"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an out right ban, picking up every one of them... "Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in, "I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here."

I don't think George Washington would have approved of Ms Feinstein's views:

"A free people ought to be armed."
—George Washington

On the correct side, Constitutionally speaking are the following people. Including the people who wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. 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, 1 Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

"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...The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun."
—Patrick Henry

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

"To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them."
—George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms."
—James Madison, Federalist Paper #46

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
—William Pitt, Nov. 18, 1783

"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops."
—Noah Webster, 1787

"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."
—Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights

And now for a few more contemporary supporters. Even a pacifist or two!

"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."
—George Orwell

"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun."
—The Dalai Lama, May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. If we want the Arms Act to be repealed, if we want to learn the use of arms, here is a golden opportunity. If the middle classes render voluntary help to Government in the hour of its trial, distrust will disappear, and the ban on possessing arms will be withdrawn."
—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Even a committed pair of pacifists think the right to keep and bear arms has a legitimate place in society. I wonder how the gun-control crowd will respond to this?

Was that worth reading?
Then why not: