More on Guns

So sue me, I'm on a gun jag.

"GUNS ARE THE TEETH OF LIBERTY"

Richard Henry Lee, 1788, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights, is quoted as having said "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike especially when young, how to use them." Alexander Hamilton stated "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." Both obviously believed that being armed as individual citizens was an inherent necessity for all freedom-seeking citizens. But George Washington said it best. "Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence."

--F. Maureen Sielaff "Truth or Consequences"

Thomas Jefferson, in "Commonplace Book", quoted 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria:

"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.... 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.

Or woman.

The Gunslinger
(You can't shoot the bastards if you don't have a gun.)