quotes about Second Amendment
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Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a safety hazard don't see the danger of the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use this same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like.
-- Alan Dershowitz -
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 -
Almost all gun control legislation is constitutionally fine. And if the court is right, then fundamentalism does not justify the view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms.
-- Cass SunsteinSource : "Founding Fathers vs. Today's Progressives" by Glenn Beck, www.foxnews.com. October 30, 2009.
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You could say that the paparazzi and the tabloids are sort of the `assault weapons' of the First Amendment. They're ugly, a lot of people don't like them, but they're protected by the First Amendment - just as `assault weapons' are protected by the Second Amendment.
-- Charlton Heston -
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I simply cannot stand by and watch a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States come under attack from those who either can't understand it, don't like the sound of it, or find themselves too philosophically squeamish to see why it remains the first among equals: Because it is the right we turn to when all else fails. That's why the Second Amendment is America's first freedom.
-- Charlton HestonSource : Speech to the National Press Club, September 14, 1997.
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The First Amendment is crucial. Of course it is. So are all the others. And the Second Amendment is the one that guarantees that people can bear arms to protect themselves.
-- Charlton Heston -
I have a lot of guns on my ranch. I don't use them for hunting. I'm not a hunter. It's for protection. The Second Amendment was designed for tyranny.
-- Chuck Norris -
First, the firearms industry has been around and has been respected for generations. They provide a valuable service and a highly desirable product to millions of sportsmen and supporters of those second amendment rights.
-- Cliff Stearns -
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The National Guard fulfills the militia mentioned in the Second amendment. Citizens no longer need to protect the states or themselves.
-- Dianne Feinstein -
Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.
-- Frederic Bastiat -
Who are the militia, if they be not the people of this country...? I ask, who are the militia? They consist of now of the whole people, except a few public officers.
-- George MasonSource : "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution", vol. 3, edited by Jonathan Elliot, 1974.
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I say that the Second Amendment doesn't allow for exceptions - or else it would have read that the right "to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, unless Congress chooses otherwise." And because there are no exceptions, I disagree with my fellow panelists who say the existing gun laws should be enforced. Those laws are unconstitutional [and] wrong - because they put you at a disadvantage to armed criminals, to whom the laws are no inconvenience.
-- Harry Browne -
Primaries are a family fight. I'm a pro-free enterprise, pro-Second Amendment, pro-life Republican.
-- Heather Wilson -
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 historically has proved to be always possible.
-- Hubert H. Humphrey -
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Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons.
-- Jeff Cooper -
If were going to change the laws, lets change them in ways which makes it easier to catch criminals, and yet at the same time protect the Second Amendment rights of our law-abiding citizens.
-- John Dingell -
Loving the Second Amendment while opposing the NRA is every bit as natural as loving Jesus while opposing Westboro Baptist Church.
-- John Fugelsang -
The health of the second amendment is the primary indicator of the overall health of the nation.
-- John Longenecker -
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There is a sort of Neo-Confederate thread that runs through these sort of pro-gun movements and the NRA movement.
-- Joy-Ann ReidSource : "MSNBC Contributor Reid Ridiculously Slams Gun Rights Movement as 'Neo-Confederate'". www.newsbusters.org. August 20, 2013.
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As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free.
-- Julia Ward Howe -
The Second Amendment only protects the people who want all the guns they can have. The rest of us, we've got no Second Amendment. What are we supposed to do?
-- Louise Slaughter -
Ultimately, I wanted to own a big truck, exercise my second Amendment rights, listen to hardcore music, and let my congressman know how poorly he represents me. None of this could occur in France.
-- Mark Twight -
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The Second Amendment isn't about duck hunting or target shooting.
-- Massad Ayoob -
I'm a big supporter of the Second Amendment. But I think I have a First Amendment right not to be shot.
-- Michael NutterSource : Michael A. Nutter (2017). “Mayor: The Best Job in Politics”, p.86, University of Pennsylvania Press
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The urban barbarism that has turned our streets into battlegrounds and our classrooms into killing fields will not be stopped by an assault on the Second Amendment right of American gunowners to keep and bear arms.
-- Pat Buchanan -
We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists.
-- Patrick Henry -
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The great object is that every man be armed.
-- Patrick Henry -
O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone ...
-- Patrick Henry -
Im 100 percent behind the Second Amendment. I believe its not just a hunting right. Its a right for everyone to carry their weapons.
-- Raul Labrador -
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. - Second Amendment to the Constitution An armed society is a polite society.
-- Robert A. Heinlein -
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The Second Amendment says we have the right to bear arms, not to bear artillery.
-- Robin Williams -
It's part of the Constitution. People have the right to bear arms. Then the restrictions of it have to be reasonable and sensible. You can't just remove that right. You've got to regulate, consistent with the Second Amendment.
-- Rudy Giuliani -
I understand the Second Amendment. I support it. People have the right to bear arms.
-- Rudy Giuliani -
You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one.
-- Rush Limbaugh -
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How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.
-- Suzanna Hupp -
The Second Amendment of our Bill of Rights is my Concealed Weapons Permit, period.
-- Ted Nugent -
The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many troops quite unecessary. They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them
-- Tench CoxeSource : "An American Citizen: An Examination of the Constitution of the United States IV". Publication by Tench Coxe, teachingamericanhistory.org. October 21, 1788.
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The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.
-- Thomas Jefferson -
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No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.
-- Thomas Jefferson -
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. [Misattributed]
-- Thomas Jefferson -
The people will not understand the importance of the Second Amendment until it is too late.
-- Thomas Jefferson -
All that first term, lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term,
-- Wayne LaPierreSource : "NRA official: Obama wants to outlaw guns in 2nd term". www.washingtontimes.com. February 10, 2012.
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What we've seen in Louisiana - the breakdown of law and order in the aftermath of disaster - is exactly the kind of situation where the Second Amendment was intended to allow citizens to protect themselves.
-- Wayne LaPierre -
The Second Amendment is not really a right.
-- Rosie O'Donnell -
And it never, ever was interpreted that the Second Amendment meant individual's right to bear arms
-- Rosie O'Donnell -
A textual analysis of the Second Amendment supports an individual right to bear arms.
-- Samuel Ray Cummings -
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I'm hoping that we're not getting to Second Amendment remedies. I hope the vote will be the cure for the Harry Reid problems.
-- Sharron AngleSource : "The Rachel Maddow Show" with Rachel Maddow, www.nbcnews.com. June 17, 2010.
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The powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress has no power to disarm the militia.
-- Tench CoxeSource : The Pennsylvania Gazette, February 20, 1788.