Pro & Con Quotes: Should More Gun Control Laws Be Enacted in the United States?

“The Supreme Court has twice ruled in the past 11 years that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual pre-political liberty. That is the highest category of liberty recognized in the law. It is akin to the freedoms of thought, speech and personality…

It would be exquisitely unfair, profoundly unconstitutional and historically un-American for the rights of law-abiding folks… to be impaired in the name of public safety.

It would also be irrational. A person willing to kill innocents and be killed by the police while doing so surely would have no qualms about violating a state or federal law that prohibited the general ownership of the weapon he was about to use.”

“Gun control is not the answer to America’s gun violence. In the recent mass shootings, the shooters purchased their weapons legally. Likewise, the policies promoted by gun control activists would not impact mass shootings…

What then to do about mass killings in public or at work places? More guns. We need more legal concealed carry, and we need more places to allow concealed carry, so that the intended victims of a mass shooting can have a decent chance of surviving or stopping these events.”

“Voters know that gun safety does not mean whittling away at their Right to Keep and Bear Arms. It doesn’t mean restricting where or how a law-abiding citizen can exercise a constitutionally protected right. And, it certainly doesn’t mean forcing hunters or target shooters to go to a Federally Licensed Firearm dealer for a background check before they can borrow each other’s guns for an afternoon.

Real gun safety is the fact that over the last 20 years, the annual number of gun-related accidental deaths has decreased by more than half. Or the fact that guns are only involved in 0.4% of accidental deaths among the U.S. population. Real gun safety is also found in the training programs that the NRA offers each year by one of our more than 125,000 NRA Certified Instructors and Range Safety Officers.

The gun control agenda has one goal, and it has nothing to do with keeping people safe. Instead, it has everything to do with decreasing the number of guns in America and making them more difficult to legally purchase. That doesn’t make Americans safer?—it simply makes them unarmed and vulnerable.”

[Editor’s Note: On Oct. 5 the NRA released a joint statement from CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and Chief Lobbyist for the NRA-ILA Chris Cox that included a reaffirmation of the organization’s stance against gun control, and the following: “The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.” The statement was made in response to the shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017 in which the shooter used bump stocks to make semi-automatic guns function like automatic guns.]

“I am in the camp that if you outlaw guns only the criminals are going to have guns. I supported permitting the concealed carry of handguns in New Mexico. I believe there is a lot less violence in the parking lot, as they say, because the potential perpetrator of a theft or an assault is thinking twice because someone might be carrying a gun. Restrictions on gun ownership will only encourage outlaws to have heavy ammunition and high calibre weapons.”

“In this particular case [the Emanuel AME church shooting in Charleston, SC], the FBI made a mistake. The law itself requires a background check, but that didn’t fulfill their part of the bargain within the time that they were supposed to do.

We don’t need to add new rules, we need to make sure the FBI does its job. Because that person [Dylann Roof], should not have gotten a gun, should not — would not have passed a background check. The first impulse of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is to take rights away from law- abiding citizens…

I think we need to focus on what the bigger issue is. It isn’t law-abiding gun owners.

Look, I have an A plus rating in the NRA and we also have a reduction in gun violence because in Florida, if you commit a crime with a gun, you’re going away. You’re going away for a long, long while.”

“[W]hat we do know is that nine innocent men and women were slaughtered in a mandatory gun-free zone by an evil madman wielding a gun.

More gun laws won’t prevent evil people from doing evil things. Human nature cannot be legislated away. No amount of laws can ever eliminate evil acts committed by evil men. But gun control laws like those in South Carolina certainly can eliminate the ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves from those who intend to do evil. And that’s a tragedy.”

“I support people having a gun in public full stop, not just in your home. We don’t have the right to bear arms because of burglars; we have the right to bear arms to resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government. It’s not about duck hunting; it’s about the ability of the individual. It’s the same reason we have freedom of speech. It’s well known that the greatest defence against an intruder is the sound of a gun hammer being pulled back. All these gun shootings that have gone down in America since 1950, only one or maybe two have happened in non-gun-free zones. Take mass shootings. They’ve only happened in places that don’t allow guns. These people are sick in the head and are going to kill innocent people. They are looking to slaughter defenceless human beings. They do not want confrontation. In all of our schools it is illegal to have guns on campus, so again and again these guys go and shoot up these… schools because they know there are no guns there. They are monsters killing six-year-olds…

Banning guns is like banning forks in an attempt to stop making people fat. Taking away guns, taking away drugs, the booze, it won’t rid the world of criminality.”

“What I think is two things, number one, that restricting the right to keep and bear arms is unconstitutional.

The Second Amendment is an integral part of the Bill of Rights. And what it means is, politicians cannot come and strip the guns from law-abiding Americans. But, number two, it’s misguided policy. If you look at the jurisdictions with the strictest gun control laws, almost without exception, they have the highest crime rates and the highest murder rates.

If you look at the jurisdictions that most vigorously protect our right to keep and bear arms, almost without exception, they have the lowest crime rates and the lowest murder rates. Gun control policies don’t work. And they’re contrary to the Constitution.”

“Gun control laws only restrict access to responsible gun ownership. High risk individuals will still be able to acquire firearms even with an increase in prevention. I do not support any proposed gun control law which would limit the right to gun ownership by those who are responsible, law-abiding citizens.”

“I have a lot of guns. I’m a big hunter. I’ve been shooting guns since I was a kid. I’m very familiar with how these weapons operate, with how semiautomatics operate. I think you’re getting to the point where you’re making changes in law that won’t make a difference [such as large clip bans] and you’re compromising people’s Second Amendment rights.

There are legitimate reasons for citizens to own these weapons [“assault weapons”]. Whether it’s for hunting. People do use these for hunting. Whether it’s for target shooting or self-defense. There are legitimate reasons for people owning these guns.

We’ve got 310 million guns in this country. You really think we’re going to stop these guns? We still had Columbine during that time [of the the assault weapons ban]. The point I’m saying is why did the kid do that? What’s wrong with our culture, or what’s wrong with our system, where a person who is clearly mentally ill, missed all the checks to get him the help he needed to prevent that from happening.”

“Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror…

In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president.”

“Unfortunately this is another tragedy [referring to the May 23, 2014 University of Santa Barbara shooting] that was not prevented by gun control and there’s not one more… there is not another gun control law that could have been passed that would have prevented this awful situation from happening.

We can’t forget that the first three victims were stabbed to death. Now that’s not something that the national news media wants to talk about. A number of victims were hit by a car, gun control obviously wouldn’t have prevented that behavior either. They have very strict mental health rules with regards to firearm ownership in California. There are things that can and should be done, the National Rifle Association is interested in addressing these underlying problems. We have underlying problems with a lack of school security, a lack of armed security in our schools. We have a problem with a lack of prosecution coming out of [Attorney General] Eric Holder and Barack Obama’s administration, and we have a problem, no question, with regards to these gun control laws that leave people defenseless, and we have a problem with a mental health system that’s completely bankrupt…

[T]he blame needs to be placed on the politicians in California who time and time again their answer to these issues are more and more gun control laws. They have passed every gun control law imaginable and it hasn’t done a… thing, and that’s a tragedy in and of itself.”

“Let’s look at the crimes committed by Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook Elementary School killer. First, he killed his mother. Then he stole his mother’s guns… I think it is a safe bet that Lanza broke some laws transporting loaded firearms. It is almost certainly against the law to enter a school with a loaded firearm… In addition to killing 26 people, Lanza committed an undisclosed number of attempt [sic] murders, at least one burglary when he entered the school after shooting off the lock, and probably a plethora of other crimes, including but not limited to, shooting into an inhabited building, shooting within city limits and negligent firearms use. If we tighten our gun control laws, if we enact more and ‘tougher’ gun control laws, won’t that just be more, tighter and tougher laws that sociopaths can ignore? We don’t need more and/or tighter gun control.”

“In the wake of tragedies such as Newtown, gun control advocates keep pushing for more restrictions. But the proposed regulations have nothing to do with the tragedies…

Even worse for gun control advocates, people are realizing that regulations — such as gun-free zones — tend to encourage attacks by disarming law-abiding citizens instead of criminals.

Hopefully, cities such as Washington, Los Angeles and New York will change their rules as more poor blacks and women recognize the benefits of gun ownership. At present, only rich, well-connected people can get concealed carry permits in those places. The poor have every bit as much right to defend themselves.”

“[M]ost criminals obtain guns from theft, the black market, or ‘straw purchasers’—people who can pass a background check and who buy guns for criminals. Furthermore, none of the high-profile crimes that they cite involved guns bought without a background check…

Americans own well over 100 million ‘large’ magazines and the nation’s murder rate is nearly at an all-time low…

‘Assault weapon’ is the term that gun control supporters use to malign general-purpose rifles like the AR-15. Americans now own five million AR-15s, the number is growing by several hundred thousand annually, and the nation’s murder rate is down by more than half since 1991…

NRA opposes requiring guns to be made with electronic equipment that would allow the guns to be deactivated remotely, or with other features that gun owners do not want…

Gun control supporters want markings on bullets and cartridge cases fired from new handguns to be entered into a database. NRA opposes it, because enforcing it would require gun registration…

NRA opposes legislation to prohibit the possession of firearms by people on the watchlist, because the FBI will not say who is on the list or why, and the legislation would violate the 5th Amendment by preventing a watchlisted person from challenging the FBI in a fair and open hearing in court.

‘Gun Control’ Doesn’t Work.”

“Every day we are seeing more and more efforts to strip away our Second Amendment rights. And our founders knew that our inherent right to defend life and property and freedom, it had to be enshrined. It was enshrined in America’s most perfect blueprint to form a more perfect union. Of course our Constitution. So it was enshrined and they knew that if the Second Amendment goes, the rest of the Constitution is not far behind. They are trying though. They, you know who they are. Look, if you control oil, you control an economy. If you control money, you control commerce. But, if you control arms, you control people. And that is what they’re trying…

And I love our police. I do. But they can’t be everywhere, you know, so maybe our kids can be defended against criminals on the spot if more mama grizzlies carried. And Obama administration wants you ID’d for that? Well, then, just go ahead and carry a sign too. A sign that says, ‘Yeah, I carry a gun, because a cop is too heavy.’

Aren’t they something though? Aren’t they something? Blaming that chunk of steel, you know, the weapon itself for the crime committed. They even blame sporting goods stores that sell arms, accusing them of being an accomplice. MmmHmm. Gun stores are an accomplice to crime. And that fork made me fat.”

“Our main goal is to destroy gun control. We are an organization that believes we have the moral authority to point out to the rest of the world the evils that have come from gun control and how humanity has suffered because of gun-control schemes…

I think there are numerous threats, but one is that the American public really doesn’t understand a need for an armed citizenry. Our country became independent because citizens were armed. This is why an organized, state-controlled militia received attention in the U.S. Constitution. So we have a lot of work to do. We have to reach out to people and help them understand why citizens must be armed, and what’s happened to citizens throughout the world and throughout history when they couldn’t defend themselves against a government gone bad.”

“I think a well-armed family is a safe family; a well-armed America is a safer America. I think if you look at anything, from all of these attacks that have taken place, is if people actually had had weapons there those attacks would have been thwarted and people’s lives would have been saved.

In fact, there are millions of lives that are saved in America every year, millions of instances where gun owners have prevented crimes and stopped things from happening because of having guns at the scene…

You know, everybody romanticizes the O.K. Corral and all the horrible things that happened, but gun crimes were not very prevalent back then. Why? Because people carried guns. And, you know, the folks who use guns in the commission of crimes are cowards. And if you look at going to theatres, they went to a theatre in Aurora, Colorado, that they knew, you know, you could go there and no one else was going to be there with a gun.

If we are a country where the criminal doesn’t know whether someone has a gun or not, they’re going to think twice about opening fire or not because they won’t be able to accomplish what they want. It’s a wrong-headed approach that somehow or another, if we take guns away from people, law-abiding people who want to protect themselves, that the world’s going to be safer. In fact, just the opposite is the case.”

“It’s not the weapons. The weapons have nothing to do with it. Again, these weapons are in every pickup truck in Texas. People have to get past the hardware.

I would never turn against this wonderful tool that brings me self-defense capabilities and brings me great joy in competition and marksmanship training.

In all these mass shootings, it’s not a matter of bullets or firepower. A quail gun in the wrong hands is as deadly as this gun [points to an AR rifle]. People have got to come to that reality.

There is no gun violence. There is criminal violence. And they use an assortment of tools. The gun owners of America are causing no problem. Leave us alone. Let’s go after the mentally deranged who are doing all these vicious crimes. Let’s go after the recidivistic maggots that judges and prosecutors unleash into our neighborhoods.”

“We uphold the right of individuals to keep and bear arms, a right which antedated the Constitution and was solemnly confirmed by the Second Amendment. We acknowledge, support, and defend the law-abiding citizen’s God-given right of self-defense… Gun ownership is responsible citizenship, enabling Americans to defend their homes and communities. We condemn frivolous lawsuits against gun manufacturer and oppose federal licensing or registration of law-abiding gun owners. We oppose legislation that is intended to restrict our Second Amendment rights by limiting the capacity of clips or magazines or otherwise restoring the ill-considered Clinton gun ban.”

“We affirm the individual right recognized by the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms, and oppose the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. Private property owners should be free to establish their own conditions regarding the presence of personal defense weapons on their own property. We oppose all laws at any level of government restricting, registering, or monitoring the ownership, manufacture, or transfer of firearms or ammunition.”

“The right to bear arms is inherent in the right of self defense, defense of the family, and defense against tyranny, conferred on the individual and the community by our Creator to safeguard life, liberty, and property, as well as to help preserve the independence of the nation.

The right to keep and bear arms is guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution; it may not properly be infringed upon or denied.

The Constitution Party upholds the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms. We oppose attempts to prohibit ownership of guns by law-abiding citizens, and stand against all laws which would require the registration of guns or ammunition.

We emphasize that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have them. In such circumstances, the peaceful citizen’s protection against the criminal would be seriously jeopardized.

We call for the repeal of all federal firearms legislation, beginning with Federal Firearms Act of 1968.

We call for the rescinding of all executive orders, the prohibition of any future executive orders, and the prohibition of treaty ratification which would in any way limit the right to keep and bear arms.”