#guns

My cousin cleaned out a shotgun for me and let me carry it around the house, because he said, 'Anybody who knows anything about guns is going to know in a second if someone has held a gun before.' I didn't want to be that person. I wanted to be practiced. ↗

— Jennifer Lawrence

#anybody #anything #around #because #before

One of the arguments that authoritarian governments use to ward off the call for greater political freedom is to argue that American-style democracy is no guarantee of good policy.... Over the years, I’ve grown used to these arguments, and my response has rarely wavered: Sure, we might make dumb choices sometimes, but we will defend, to the end, the right to make choices at all, because we believe that our collective conscience, freely expressed, will eventually lead us in the right direction. When it comes to guns, it is getting harder to muster that argument abroad. Every new shooting, every new failure of will and citizenship, slashes another hole in our credibility as a way of life. ↗

— Evan Osnos

#authoritarianism #credibility #democracy #government #gun-policy

On the one hand, the guns were there to help capture the imagination of the people. But more important, since we knew that you couldn't observe the police without guns, we took our guns with us to let the police know that we have an equalizer. ↗

— Bobby Seale

#equalizer #guns #hand #help #imagination

The British government says that for Sinn Fein to be involved in talks the guns must be left at the door. ↗

— Martin McGuinness

#british government #door #fein #government #guns

I'm not a pundit. I'm not an analyst. I don't want to participate in the existing debate that's going on about whether or not you should be able to have as many guns as you want to have or that guns are even the problem. ↗

— Michael Moore

#about #analyst #debate #even #existing

In the myopic world of the liberals, guns are responsible for evil instead of the perpetrator of evil. But criminals are not bound by our laws. That's what makes them criminals. ↗

— Rick Perry

#criminals #evil #guns #instead #laws

I happily cling to my guns and my God, even if President Obama thinks that that is a simpleminded thing in his elitist heart. ↗

— Rick Perry

#elitist #even #god #guns #happily

As time went on, we learned to arm ourselves in our different ways. Some of us with real guns, some of us with more ephemeral weapons, an idea or improbable plan or some sort of formulation about how best to move through the world. An idea that will let us be. Protect us and keep us safe. But a weapon nonetheless. ↗

— Colson Whitehead

#guns #ideas #life #plans #protection

Who's the new Ramones, who's the new Guns 'N Roses, who's the new Motley Crue, who's the new Black Sabbath? They're coming, they're on the street, they're 16, 17 years old. ↗

— Nikki Sixx

#black sabbath #coming #crue #guns #motley

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles. ↗

— Jeff Cooper

#bill-of-rights #constitution #evil #freedom #good-and-evil