"No State shall convert a liberty into a privilege, license it, and
charge a fee therefor." --Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 US 105, US Supreme
Court, 1943.
The U.S. Supreme Court broadly and unequivocally held that requiring
licensing or registration of any constitutional right is itself
unconstitutional. --Follett vs. Town of McCormick, S.C., 321 U.S. 573 [1944]
"I have described [the BATF] properly as JACKBOOTED AMERICAN FASCISTS.
They have shown no concern over the rights of ordinary citizens or their
property. They intrude without the slightest regard or concern." --Rep.
John Dingell (D-16th/MI), Congressional Record, 02/08/1995
"The Brady Bill's only effect will be to desensitize the public to
regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation."
--Charles Krauthammer, Syndicated Columnist, The Washington Post, April 5, 1996
"Gun control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I
want you to have nothing. If I'm a bad guy, I'm always gonna have a gun. Safety
locks? You will pull the trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger.
We'll see who wins." -- Mafia informant Sammy "the Bull" Gravano.
Interview in Vanity Fair magazine, August 1999.
"I'm not at all sure that even a callous, irresponsible drug dealer with
a 6-year-old in the house wouldn't leave a child trigger lock on a gun."
--President William Jefferson Clinton, as quoted in the The Washington Post,
03/09/2000
As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does
oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight. And it is in such twilight
that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become
unwitting victims of the darkness. ~~ Justice William O. Douglas, US Supreme
Court (1939-75)
"...it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate,
tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds..." --Samuel
Adams
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is
striking at the root." -- Henry David Thoreau
"A law repugnant to the Constitution is void." -- Marbury v.
Madison, U.S. Supreme Court, 1803
"With these words, Chief Justice John Marshall established the Supreme
Court's role in the new government. Hereafter, the Court was recognized as
having the power to review all acts of Congress where constitutionality was at
issue, and judge whether they abide by the Constitution." (Supplemental
text by Robert F. Tedeschi, Jr. from THE U.S. CONSTITUTION and Fascinating Facts
About It, Sixth Edition, Oak Hill Publishing, 1998).
"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce and brave man,
hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then
it costs nothing to be a patriot." -- Mark Twain
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed
[and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." --H. L. Mencken