Notable Quotes on Liberty, Politics & Firearms
“The sentiment that modern day ordinary Canadians do not need firearms for protection is pleasant but unrealistic. To discourage responsible deserving Canadians from possessing firearms for lawful self-defense and other legitimate purposes is to risk sacrificing them at the altar of political correctness.”
-Judge Don Demetrick-
“I think that every true reformer, every real friend of liberty, will agree with me in saying that if we must erect safeguards, they should be rather for the security of the individual than of the mass, and that our chiefest care must be to train the majority to respect the rights of the minority, to prevent the claims of the few from being trampled under foot by the caprice or passion of the many.”
-Sir Richard John Cartwright-
“Firearms, especially long guns, occupy a noble place in Canadian history since they are no doubt responsible for the exploitation of a vast and wild territory that had long remained untouched. From 1534 until 1979 (!), the importance of firearms remained uncontested. More than a simple tool of everyday life, they became truly a phenomenon of civilization. At all times and whoever he was, the Canadian was directly in contact with firearms, and he cannot be imagined otherwise. Even today, this symbol of liberty remains intimately related to wide, open spaces, and to a tolerant society. It is the distinctive mark of today’s America and yesterday’s America. Here, in New France, let’s repeat it, it is not only soldiers and nobles who have the possibility or privilege to bear arms. Century-old Canadian customs recognize equally to everybody the legal and moral right to acquire a firearm and to use it freely and non-coercively.”
– Russel Bouchard-
“Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.”
-Abraham Lincoln-
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
– Benjamin Franklin-
“Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”
-Ronald Reagan-
“Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.”
-Ronald Reagan-
I do not think it is possible to overlook the obvious relationship between liberty and the ownership of firearms by the masses. A determined and armed populace is not easily subdued by tyrants or despots. I believe that those who think our societies would be better off without firearms, especially in the hands of the people, are quite genuinely deceived. I do not doubt their sincerity nor fault them for desiring a peaceful and non-violent existence. For any thinking person to believe that just because we live in relative security in the western world now and that it will always be so, is just being grossly naive and downright foolish.
The following quote is taken from the book “Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941-1944: Secret Conversations” records Hitler as having said the following sometime between February and September 1942:
“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let’s not have any native militia or native police.”
I believe the last line referring to native militia or police was of course the conquered nations under Nazi control and not allowing them to remain involved at all with respect to security. Even if only as a supervised collaborator or puppet of the Nazi’s. That was not good enough for Hitler, he wanted total Nazi control.
Hitler may be an extreme example, but it was only 70 years ago that the western world was embroiled in the fight of its life for democracy and liberty and the extinguishing of the Nazi scourge of raw greed and lust for world dominance. How quickly we forget.