Posted on 06/01/2002 6:34:06 AM PDT by George Frm Br00klyn Park
NewsMax.com / CommentMax
Signatures of the Gun Culture
Dr. Michael S. Brown
June 1, 2002
Anthropologists study a culture by interviewing individuals and observing group meetings. Now that communications are mostly electronic, an easier way to gather data is to monitor e-mail lists and bulletin boards.
Many Internet correspondents set their e-mail program to automatically add a quote or slogan at the end of each e-mail to support their beliefs. These are called signatures or ".sig files" and in no other American subculture are they more popular or seen in greater variety than in the gun rights movement.
Anyone who wishes to understand this segment of society would be well advised to scan these brief sub-messages. They reveal a depth of knowledge that belies the image of the ignorant redneck gun owner. Let's read a few and you'll see what I mean.
Invoking the words of respected historical figures highlights the concept that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Many signatures have included this popular Benjamin Franklin truism:
Those that give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.
A popular quote from Thomas Jefferson is actually his quotation of brilliant criminologist Cesare Beccaria:
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.
Famous authors are often quoted in e-mail signatures, especially Robert Heinlein, whose science fiction novels influenced a generation of baby boomers. The most famousHeinlein aphorism is:
An armed society is a polite society.
Even before the groundbreaking work of Prof. John Lott, this statement was a powerful reminder of the positive effect of guns on human behavior.
Author William S. Burroughs contributed this gem:
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it.
Some gun rights activists use their signature messages to change the terms of the gun control debate. Rejecting the anti-gun concept that guns are useless and dangerous, they include slogans like these:
Guns protect moms and kids.
expresses the feelings of many gun owners who believe they are being treated like criminals.
Save a life, teach a woman to shoot.
Self-defense is a basic human right.
When did they revoke innocent until proven guilty?
Another popular theme is to highlight the stupidity of the opposition. An activist named Sam Cohen came up with this one:
<B>The philosophy of gun control: Teenagers are roaring through town at 90 MPH, where the speed limit is 25. Your solution is to lower the speed limit to 20.</B>
A speaker at the Million Mom March uttered this infamous malaprop:
If someone comes at you with a knife or gun, say, "I know you're upset." We all want to be valued as human beings.
This rather crude apothegm has been popular for years:
Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.
A new group called "Pink Pistols" promotes the firearms rights of sexual minorities; some members have modified the previous statement to read like this:
Gun Control: The theory that Matthew Shepard hanging from a fence post in Wyoming is morally superior to Matthew Shepard explaining to the local sheriff how his attackers got those fatal bullet wounds.
Famous firearms instructors also contribute their share of quotes. Col. Jeff Cooper, considered the father of modern pistolcraft, said:
Owning a handgun doesn't make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician.
Massad Ayoob, the most famous currently active instructor, stated:
The irony is, if you're willing to kill a perpetrator, you probably won't have to.
I believe the most popular and significant signature of the gun rights subculture is an ancient challenge issued by King Leonidas of Sparta. In 480 B.C., he and 300 of his Spartan warriors occupied the narrow pass at Thermopylae to delay the onslaught of the gigantic Persian army. Historians put the size of the Persian forces between 150,000 and 2 million men.
When ordered by the Persian commander to give up their weapons, Leonidas shouted back, "Molon labe!" or "Come take them!" The valiant Greeks fought to the last man and bought precious time for their countrymen to prepare.
If the leaders of the anti-gun lobby had been aware that Molon labe! is a highly popular rallying cry among their enemies, they might have realized that their plan to force their views on American society was doomed to failure. Unfortunately for them, they were not comfortable monitoring the communications of their foes. They probably feared exposure to contagious ideas.
Dr. Michael S. Brown is a member of Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws (www.dsgl.org). He may be e-mailed at: rkba2000@yahoo.com
THIS article at NewsMax.com
"Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe." ~~Senator Diane Feinstein, 1993 (She holds one of the rare California concealed pistol permits.)
"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate ofthe United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them....'Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in', I would have done it." ~~Senator Feinstein, 1995
"Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA: ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the state." ~~Heinrich Himmler
"If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have weapons at all." ~~Henry Waxman
"One of the basic conditions for the victory of socialism is the arming of the workers [read communist party] and the disarming of the bourgeoisie." ~~V.I. Lenin, Collected Works
"I don't think everybody has a right to a weapon which can be used to kill innocent people and maybe threaten the life of a president of the United States." ~~Henry Waxman
"Make mass searches and hold executions for found arms." ~~V.I. Lenin
"We are going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We are going to beat guns into submission!" ~~Senator Chuck Schumer
"If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves." ~~Stalin, 1927
"I stand in support of this common sense legislation to license everyone who wishes to purchase a gun. I also believe that every new handgun sale or or transfer should be listed in a national registry, such as Chuck [Senator Schumer] is proposing." ~~Hillary Clinton, 2000
Soldiers, Sailors & Airmen - In Quotes
Here's the one that isn't a FR thread...
The Writer's Rights (pdf)
1068 quotations on freedom of expression,
censorship, civil liberties, and individual rights
"When you disarm your subjects, however, you offend them by showing that either from cowardliness or lack of faith, you distrust them; and either conclusion will induce them to hate you. " Niccolo Machiavelli "The Prince"
"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." ~~Thomas Jefferson
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." ~~Thomas Jefferson
"Americans have the right and the advantage of being armed, unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." ~~James Madison
"I ask you sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials." ~~George Mason
"To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." ~~George Mason
The constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." ~~Samuel Adams
They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~~Ben Branklin
"Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the arguement of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves." ~~William Pitt
Look at the differences in the quotes themselves. The Pro's talk of Freedom, Liberty, Polite Society, Self-Defense, Philosophy, Theory, "won't have to", "morally superior", etc...
The quotes from the anti's use: Ban, "citizens don't need", Disarming, Searches, Hammer, Submission, Listed, "kill innocent", Fearful, "serve the state", Sweeps...
I hate the way that the Left always boils everything down to Good vs. Evil (actually, more like Bambi vs. Hitler), but these citations sure are revealing about the intentions of both sides, don't they?
Now get that book done! $;-)
"Have gun, will vote."
"This car only carries $20 worth of ammo..."
BATTLE OF GONZALES
When Domingo de Ugartechea,qv military commander in Texas, received word that the American colonists of Gonzales refused to surrender a small cannon that had been given that settlement in 1831 as a defense against the Indians, he dispatched Francisco de Castañedaqv and 100 dragoons to retrieve it.
Texas Militiamen, fought off the Mexican Dragoons under a flag showing a cannon and the words "Come and Take It".
It was the first flag of Texas and the flag Robert A. Heinlein used for his rebels in the novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"
Burroughs is an odd choice to quote on guns. In a drunken stupor he shot his wife in the head, killing her, while playing 'william tell.'
Heinlein has so many brilliant quotes that I simply don't know where to begin :)
TANSTAAFL!
GUN CONTROL...it's not about guns...it's about CONTROL.
Safety is nice, but it's not FIRST. LIFE is FIRST...and...LIFE IS NOT SAFE!
"Blessed are they, who in the face of death, think only of the front sight.
The person you see in the mirror is the one responsible for your safety.
Among God's greatest gifts to humanity are fine weapons, beautiful women, great books, fast cars and good music. In return for these wonders we owe to HIM clear thought, good humor, courage and kindness.
Out of sight, out of range
Thomas Jefferson "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God"
Theodore Roosevelt "There is but one correct answer to a dynamite bomb and it is best delivered with a Winchester rifle."
Another from Teddy: "Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin."
The difference between a pickpocket and a Democrat is that when you ask for your money back, a pickpocket will not question your motives.
"In World War II, the Swiss had defenses no other country had. Let's begin with the rifle in every home combined with the Alpine terrain. When the German Kaiser asked in 1912 what the quarter of a million Swiss militiamen would do if invaded by a half million German soldiers, a Swiss replied: shoot twice and go home."
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
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