Political Quotes

“the vote on repeal of assault weapons is not an easy vote. The reason is there are strong philosophical and practical arguments on both sides. On the one hand, we have the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution which protects the citizen's right to bear arms. This is an outgrowth of the fact that for centuries authoritarian governments maintained their power over the populace through the banning of weapons. We may look to Scotland, where in the early 14th century William Wallace led the Scottish freedom uprising against the British. The Scots were forced to use rocks, and homemade weapons because the English had banned Scots from having arms. The other side of the issue can be looked at from the view of the proper role of government. As John Locke pointed out in 1689 in his ``Second Treatise on Civil Government,'' a document that was the intellectual underpinning of our own Constitution, the reason we form governments is to protect life, liberty, and property. Anarchy leads to the strong coercing the weak. In order to reduce the total amount of coercion in society we give up the legal use of force to a government whose function is to protect each individual citizen from one another. The question then becomes, does the ban on assault weapons provide an efficient and reasonable means of protecting individuals from threat of force by other individuals?”