A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.–Constitution of the United States of America, Amendment II
“There is a subconscious anti-gun bias on the part of major media. Certainly, our society has changed since I founded Sturm, Ruger & Co, but I can assure you that my reaction to a “gang-banger” on the news is precisely the same as that of every law-abiding American—profound outrage. The antisocial elements of our society seem to hold the rest of us hostage. The media constantly portray carnage and gore, often in agonizingly slow motion, for no discernable reason. The same goes for incredibly violent video games that some young people play for hours on end. Such portrayals have their staunch defenders, but as a firearms manufacturer, I would implore them to stop using violence to make a killing. Let’s not pretend it’s anything else. The incessant desensitizing of our young people to mindless violence is beyond measure and beyond comprehension.” –-William B. Ruger Sr. From an article published in The Washington Post
“The gun makers aren’t seeking immunity from all liability; they would continue to face civil suits for defective products or for violating sales regulations. The Senate proposal would merely prevent a gun maker from being pillaged because a criminal used one of its products to perform his felony. Murder can be committed with all kinds of everyday products, from kitchen knives to autos, but no one thinks GM is to blame because a drunk driver kills a pedestrian. (On the other hand, give the lawyers time.) To adapt a familiar line, guns don’t kill industries, lawyers do.”–From an editorial published in The Wall Street Journal, 2005
The Gettysburg Address Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. –Abraham Lincoln November 19, 1863
The Art of War by Sun Tzu The Founders’ Second Amendment - Origins of the Right to Bear Arms by Stephen P. Halbrook The Future of Hunting and the Shooting Sports Available at www.nssf.org Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand Roughing it by Mark Twain The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain –Austin Sheridan's Favorite Reads
"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself"–Mark Twain
For in a Republic, who is “the country”? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant—merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.–Mark Twain