Ronald Reagan Quotes
I see no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying a loaded weapon.
Thirty young black men and women carrying pistols, revolvers, and shotguns, appeared at the grand entrance of the California Capitol Building. The capital police stopped them and asked what they were going to do with their guns. Bobby Seal replied by asking the police officer what he was going to do with his gun. Seale and the Black Panthers then quoted the Second Amendment to the Constitution and insisted that they had a right to carry guns. Seale led his overtly armed followers inside while police and legislators looked on in horror. They were breaking no law. See the linked quote for Seale’s statement at Sacramento.
Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004, 40th President of the United States (Republican, CA), Statement to the Press, May 2, 1967
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Thirty young black men and women carrying pistols, revolvers, and shotguns, appeared at the grand entrance of the California Capitol Building. The capital police stopped them and asked what they were going to do with their guns. Bobby Seal replied by asking the police officer what he was going to do with his gun. Seale led his overtly armed followers inside while police and legislators looked on in horror. They were breaking no law. See linked quote.
The Southern Rebels who insisted on their right to have guns during Reconstruction, viciously denied that same right to the newly freed slaves. Sickles tried to remedy this, but the KKK and other terrorists intimidated most of the Blacks into not using the right that they had. Later, they would do that with the right to vote.
She advocated armed self-defense for Blacks.
10 years later the Supreme Court ruled that such a prohibition would be unconstitutional.
Defending the administration's ban on imported assault rifles:
This was the critical Supreme Court decision which finally decided the long debated issue or whether the right to bear arms was an individual right or a collective militia right. Scalia’s majority opinion ruled it an individual right, but it allowed for exceptions where there might be unusual individual risk. It also upheld the right of the government to control where guns are carried and to regulate the commercial sale of firearms which some of the pro gun extremists had insisted the government had no right of regulaltion.
There were very few people who believed that a pistol would have no defensive value then and there are very few today. The advocates of gun control grant its defensive value, but argue that the rise of using a gun is greater than the benefit of the use. Add to that the deaths from suicides and gun accidents which kill more Americans than those who are shot and killed intentionally.
Although written by a science fiction writer, this is one of the best quotations arguing for widespread gun ownership.
- Born: February 6, 1911
- Died: June 5, 2004
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Former President of the U.S., Former Governor of California, Politician, Actor
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989 and became a highly influential voice of modern conservatism. Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975.