Barry Goldwater Quotes
I'm completely opposed to selling automatic rifles. I don't see any reason why they ever made semiautomatics. I've been a member of the NRA; I collect, make and shoot guns. I've never used an automatic or semiautomatic for hunting. There's no need to. They have no place in anybody's arsenal. If any SOB can't hit a deer with one shot, then he ought to quit shooting.
Barry Goldwater, 1909-1998, U. S. Senator (Republican, AZ), Republican Nominee for President, Quoted in The Washington Post, January 1, 1990
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The National Rifle Association was Founded by men who were distressed that young men from the cities were so unskilled with firearms when the served in the Civil War that they thought that there should be an organization devoted to teaching the skilled use of firearms in case of another war. Frederick, the President, was himself a skilled marksman having won several of the shooting events in the Olympics. The officers and the organization in the early days and received free ammunition from the Federal Government with which to train and certify young men in shooting accuracy. The organization, alarmed at the high rage of gun accidents causing death and serious injury added gun safety to their program and this was followed by teaching and certifying Hunting Safety as well. Their vision was that marksmanship and safety through their courses and programs would be implemented by schools, camps, scouts, clubs and other intermediary organizations which were certified by the NRA.
See Wayne LaPierre {608707} for an example of the NRA position.
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.
Barry Morris Goldwater was an American politician, statesman, businessman, United States Air Force officer, and author who was a five-term Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States in 1964. Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. Despite his loss of the 1964 presidential election in a landslide, many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow, as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican party began a long-term realignment in American politics helped to bring about the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s. He also had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement.
