Joycelyn Elders Quotes

Where there are sick people and easy access to guns, there will be terror …. Maybe we should rethink this whole gun control thing.

Easy access to guns is one of the biggest factors in violent crime.

We cannot continue to trade our children’s lives against the gun industry’s profits…. It is time to stop killing our children.

Death is a billion-dollar business. They can't even pass a law where it takes seven days to get a gun. Why don't you have to go through the same kind of screening you do to get a driver's license? It's totally insane.

Safe storage and child access prevention laws are critical steps as we seek to reduce the occurrence of accidental shootings and suicides involving guns.

All guns are capable of killing and maiming. It follows that all guns are a threat to public safety.

We have bills that make it impossible for children to get into an aspirin bottle. Do my colleagues not think that we should do the same thing with a gun.

There are too many guns too easily accessible to kids, and we have to do something about it …. We no longer live in a society where mass murder … is unthinkable.

Guns are not a defense. Guns are a risk.

We must work to stop gun violence. I’ve consoled far too many parents whose children were taken too soon. We need to come together across party, racial, and religious lines. It’s time to take responsibility for making sure our babies grow up.

I don't think there should be more gun control. I think there should be more education.

There's a strong body of evidence that shows that the more diligent we are in ensuring that guns are in the appropriate hands, the safer our communities will be.

If you're a terrorist, you shouldn't be able to buy a gun.

We are not saying that every idiot out there should own a gun - and there should be better background checks on guns. Not everybody should have the right.

We prioritize access to guns to such a degree that we are traumatizing an entire generation of children.

The U.S. has more guns per capita and supplies more guns to the world than any other country. What would be a fistfight without guns turns into dead bodies with them. Families with guns in the house are more likely to shoot themselves accidentally than to shoot any intruder. Women abused by their partners have a five-fold increased risk of being killed when their partner owns a gun. Every three hours, at least one child is wounded or killed by gunfire.

There is a lot of talk now about metal detectors and gun control. Both are good things. But they are no more a solution than forks and spoons are a solution to world hunger.

It's shocking to me that it's easier to buy a gun at Wal-Mart than it is to buy my record.

I look forward to working with the NRA to come up with ways in which we can use common sense approaches to reduce the level of violence that we see - in our streets, and make the American people as safe as they possibly can be.

So many deaths could be prevented if measures were implemented to expand background checks and keep individuals like John Hinckley from ever buying firearms in the first place.

It's not a gun control problem; it's a cultural control problem.

Our experience in Hawaii has shown that we can place common sense limits on gun sales, demonstrate our respect for gun owners, and, most importantly, help ensure the safety of our residents.

My belief is that guns are too easy to get in America. My belief is that the NRA has bought much of our congress, to the point that guns are actually the only unregulated consumer product in America. Think about that. It's stunning.

I wish that there were more stringent laws to make guns sold anywhere that they're legal harder to get.

Bullets cannot be recalled. They cannot be uninvented. But they can be taken out of the gun.