Alan Dershowitz Quotes

I think the NRA, they got it half-right when they say, 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people.' I change it to, 'Guns don't kill people, Americans kill people.'

Guns are part of the American psyche, aren't they? This is collateral damage for having a Wild West mentality. It's intrinsic to the American psyche. It's never going to change.

First, the firearms industry has been around and has been respected for generations. They provide a valuable service and a highly desirable product to millions of sportsmen and supporters of those second amendment rights.

For a gun-toting nation, Americans are surprisingly passive.

America’s gun culture is an invented tradition. It was not present at the creation of America, whenever we fix that point. Rather, it developed in a single generation, among those who experienced the onset of the Civil War. All cultural attributes have a starting point, and a path of development. America’s gun culture is unusual only in that one can determine the precise period in which a specific artifact became central to a nation’s identity and self-conception. Prior to the 1860s, guns were not perceived as a significant component of America’s national identity, essential to its survival.

The real firearms argument is not a historical dispute about revolutionary America but a political one about 21st century America.

We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?

The fact that you own a gun and shoot to defend your life is a very American way of thinking.

I support gun safety measures, and I'll tell you, I grew up in a family of gun owners and hunters, and I went hunting with my dad as a kid, and you know, I have deep respect for the Second Amendment and the culture of our country.

If you write any kind of fiction about America, you immediately have to start doing some research about guns, so in some ways, 'Gun Machine' is just the culmination of 20 years of reading about guns.

Guns are part of the American identity.

Guns are beautiful. But I don't like what they do.

We woke up one day, and all the sudden Starbucks was in the middle of this political crossfire between the people who want to bring a gun into Starbucks and the people who want to prevent it. It is a very difficult, fragile situation.

The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will loose.

Understanding the long, sordid history of gun control in America is key to understanding the dangers of disarming.

During my time in Washington, I have become increasingly frustrated by the power held by the gun lobby.

It would be refreshing to have a politician try to defend guns without any reference to the Second Amendment, but on the merits of guns.

America is a country founded on guns. It's in our DNA. It's very strange but I feel better having a gun. I really do. I don't feel safe, I don't feel the house is completely safe, if I don't have one hidden somewhere. That's my thinking, right or wrong.

I'm not an NRA member, but that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate shooting blanks out of a machine gun.

I don't care. Charlton Heston is the head of the National Rifle Association. He deserves whatever anyone says about him.

I'm tired of hearing about this 'well-regulated militia' that is so necessary for American freedom.

There are some circles in America where it seems to be more socially acceptable to carry a hand-gun than a packet of cigarettes.

A Winchester Rifle should have a place of honor in every black home.

I'm not happy, frankly. Because I think in a civil society we don't need firearms

The only people in this country who should have guns are police officers and soldiers