Jay Parini Quotes

Guns are dangerous. The only thing more dangerous is not having them.

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

My pistols, however, I always kept by me.

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.

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.

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

One of the really painful things we have found out about weapons carried by our kids is that they think they have to bring in the weapons to protect themselves.

I personally would prefer to send my child to a school where the teachers are armed … and prepared.

Individual NRA members, black and white, are publicly questioning why the organization has virtually nothing to say about Philando Castile. Just like with background checks - which most NRA members support - the NRA is out of step with its own members.

Teachers do not need to be armed with guns to protect their classes; they need to be armed with a solid education in order to teach their classes.

President Obama, under your leadership, we do need guns to keep us safe.

When the gun lobby fights gun-control legislation, its logic is clear: it does not like laws that prevent people from owning or using guns.

Texas is reportedly going to give college students the right to carry guns on campus. So I guess that next semester, every college student in Texas is getting straight A's.

Gun control is not the answer to stop crimes committed with firearms.

Let's make it clear for the dimmest bulbs among you: the kids at Columbine High didn't die from too many guns, they died from too few. I'm not suggesting that the teachers should have carried guns not as franchised agents of the state. They should have carried guns as ordinary individuals, exercising a sacred right, and in performance of a solemn duty to protect the young lives that were placed very foolishly, as it turned out in their hands.

A gun is not a weapon! It's a tool, like a butcher's knife, or a harpoon, or an alligator.

I think it's useful to keep in mind I've been now President for over seven years and gun sales don't seem to have suffered during that time.

I'm concerned about how and why there is no gun control.

There's a deeper conversation to be had on guns, and just because I happen to know where I fall into that conversation doesn't mean that I don't want to have that conversation.

When people in Washington say they're going to take away my guns, they better bring theirs if they're going to take mine.

I kind of think we have too many guns in this country.

I think that we may lose the argument, but I think we have to talk about gun control.

I support the work of the NRA, but disagree sometimes.

Under President (George W.) Bush, prosecution of gun crimes was 30 percent higher than it is under President Obama.

It is true that the vast majority of gun deaths in America are not the consequence of the use of an 'assault weapon.' But that begs the question of whether assault weapons have any real utility either in terms of any sporting or self protection needs.