Henry Hyde Quotes
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.
This quotation was particularly shocking to many conservative Republicans for whom it was a fundamental principle that the government should do nothing about gun control and the issue of gun accessibility. Hyde, breaking what had been a conservative wall of silence, had generally been a legislator of great principle who put national and public interest above that of party when critical problems as he saw them were at stake.
Henry Hyde, U. S. Congressman (Republican, IL), Statement after the 1999 Columbine shooting
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This was his commentary in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre by a deranged student who bought two powerful guns and killed 32 people on campus.
In Colombia, as in the U. S., there are many more deaths and injuries to family members caused by guns in homes, then there are deaths or injuries caused by intruders, robbers or other bad actors. However, for many Americans—especially men—they would prefer the risk of a gun in the home, than the indignity of being unable to defend their families and themselves. In essence, this is the crux of the gun control debate. Both sides are right and just reflect different values.
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.
Like many other ideologues, the Senator was a better politician than he was a historian. He had a tendency to not be very accurate in his facts. In this particular gaff, which was castigated by critics, he was wrong about both facts he gave. First, not only was it not the case that there were few gun crimes “back then”. See {640086} and {640085} . Second his implication that everyone carried guns, and the guns were responsible for the “low” gun crime rate, was also false. Gun crime was so prevalent that most towns and cities in the West had gun control ordinances prohibiting carrying guns in the city limits. The famous Gunfight at the OK Corral which the Senator cited was in Tombstone, AZ in 1881. At that time, it was illegal to carry a gun in Tombstone. See {640063} for the gun control ordinance. As a matter of fact, the OK Corral gunfight was fought because Sheriff Wyatt Earp was disarming some cowboys who brought their guns to town. Glen Kessler, The Washington Post fact checker gave this quotation “3 Pinocchios”.
Although written by a science fiction writer, this is one of the best quotations arguing for widespread gun ownership.
Henry John Hyde was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 2007, representing the 6th District of Illinois, an area of Chicago's northwestern suburbs. He was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 2001, and the House International Relations Committee from 2001 to 2007. He is most famous for writing the Hyde Amendment, as a vocal abortion opponent.
