Roy Innis Quotes
To make inexpensive guns impossible to get is to say you're putting a money test on getting a gun. It's racism in its worst form.
Roy Innis, President, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Quoted in The Washington Post, September 5, 1988
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This quotation is often provided by historians studying the gun culture of America. Even conservatives like Ames did not see a gun or an armed citizenry as important to America’s survival or well being. Contrary to popular belief, even the State Militias’ whose rights to bear arms was written into the Second Amendment did not bother to do so. In 1803 only three state militias had rifle companies. Firearms of the time were expensive, difficult to maintain, and hard to use. Unless one needed them for defense, it was too much of a bother. Even in the aftermath of the War of 1812 only 30% of Massachusetts adult men owned guns; by 1839, the rate was below 10%. It was on the frontier where guns were popular and necessary. See {613080}.
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.
He was unhappy about the fact that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were still routinely carrying guns on duty. In England and Canada there has been a tradition of police officers on their beats being unarmed. When more force is needed special armed police are dispatched.
Roy Emile Alfredo Innis was an American activist and politician. He was National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) from 1968 until his death.
