Michael Howard Quotes
We will ban all handguns from peoples’ homes.
Michael Howard, British Interior Minister (Conservative), House of Commons Announcement Banning Handguns, October 1996
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
10 years later the Supreme Court ruled that such a prohibition would be unconstitutional.
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.
The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution has, according to all Supreme Court decisions, never given the right to bear arms to individual citizens—only to the state militia. Nonetheless, most polls show Americans believe the 2nd Amendment applies to individual citizens:
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}.
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, PC, QC is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet positions in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for the Environment and Home Secretary.
