Gerald R. Ford Quotes
You can’t take the hard-line NRA position. That’s a loser.
See Wayne LaPierre {608707} for an example of the NRA position.
Gerald R. Ford, 1913–2006, 38th President of the United States (Republican, MI), Speaker of the House, Interview, ABC This Week, March 19, 2000
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
LaPierre, who had a reputation for extreme statements, found many of his usual anti-gun control allies distancing themselves. See Gerald Ford {641384}.
Defending the administration's ban on imported assault rifles:
The Senator was announcing the introduction of a bill to ban all handguns.
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 was the critical Supreme Court decision which finally decided the long debated issue or whether the right to bear arms was an individual right or a collective militia right. Scalia’s majority opinion ruled it an individual right, but it allowed for exceptions where there might be unusual individual risk. It also upheld the right of the government to control where guns are carried and to regulate the commercial sale of firearms which some of the pro gun extremists had insisted the government had no right of regulaltion.
- Born: July 14, 1913
- Died: December 26, 2006
- Nationality: American
- Profession: President
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was an American politician and attorney who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party, Ford previously served as the 40th vice president of the United States from 1973 to 1974. To date, Ford is the only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office by the Electoral College.