40 Reasons To Own Firearms

I Own Firearms Because A Bunch Of Old, Dead, White Folks Said I Should:

1) "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a
last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." ~ Thomas Jefferson.

2) "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly
armed." ~ Alexander Hamilton.

3) "Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the
world as well as property." ~ Thomas Paine.

4) "Americans need not fear the federal government because they enjoy the advantage of
being armed, which you possess over the people of almost every other nation." ~ James
Madison.

5) "The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference; they deserve
a place of honor with all that's good." ~ George Washington.

6) "The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun."
~ Patrick Henry.

7) "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined
nor determined to commit crimes" ~ Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria.

8) "To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." ~ George
Mason.

9) "The said Constitution be never construed... to prevent the people of the United States
who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." ~ Samuel Adams.

10) "But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary
government, and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in
America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." ~ Hubert Humphrey.

11) "I carried it (a revolver) religiously and during the summer I asked a friend, a man
who had been one of Franklin's bodyguards in New York State, to give me some practice
in target shooting so that if the need arose I would know how to use the gun." ~ Eleanore
Roosevelt.

12) "By calling attention to 'a well regulated militia', the 'security' of the nation, and the
right of each citizen 'to keep and bear arms', our founding fathers recognized the
essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fears
of governmental tyranny which gave rise to the Second Amendment will ever be a major
danger to our nation, the Amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic
civilian-military relationships, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the
defense of his country. For that reason, I believe the Second Amendment will always be
important." ~ John F. Kennedy.

I Own Firearms Because History Says I Should:

13) 1911: Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians,
unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

14) 1929: Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 40-60 million
citizens, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated or starved to
death.

15) 1935: China established gun control. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political
dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

16) 1938: Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews,
Catholics and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and
exterminated.

17) 1956: Cambodia established gun control. From 1975 to 1977, one million 'educated'
people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated."

18) 1964: Guatemala established gun control. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan
Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

19) 1966-1976: China still has gun control. Another 50-100 million civilians, unable to
defend themselves, were killed in Mao Tse Tung's "Cultural Revolution".

20) 1970: Uganda established gun control. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians,
unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

21) 1990s: Rwanda established gun control. In a span of 100 days in April 1994, 800,000
people who were unable to defend themselves were massacred to death - most by
machetes. How many dead, hacked-up bodies do you think were found holding a loaded
gun? (answer is less than one)

22) 1992: Los Angeles California, USA. For three days police stood by and watched,
unable to stop the rioting, arson and destruction of whole neighborhoods. Yet many
Korean stores were virtually untouched - protected by their well-armed storeowners who
exercised their right to self-defense through their right to keep and bear arms and who
did for themselves what the police were unwilling or unable to do.

23) Late 1990s: Great Britain established total gun control. Robberies, burglaries and
assaults have skyrocketted making London's violent crime rate now higher than anywhere
in America.

24) "Every good communist should know that political power grows out of the barrel of a
gun." ~ Mao Tse Tung

25) "Ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State." ~
Heinrich Himmler.
I Own Firearms Because It Is My God-Given Right To Self-Defense:

26) "If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no
guilt for his bloodshed." ~ Exodus 22:2

27) "...he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." ~ Luke 22:36

28) "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace." ~
Luke 11:21

29) "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." ~ Declaration of Independance

I Own Firearms Because I Have Common Sense:

30) A gun-owner his far more likely to be killed in a car accident or by drowning in a
swimming pool or by physician mistakes than from owning a gun.

31) Criminals fear victims holding guns, not victims holding phones.

32) 2 million times a year, private citizens successfully use guns to defend themselves.
I Own Firearms Because There Are Those With Power Who, If Given The Chance,
Would Force Me To Relinquish Them:

33) "Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of Americans to feel safe." ~ Sen.
Diane Feinstein D-CA, quoted by AP, 11/18/93.

34) "We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We're
going to beat guns into submission!" ~ Rep. Charles Schumer D-NY, quoted on NBC,
12/8/93

35) "For target shooting, that's okay. Get a license and go to the range. For defense of the
home, that's why we have police departments." ~ James Brady.

36) "The sale of guns must stop. Halfway measures are not enough." ~ Sarah Brady.

37) "Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of
private firearms is the goal." ~ Former Attorney General Janet Reno.

38) "The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people" ~ Former President
Bill Clinton, interview on MTV 1993

39) "I dont' care about crime. I just want to get the guns." ~ Former Senator Howard
Metzenbaum, D-OH during Brady Bill debates.

40) "If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using their weapons to protect
their rights, makes me very nervous that these people have these weapons at all!" ~ Rep.
Henry Waxman, D-NY, 5/2001 MSNBC report on .50BMG rifles.

Hauser's Law

   
Arthur Laffer Agrees with Hauser's Law

Hoover's Digest: Soak the rich? You can’t. A vital observation, By David Ranson.

The Laffer Curve

It Should Be Called The Mellon Curve

In 1924, Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon wrote: "It seems difficult for some to understand that high rates of taxation do not necessarily mean large revenue to the Government, and that more revenue may often be obtained by lower rates."

Exercising his understanding that "73% of nothing is nothing", he pushed for the reduction of the top income tax bracket from 73% to an eventual 24% (as well as tax breaks for lower brackets).
Personal income-tax receipts rose from US$719 million in 1921 to over $1 billion in 1929, an average increase of 4.2% per year over an 8-year period, which supporters attribute to the rate cut.[10]

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Amongst others, David Hume expressed similar arguments in his essay Of Taxes in 1756, as did fellow Scottish economist Adam Smith, twenty years later in 1776.

A similar argument was proposed in the 1880s, also by the Republican party, in the face of federal budget surpluses, due to high revenue from import tariffs, which had been raised following the Civil War (1861–1865).
The Democratic party argued that cutting tariffs would lower revenues, while the Republican party made the Laffer curve argument that higher tariffs would lower revenues by reducing imports.

A 1997 analysis concluded that the tariff rate used was less than the revenue maximizing rate.


An argument along similar lines has also been advocated by Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shi'a Imam and fourth Caliph of the Islamic empire; in his letter to the Governor of Egypt, Malik al-Ashtar. He writes:

“ If the tax-payers complain to you of the heavy incidence to taxation, of any accidental calamity, of the vagaries of the monsoons, of the recession of the means of irrigation, of floods or destruction of their crops on account of excessive rainfall and if their complaints are true, then reduce their taxes. This reduction should be such that it provides them opportunities to improve their conditions and eases them of their troubles.

Decrease in State-income due to such reasons should not depress you because the best investment for a ruler is to help his subjects at the time of their difficulties. They are the real wealth of a country and any investment on them even in the form of reduction of taxes, will be returned to the State in the shape of the prosperity of its cities and improvement of the country at large. At the same time you will be in a position to command and secure their love, respect and praises along with the revenues. ”

—Ali ibn Abi Talib, Nahj al-Balagha, Letter 53

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Laffer himself does not claim to have invented the concept, attributing it to 14th century Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun [wiki]
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[Laffer Curve - Wikipedia]
   
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The Laffer Curve: Past, Present, and Future - The Heritage Foundation

The Laffer Curve Is Real …
How the Laffer curve really works

Defending the Arc of Laffer's Curve 

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2297970The Lucas Critique, Policy Invariance and Multiple Equilibria by Roger E. A. Farmer

Self-Confirming Equilibrium and the Lucas Critique
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