GUN - Free Shop Manual

Thaddeus J. Dulski. M.C.
41st (Buffalo) Dist.• N. Y.
I BELIEVE OUR Founding Fathers had in mind a cItIzen army such as exists today in
Switzerland when they referred to a "well-regulated militia" in the Second Amendment
to the Constitution. With the potential for massive destruction in today's nuclear
weapons, the original concept of a citizen army may be as meaningful now as it was
in 1789. As Winston Churchill stated in World War II, we, too, may be forced to fight
from the di tches and the hedgerows. But after years of restrictive gun legislation in
England, the Britons were left with few weapons with which to make a hedgerow fight.
We should guard carefully against being legislated into a similar position. I sometimes
think the fear underlying restrictive firearms laws springs from a basic misunderstanding.
A gun in itself is no more dangerous than an axe or a hammer; for that
matter, an automobile. In the final analysis, it is not the gun which is dangerous. It
is the man behind it or the improper use of it. 1 'J' W
Wm. Jennings Bryan Dorn, M.C.
3rd (Greenwood) Dist.. South Carolina
WITHOUT THE RIGHT to bear arms, a free people would no
longer be free.
Co!'gressman Hamer H. Budge
2nd (Boise) Dist.. Idaho
EVE' IN THIS nAY of the atomic bomb and guided missile, I believe the Second
Amendment is as important as it ever was, with referred-to "well regulated militia"
including all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45. I believe the
purpose of the amendment was to guarantee to the people the right, under adequate
control, to own arms. Reasonable regulations for the purposes of safety, preventing
or reducing crime, and preventing game poaching do not constitute an infringement of
this right. Total prohibition of arms, either per se or by regulations which would result
in prohibition, would constitute an infringement.
Congressman John D. Dingell
15th Dist.• Michigan
THIS AMENDMEl'\T IS STILL of great significance to America from a defense standpoint.
and the need for a citizenry able to use firearms in defense of their home and country
is still as necessary as ever. The individual rifleman and his use in combat has been
altered but in no wise diminished by nuclear and missile warfare. Certainly, the time
for training persons in the various military arts and sciences in the event of war will
be diminished to virtually nothing, and defense of the country may devolve down to
what will be nothing more or less than guerrilla warfare by individual citizens.
We have witnessed this Amendment eroded away by a long
series of anti-gun laws in various states, which were upheld by
a Judiciary unaware of the real significance and need for individual
citizens to be skilled in the use of firearms. The duty
of the citizen, sportsman, hunter, target shooter and gun lover
is to act vigorously to preserve what is left of his right to
possess and own arms and, where possible, to turn back by a
vigilant effort continued attacks by do-gooders and others who
would impair the right to bear arms. It should be remembered
by gun enthusiasts that the attack is constantly going on in
State Legislatures, City Councils, in the Congress of the United
States and even in the Administrative Agencies, which last
year sought to make a tremendously hostile anti-gun regulation the law of the land on
a Federal level. Vigilance, and strong, well-directed, cooperative effort by sportsmen,
will preserve this right, even though the United States Constitution does provide for the
right of citizens to bear arms without infringement.
Congressman Ed Edmondson
2nd (Muskogee) Dist.. Oklahoma
THANK YOU FOR THE COMPLIMEl\"T of your request for a statement and picture. The
only photograph I have with a gun was taken during the World War II, alongside an
anti-aircraft gun, and I do not believe that would meet your requirements. I do believe
very strongly in the right of the people to keep and bear arms, and I come from a
part of the country in which most families have a shotgun or rifle in the home. I
would strongly resist any attempt to deprive our people of this constitutional right, and
believe that it is one of the basic rights of American citizenship that should be preserved
at all cost. There is also some significance in the fact that in most countries
under totalitarian rule, this right of the people has been severely limited or taken away.
Any step toward depriving our people of the right would very probably be a step
toward totalitarianism and should be resisted at all levels of government.
4 GUNS NOVEMBER 1959