Carl Mathiesen

re: GUNS and AMMO 

"But to ban guns because criminals use them 

is to tell the innocent and law-abiding 

that their rights and liberties depend 

not on their own conduct, 

but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, 

and that the law will permit them 

to have only such rights and liberties 

as the lawless will allow. ... 

For society does not control crime, ever, 

by forcing the law-abiding to accommodate themselves 

to the expected behavior of criminals. 

Society controls crime by forcing the criminals 

to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior 

of the law-abiding."

-- Jeff Snyder

Source: 

"Who's Under Assault in the 'Assault Weapon' Ban?", 

American Rifleman, October 1994, p. 53; 

excerpted from the Washington Times, August 25, 1994