Gun violence has been a big problem in our society. This topic is relevant to both the public and private sectors.
In the United States, gun violence has increased significantly in recent years. There are many factors related to this increase, such as increased firearms and laxer regulations on gun sales. Another factor is that this country no longer has any significant law enforcement force to take down dangerous criminals.
In 2012, there were more than 30,000 gun-related crimes committed in the US. More than half of these crimes were murders involving a firearm, with many occurring in public places such as schools and government buildings.
Here are the top gun violence quotes highlighting the issue and encouraging you to speak out against it.
49 Gun Violence Quotes That Illustrate Social Issue
1. “Yes, people pull the trigger but guns are the instrument of death. Gun control is necessary, and delay means more death and horror.” ― Eliot Spitzer
2. “I don’t think there should be more gun control. I think there should be more education.” ― Sam Brownback
3. “We have to face the fact that meaningful gun control has to be a part of homeland security.” ― Jeh Johnson
4. “I have a very strict gun control policy: if there’s a gun around, I want to be in control of it.” ― Clint Eastwood
5. “Each and every child in this country is valuable because they are our future as a society. We cannot afford to lose a single child to ill-health, under-education, abuse, addiction, jail, or gun violence. America’s highest goal should be for every child to grow up to be a successful young adult — healthy, educated, free, secure, and a good citizen.” ― John F. Kerry
6. “An armed society is a polite society.” ― Robert A. Heinlein
7. “The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.” ― Thomas Jefferson
8. “Supporting mental wellness is crucial to any goal of decreasing gun violence in America.” ― Charles B. Rangel
9. “I am certain that there are extremists on both sides of the gun control debate in Hawaii, as in the rest of the nation. However, it has been our willingness and ability to develop mutually respectful and effective gun control laws that have kept our community safe.” ― Colleen Hanabusa
10. “You can’t be afraid to put out a fire if you’re a fireman. You can’t be afraid to be a police officer and carry a gun if you’re afraid to get up and go out there. So you’ve got to put that fear to the side and go out in faith to overcome that.” ― Duane Chapman
11. “This gun is liberty; hold for certain that the day when you no more have it, you will be returned to slavery.” ― Toussaint Louverture
12. “The problem is not the availability of guns, it is the availability of morons.” ― Antonio Meloni
13. “I support gun control. But speaking honestly about the combustible mix of race and guns may be more important to stopping the slaughter in minority communities than any new gun-control laws.” ― Juan Williams
14. “Guns made us free and have kept us free, one side says; the other side rejects guns as instruments of domination, lawlessness, and terrorism. The conflict rages on because both sides are right.” ― Jan E. Dizard
15. “A gun show is about like-minded people who feel as if everything has been taken away from them – jobs, money, pride.” ― Paul Theroux
16. “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.” ― Richard Henry Lee
17. “There is a problem here in America when it comes to police violence and gun violence, that I believe is being ignored by not giving the proper resources to communities.” ― Jumaane Williams
18. “To be violent is the ultimate laziness. War always seems a great effort, but it is the easy way. And false non-violence is also an idol.” ― Peter Brook
19. “The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will loose.” ― James Earl Jones
20. “Don’t mess with people’s right to bear arms with any restrictions.” ― Pat Roberts
21. “It is time to act. We cannot go on like this. Ban them!” – John Chafee
22. “When a person has a gun, sometimes their mind clicks that this thing will win arguments and straighten people out.” ― Bill Cosby
23. “We in Europe … do not consider the freedom to buy weapons a human right.” ― Gisela Kallenbach
24. “When I was a student, I studied philosophy and religion. I talked about being patient. Some people say I was too hopeful, too optimistic, but you have to be optimistic just in keeping with the philosophy of non-violence.” ― John Lewis
25. “Guns are like thermometers, only instead of measuring body temperatures they measure our fear.” ― Jean Zimmerman
26. “Placing a heavier burden on responsible gun owners will do little to prevent troubled individuals from carrying out violent acts. The Second Amendment is very clear and so is my commitment to protecting the Constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms.” ― Mike Johanns
27. “The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure.” ― Lyndon B. Johnson
28. “As long as there are guns, the individual that wants a gun for a crime is going to have one and going to get it. The only person who’s going to be penalized and have difficulty is the law-abiding citizen, who then cannot have it if he wants protection the protection of a weapon in his home.” ― Ronald Reagan
29. “Arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order…” – Thomas Paine
30. “Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe.” ― Dianne Feinstein
31. “It seems that the only gun violence some leftists approve of is gun violence aimed at cops and other groups they see as oppressive or racist.” ― Gary Bauer
32. “When you carry a gun, you mean to harm somebody, kill somebody.” ― Bill Cosby
33. “Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.” ― Thomas A. Edison
34. “Only with gun violence do we respond to repeated tragedies by saying that mourning is acceptable but discussing how to prevent more tragedies is not. But that’s unacceptable. As others have observed, talking about how to stop mass shootings in the aftermath of a string of mass shootings isn’t ‘too soon.’ It’s much too late.” ― Ezra Klein
35. “Gun violence is not something that appears just in a bad neighborhood or in another part of the world. It appears right here, right outside your door.” ― Stephen Young
36. “After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.” ― William S. Burroughs
37. “Violence is an evil thing, but when the guns are all in the hands of the men without respect for human rights, then men are really in trouble.” ― Louis L’Amour
38. “As for gun control advocates, I have no hope whatever that any facts whatever will make the slightest dent in their thinking – or lack of thinking.” ― Thomas Sowell
39. “Understanding the long, sordid history of gun control in America is key to understanding the dangers of disarming.” ― Niger Innis
40. “Gun bans don’t disarm criminals, gun bans attract them.” ― Walter Mondale
41. “I’m not big on re-inventing the wheel, but I believe we need great clarity on people’s fundamental right to bear arms.” ― Mike Jones
42. “Moments of crisis, like the shooting in Newtown, tend to produce brief spikes of popular interest in gun control. My research on media attention suggests these spikes are extremely short-lived, and that they may be decreasing in intensity.” ― Ethan Zuckerman
43. “It doesn’t matter if gun violence is down. We need to get guns and bullets and automatic weapons off the streets.” ― Don Lemon
44. “You can have all the gun control laws in the country, but if you don’t enforce them, people are going to find a way to protect themselves. We need to recognize that bad people are doing bad things with these weapons. It’s not the law-abiding citizens, it’s not the person who uses it as a hobby.” ― Michael Steele
45. “If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” ― Dalai Lama
46. “In light of all the gun violence in the USA, I’d prefer my democracy unleaded.” ― Jayseth Guberman
47. “Guns kill far more quickly and efficiently than knives, or crossbows, or toenail clippers; and, unlike bombs, you don’t need to build one in your basement they come ready-made! There’s a reason why guns are the overwhelming weapon of choice among mass murderers.” ― Quentin R. Bufogle
48. “Terrifying mass shooting and high-profile officer-involved incidents have dominated the national conversation on gun violence in recent years. But most deaths by gun are not headline-grabbing massacres. They`re more private, more intimate, and perhaps in that way, even more horrifying. Domestic violence, make no mistake, domestic violence is a gun issue.” ― Melissa Harris-Perry
49. “Speaking personally, you can have my gun, but you’ll take my book when you pry my cold, dead fingers off of the binding.” ― Stephen King
