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Professor Joseph Olson     Hamline University School of Law
tel.   (651) 523-2142          St. Paul, Minnesota  55104-1284
fax.  (651) 523-2236          <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>>> <DBK> 10/30/03 05:19AM >>>

                GEORGE ORWELL
"The totalitarian states can do great things, but there is one thing they cannot do: they cannot give the factory-worker a rifle and tell him to take it home and keep it in his bedroom.  THAT RIFLE HANGING ON THE WALL OF THE WORKING-CLASS FLAT OR LABOURER'S COTTAGE, IS THE SYMBOL OF DEMOCRACY. IT IS OUR JOB TO SEE THAT IT STAYS THERE."    ( all caps are in the original article )

The Complete Works of George Orwell, 20 volume set edited by Peter Davison. Published by Secker & Warburg, London: 1998.Vol XII, pages 362 through 365, article 743. "Don't Let Colonel Blimp Ruin the Home Guard" taken from the Evening Standard, 8 Jan 1941.
 
Unfortunately Her Majesty's Government did not heed Orwell's plea.  He understood the meaning of "militia."
Joseph Olson and David Kopel, All the Way Down the Slippery Slope: Gun Prohibition in England and Some Lessons for Civil Liberties in America, 22 Hamline L. Rev. 399 (1999).

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