Thinkage

"A gun doesn’t make you a citizen. 

"A citizen is one who is part of civilization, not outside it. A citizen is one who works to hold society together instead of working to burn it down, who learns from the past in order to build a better future for all. And in hard-won, hard-learned American tradition, a citizen is one who believes that the benefits of civilization are the birthright of all – not just a select few. Not just those brutal enough, ruthless enough, to take it at the muzzle of gun.   

"Citizenship is an ideal, an obligation, a duty. 

"Citizenship is not an excuse to act like a lout or a thug. 

"Citizenship is an acknowledgement that we are stronger together, despite our differences or maybe because of them, than we ever were alone. 

"And if civilization does not protect the weak from the ruthless, then what damned good is it?

"Those squatting in Malheur are not patriots. They are not soldiers. They are not citizens. They are an armed rabble of selfish malcontents. 

"They are nothing but bums with guns." -- the always insightful Jim Wright of Stonekettle Station, "Refuge Of Scoundrels"