It was difficult being a conscientious objector in the 1940's, but I felt I had to stick to my guns.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
That was luck: I should not then have been a conscientious objector; but I am quite sure that the abominations of war would have made me one, as soon as I got to the front.
No one wanted me to be a conscientious objector. My parents certainly didn't want it. My teacher and mentor, Joe Brearley, didn't want it. My friends didn't want it. I was alone.
It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.
I was very fascinated by the time when firearms went from being fire sticks to being something people could use to hunt and to survive.
After I was discharged from the military, it was difficult trying to become a civilian.
We understand that in an open and democratic and free society, you cannot make yourself impenetrable, especially when there are more guns than there are people in the United States today.
I was essentially trained by World War II vets who combined a progressive view of life with a deep distrust of anything authoritarian.
I knew, at a very young age, that I was supposed to be a gunfighter.
My cousin cleaned out a shotgun for me and let me carry it around the house, because he said, 'Anybody who knows anything about guns is going to know in a second if someone has held a gun before.' I didn't want to be that person. I wanted to be practiced.
As a young man, every bone in my body wanted to pick up a machine gun and kill Germans. And yet I had absolutely no reason to do so. Certainly nobody invited me to do the job. But that's what I felt that I was trained to do. Now no part of my upbringing was militaristic.