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"Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American peoples liberty teeth and the keystone under independence. To ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensible. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference -- They deserve a place of honor with all that's good." General of the Continental Army, Father of Our Country and First President of the United States in a speech to Congress, January 7, 1790 "The right to self-defense is a God-given, absolute inalienable right of every human being,... justly called the primary law of nature, so it is not, neither can it be in fact, taken away by the laws of society. "It is to be made use of when the sanctions of society and law are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression." "The highest number to which a standing army can be carried in any country does not exceed one hundredth part of the souls, or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This portion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Besides the advantage of being armed, it forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. The governments of Europe are afraid to trust the people with arms. If they did, the people would surely shake off the yoke of tyranny, as America did. Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors. of Constitution, principal writer of The Federalist Papers, President of the United States. The right to arms "is a natural right which the people have reserved to themselves, confirmed by the [English] Bill of Rights, to keep arms for their own defense." "The government of the United States when established found it in existence... The right of bearing arms for a lawful purpose... is not a right granted by the constitution. Neither is it in any way dependent upon that instument for its existence...". "The whole Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the rights of the people at large or... as individuals... It establishes some rights of the individual as inalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of." "The Constitution shall never be construed [to authorize Congress] to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceble citizens, from keeping their own arms... " "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." "... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give the congress a power to disarm the people." "What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty... Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia..." "Whenever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the bank of destruction." "As civil leaders not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which shall be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." Trench Coxe The Militia: " ...the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers... the right of the people to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and abitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed... The supreme power in america cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops..." "I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people..." "By modeling the militia the constitution ought to secure a genuine, and guard against a select militia. 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 "The signification attributed to the term militia appears from the debates in the convention, the history and the legislation of colonies and states, and the writings of approved commentators. These show plainly enough that the militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defence... And further, that ordinarily when called for service these men were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time." "... all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserve militia... The States cannot, even laying [the Second Ammendment] out of view, prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms, so as to deprive the United States of their rightful resource for maintaining the public security..." "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined... The great object is that every man be armed... Everyone who is able may have a gun." "They that can give up essential liberty to gain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." "If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all forms of positive government." "What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion?... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned... that this people preserve the spirit of resistence? Let them take arms... The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." "that was the best and most effective way to enslave them... by totally disbusing and neglecting the militia." "Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with our own arms for our own self-defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our possesion and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defence be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" "Little more can reasonably aimed at with respect to the people at large than to have them properly armed and equipped." "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." "Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone; and you have no longer an aristocratical, no longer a democratical spirit. Did you ever read of any revolution in a nation, brought about by the punishment of those in power, inflicted by those who had no power at all? You read of a riot act in a country which is called one of the freest in the world, where a few neighbors can not assemble without the risk of being shot by a hired soldiery, the engines of despotism. We may yet see such an act in America." "This country, with its institutions, belong to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." Abraham Lincoln "The reason why men enter into society is the perservation of their property... [Therefore] whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitray power, the [the officials of the government] put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience, and are left to the common refuge which God hath provided for all men against force and violence. Whensoever, therefore, the legislative shall transgress this fundamental rule of society, and either by ambition, fear, folly, or corruption, endeavor to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people, by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands and it devolves to the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty, and... provide for their own safety and security."  "American Heritage" |
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