How about a good list of "forefather quotes" for Rosie

[thaddeus]

Rosie said today that the "second amendment was written so that our ancestors could have muskets to fend off the English".

How about we make a list of ALL the massive amounts of quotes from the men who wrote the Constitution explaining why they put the second amendment in there. There are tons of them. List them here, and I will send an email to rosie with the list and she can see for herself why the forefathers wrote the second amendment, from their own mouths.
Also, some quotes from other decicions since (like in court) that have upheld the citizens rights to own weapons (even "assault rifles").

List your favorites here, and we can all send them to Rosie so she can get an education (not that I have high hopes that it will sink in). Apparently she does get at least some feedback from her email, so I do think it will get to her eventually. I think I will also post it on her site.

[Morgan]

I've stolen most of these from various sources, many from TFL. All are pretty good.

Individual rights have nothing to do with what the majority wants.
-- J. D. Tuccille

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
-- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

I am now of the opinion that a compelling case for "stricter gun control" cannot be made, at least not on empirical grounds. I have nothing but respect for the various pro-gun control advocates with whom I have come in contact over the past years. They are, for the most part, sensitive, humane and intelligent people, and their ultimate aim, to reduce death and violence in our society, is one that every civilized person must share. I have, however, come to be convinced that they are barking up the wrong tree.
-- James Wright (scholarly research in collaboration with Peter Rossi)

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from man because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty - so dear to man, so dear to the enlightened legislator - and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventative but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.
-- Cesare Beccaria, 1764 AD

No man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against the tyranny in government.
--Thomas Jefferson, June 1776

The constitutions of most of our states, and of the United States, asserts that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed and that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of press.
--Thomas Jefferson

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
--Benjamin Franklin


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.
--James Madison, principal author of Constitution

Here, every private person is authorized to arm himself.
-- John Adams

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed unlike citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
-- James Madison

Little more can be reasonably aimed at with respect to the people at large than to have them properly armed and equipped. The scheme of disciplining the whole nation must be abandoned as mischievous and impracticable.
--Alexander Hamilton

To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.
-- Richard Henry Lee, 1787

A free people ought to be armed.
-- George Washington, 1790

The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun.
-- Patrick Henry

The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.
-- Samuel Adams

Unfortunately, nothing will preserve public liberty but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.
-- Patrick Henry

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, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.
-- Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789

The Militia is composed of all free citizens.
-- Samuel Adams

The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half-century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner.
-- Militia Act of 1792, the second Congress definition of 'militia of the United States'


That the National Guard is not the 'Militia' referred to in the Second Amendment is even clearer today. Congress had organized the National Guard under its power to 'raise and support armies' and not its power to 'Provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia.' The modern National Guard was specifically intended to avoid status as the constitutional militia, a distinction recognized by 10 U.S.C. 311(a). Title 32 U.S.C. in July 1918 completely altered the definition of the militia and its service, who controls it and what it is. The difference between the National Guard and Regular Army was swept away, and became a personnel pay folder classification only, thus nationalizing the entire National Guard into the Regular Standing Armies of the United States.
-- Senate Judiciary Committee Sub-committee on the Constitution stated in Senate Document 2807

Law enforcement agencies and personnel have no duty to protect individuals from the criminal acts of others; instead their duty is to preserve the peace and arrest law breakers for the protection of the general public.
-- Lynch v. NC Dept. Justice, U.S. Supreme Court

To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege.
-- United States Supreme Court, 1878

He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.
Luke 22:36

It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.
-- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson

Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
-- George Washington

The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest possible limits. When 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 brink of destruction.
-- George Tucker, Virginia Supreme Court

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be even a worse fate. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
-- Winston Churchill Speech before Parliament, 1939

The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic.
-- Josef Stalin, responsible for over 30 million deaths.

I am not a dictator...Those that call me that do not understand the principles of Socialism.
Joseph Stalin, 1932

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
--Chairman Mao

The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected peoples to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing... ...So let's not have any native militia or police.
-- Adolph Hitler, Edict of March 18, 1938

Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA - ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State.
-- Heinrich Himmler

...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious.
-- Joseph Goebbels - Nazi Propaganda Minister

Gun registration is not enough.
-- U.S.Attorney General Janet Reno on "Good morning America," 12/10/93

Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal.
-- Janet Reno

The American people must be willing to give up a degree of personal privacy in exchange for safety and security.
-- Louis Freeh Director of the FBI, 1993

The strongest gun legislation...I will enforce diligently and exhaustively.
-- Louis Freeh FBI Director, U.S. Senate Confirmation Hearings, 1993.

If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them, Mr. and Mrs. America turn them all in, I would have done it.
-- Senator Diane Feinstein


When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans ...... And so a lot of people say there's too much personal freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it. That's what we did in the announcement I made last weekend on the public housing projects, about how we're going to have weapon sweeps and more things like that to try to make people safer in their communities.
-- Bill Clinton, on MTV 3-22-94

We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans.
-- William Jefferson Clinton, USA Today, March 11, 1993

It is true that liberty is precious- so precious that it must be rationed.
--V.I.Lenin

If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self defence which is paramount to all positive forms of government...
-- Alexander Hamilton, 1787

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
-- Thomas Jefferson

Republic ... it means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose.
-- John Wayne

What is freedom? Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice and the exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.
-- Archibald MacLeish

[David Wright]

Outstanding Morgan!

When I get a chance, I'm going to arrange these quotes so, for example, when Louie suggests that we give up liberty for safety,
Benjamin Franklin refutes him.

That's when you know something has gone terribly wrong with this country, is when we have high public officials proposing things that are in DIRECT conflict with what our founding fathers said and thought.

Hmmmmmm. Who is smarter or wiser, Clinton,
Fiendstein, Reno, Louie, or our founding fathers?

Something to think about!

[This message has been edited by David Wright (edited May 20, 1999).]

[Paul B.]

There is only one problem with doing this. Rosie can't read. Seriously though, she would probably just refuse to read it.
She has her first amendment right to say what she pleases.
Unfortunately she does not recognize our same right to disagree with her. She chastized Tom Selleck for using his celebrity status to promote pro-gun information. What in hell is she doing, with her celebrity status in promoting her anti-gun agenda? She is the biggest hypocrite I have ever seen, and on national TV yet.
You know? By her near hysterical behavior with Tom Selleck, she may have actually furthered our cause? Just by losing it the way she did. If every pro-gun supporter is as cool as Mr. Selleck, and every Rosie type loses it, then it cannot do anything but help us by showing Mr. and Mrs. America who the kooks really are.
Every time I watch a "debate" between "us" and "them", the "thems" become rude, interupt, and refuse to let us get out our message. This hurts them, in my opinion.
Idiots like Rosie just shoot themselves in the foot. (pun intended)
Paul B.
COMPROMISE IS NOT AN OPTION!

[Gunz-n-Rosie]

Paul B.: I am afraid that you are probably right. She would probably choose not to read it. That's really sad too. You are also right in saying "she may have actually furthered our cause...Just by losing it the way she did." Judging by some of the comments I've heard, even pro-Rosie anti-gun people were not impressed with her behavior... some even commented on Tom's very calm behavior and insightful comments (when he was actually allowed to speak). I think you may end up with a lot more supporters like myself (those who don't own guns, but are pro-gun... or should I say "pro-constitution & bill of rights") if this continues. Just my opinion.

[This message has been edited by Gunz-n-Rosie (edited May 20, 1999).]

[Destructo6]

The dates on some of these quotes truly illustrates that truths are timeless. In particular the qoute by Cesare Beccaria (1764 AD) sums things up just as well today as when it was written/spoken.

There is a pretty good collection of 2nd Amendment quotes at www.wolf1.com



[This message has been edited by Destructo6 (edited May 20, 1999).]

[bookkie]

Some of these may be duplicates from above. I have collected them from all over my travels.

Thanks,

Richard

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and
better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for
an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
-Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria.

The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly
armed." -Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8.

"The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people
of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms." -Samuel Adams, debates & Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87.

"Arms in the hands of citizens (may) be used at individual discretion...in private self defense..." -John Adams, A defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the USA, 471 (1788).

"...the people have a right to keep and bear arms." -Patrick Henry and George Mason, Elliot, Debates at 185.

"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them." -Zachariah Johnson, 3 Elliot, Debates at 646.

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." -Tench Coxe, Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution, under the pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at col. 1.

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been recognized by the General Government; but the best security of that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free citizens of these States...Such men form the best barrier to the liberties of America." -Gazette of the United States, October 14, 1789.

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed." -Thomas Jefferson.

"They that can give up liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as they are injurious to others." -Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-1785).

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." -Thomas Jefferson, Bill for the More General diffusion of Knowledge (1778).

"... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all,
and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the
importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is
lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." --Richard Henry Lee, Senator, First Congress, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer (1788) at 169.

"Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt
to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins." --Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789.

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms..."
--Richard Henry Lee, 1788, Member of the First U.S. Senate.

"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference -- they
deserve a place of honor with all that is good." -George Washington

"The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!" --Patrick Henry, in his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775.

"It is in vain, Sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! But there is no peace.
The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that Gentlemen want? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" --Patrick Henry, in his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775.

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this
gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence Games played
with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the
mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walk." --Encyclopedia of Thomas Jefferson, 318 (Foley, Ed., reissued 1967)

"Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is a force, like fire: a dangerous servant and a
terrible master". --George Washington

"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." --Daniel Webster

"Whenever people ... entrust the defense of their country to a regular, standing army, composed of
mercenaries, the power of that country will remain under the direction of the most wealthy
citizens..." --"A Framer", in the Independent Gazetteer, 1791

"... if raised, whether they could subdue a Nation of freemen, who know how to prize liberty, and
who have arms in their hands?" --Delegate Sedgewick, during the Massachusetts Convention, rhetorically asking if an oppressive standing army could prevail ... Johnathon Elliot, ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 2 at 97 (2d ed., 1888).

"The Constitution preserves, besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... nothwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." --James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in Federalist Paper No. 46, at 243-244.

"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all the world would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside...Horrid mischief
would ensue were one half the world deprived the use of them..." --Thomas Paine, I Writings of Thomas Paine at 56 (1894).

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense 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?" --Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d Ed. Philadelphia, 1836.

"The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone." --James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in Federalist Paper No. 46.

"The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals ... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has the right to deprive them of." --Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789.

"Enlighten people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil
spirits at the dawn of day." --Thomas Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. 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." --Thomas Jefferson, proposed Virginia constitution, June 1776. Thomas Jefferson
Papers, 334 (C. J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)

When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny --Thomas Jefferson

"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life, secondly to liberty, thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can." --Samuel Adams

"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are
peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." --Samuel Adams, During the Massachusetts U.S.
Constitution ratification convention, 1788

"If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest
of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick
the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye
were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams, 1776

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither
Liberty nor Safety." --Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the
governor, November 11, 1755 <<later, motto of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, c. 1759>>

"A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of
bearing arms. To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms
and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." Richard Henry Lee, Initiator of the
Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights.
Additional Letters From the Federal Farmer 53, 1788

"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. Every man who is able may have a gun."
--Patrick Henry, During Virginia's ratification convention, 1788

"I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most
effectual way to enslave them." --George Mason, during Virginia's ratification convention, 1788

"A free people ought to be armed. When firearms go, all goes, we need them by the hour. Firearms stand next to importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence." --George Washington, Boston Independence Chronicle, January 14, 1790

"To ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. The very
atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with
all that is good." --George Washington, The Federalist No. 53

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia,
composed of the body of people, trained in arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free
country." --James Madison, I Annuals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789)

"..the great body of yeomanry and of the other classes of citizens to be under arms for the purpose of going through military exercises and evolutions, as often as might be necessary to acquire the degree of perfection which would entitle them to the character of a well regulated militia." (Federalists #29, 184-185)

"Last Monday a string of amendments were presented to the lower house; these
altogether respect personal liberty ..." - Senator William Grayson of Virginia in a letter to
Patrick Henry

"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of
them." - Zachariah Johnson, 3 Elliot, Debates at 646

"A free people ought ... to be armed ..." - George Washington, speech of January 7, 1790 in the
Boston Independent Chronicle, January 14, 1790

"What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army,
the bane of liberty." - Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress at 750
(August 17, 1789)

"That the people have a Right to mass and to bear arms; that a well regulated militia
composed of the Body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper natural and safe
defense of a free State..." - George Mason

"...who are the militia, if they be not the people of this country...? I ask, who are the
militia? They consist of now of the whole people, except a few public officers." - George Mason

"No free government was ever founded or ever preserved its liberty, without uniting
the characters of the citizen and soldier in those destined for the defense of the state....
Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman,
who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen."
- State Gazette (Charleston), September 8, 1788

"While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit,
the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny." - Rev. Nicholas Collin, Fayetteville Gazette (N.C.), October 12, 1789

"The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many
troops quite unnecessary. They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and
will generally be sufficient to over-awe them" - Tench Coxe, An American Citizen IV, October 21, 1787

"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe
the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the
United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise
standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or
more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly
manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to
unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possesions." - Samuel Adams, Debates of the Massachusetts Convention of 1788

"... of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press;
of the trail by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of
habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well defined, and
secured against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate
into tyranny." - James Monroe

"... the loyalists in the beginning of the late war, who objected to associating, arming and
fighting, in defense of our liberties, because these measures were not constitutional. A
free people should always be left... with every possible power to promote their own
happiness." - Pennsylvania Gazette, April 23, 1788

"No free man shall be debarred the use of arms within his own land." -Thomas Jefferson, the Virginia Constitution of 1776

"The powers of the sword, say the minority of Pennsylvania, is in the hands of Congress. My
friends and countrymen, it is not so, for the powers of the sward are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom? Congress have no right to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American.... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or the state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." -Pennsylvania Gazette, February 20, 1788

"Another source of power in government is a military force. But this, to be efficient, must be superior to any force that axists among the people, or which they can command; for otherwise this force would be annihilated, on the first exercise of acts of oppression. Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. 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 that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive." - Noah Webster An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia, 1787

The principle circumstances which render liberty secure are a spirit of liberty among the people--a
general diffusion of knowledge--a general distribution of property--a militia of freemen--and a fair representation in the supreme legislature ... It is a capital circumstance in favor of our liberty that the people themselves are the military power of our country. The Republican. January 7, 1788; Newspaper Article: Hartford Connecticut Couran

[T]he number of people employed in agriculture, is at least nine parts in ten of the inhabitants of
America, that therefore the planters and farmers form the body of the militia, the bulwark of the
nation--that the value of property occupied by agriculture, is manifold greater than that of the
property employed in every other way-- "An American" [Tench Coxe]. December 28, 1787;
Newspaper Article: Philadelphia "Independent Gazetteer"

In countries under arbitrary government, the people oppressed and dispirited neither possess arms nor know how to use them. Tyrants never feel secure until they have disarmed the people. They can rely upon nothing but standing armies of mercenary troops for the support of their power. But the people of this country have arms in their hands; they are not destitute of military knowledge; every citizen is required by law to be a soldier; we are all marshaled into companies, regiments, and brigades for the defense of our country. This is a circumstance which increases the power and consequence of the people; and enables them to defend their rights and privileges against every invader. The Republican; January 7, 1788 Newspaper Article: Hartford "Connecticut Courant"

a well-regulated militia composed of the body of the people trained to arms is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Virginia State Constitution

I am thus far a Quaker, that I would gladly argue with all the world to lay aside the use of arms and settle matters by negotiation, but unless the whole will, the matter ends, and I take up my musket and thank Heaven He has put it in my power." -- Writings of Thomas Paine 56 (M. Conway ed. 1894)

To trust the arms in the hands of the people at large has in Europe been believed, and so far as I
am informed universally, to be an experiment fraught only with danger. Here by a long trial it has
been proved to perfectly harmless: neither public nor private evils having ever flowed from this
source, except in instances of too little moment to deserve any serious regard. ... The difficulty
here has been to persuade the citizens to keep arms, not to prevent them from being employed for
violent purposes. --Timothy Dwight (1795)

Patrick Henry added the final point. The power to arm implied the power
to disarm. If the traditional common law requirement for militiamen to find their own weapons
were abandoned in favor of the use of federally- supplied ones, the result would be dangerous to
the states. "Of what service would militia be to you, when, most probably, you will not have a
single musket in the state?" asked Henry, "for, as arms are to be provided by Congress, they may
or may not furnish them."


The right of self-defense is the first law of nature ... and when 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 brink of destruction. - St. George Tucker, in his edition of Blackstone's "Commentaries"

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's
purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty
by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of
zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. Dissenting, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 479 (1928) Justice Louis D. Brandeis

"No free government was ever founded or ever preserved its liberty, without uniting the
characters of the citizen and soldier in those destined for the defense of the state.... Such
are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who
take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen." - State Gazette (Charleston), September 8, 1788

"... of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press; of
the trail by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of habeas
corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well defined, and secured
against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate into
tyranny."- James Monroe

"... the loyalists in the beginning of the late war, who objected to associating, arming and
fighting, in defense of our liberties, because these measures were not constitutional. A free
people should always be left... with every possible power to promote their own happiness." - Pennsylvania Gazette, April 23, 1788

"A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves . . . and
include all men capable of bearing arms. . . To preserve liberty it is essential
that the whole body of people always possess arms... The mind that aims at a
select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle." --
Additional Letters From The Federal Farmer, 1788 Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia:

Here every private person is authorized to arm himself, and on the strength of this
authority, I do not deny the inhabitants had a right to arm themselves at that time, for
their defense, not for offence, that distinction is material and must be attended to. [
L. Kinvin Wroth and Hiller B. Zobel, ed., Legal Papers of John Adams ,
(Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press: 1965), 3:248.]



"Resistance to sudden violence, for the preservation not only of my person, my
limbs, and life, but of my property, is an indisputable right of nature which I
have never surrendered to the public by the compact of society, and which
perhaps, I could not surrender if I would."
--- John Adams, Boston Gazette, Sept. 5, 1763,reprinted in 3 The Works of
John Adams 438 (Charles F. Adams ed., 1851).

To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion,
except in private self-defense or by partial orders of towns...is a dissolution of
the government.
--- John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United
States of America 475 (1787-1788).



This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty... The right of
self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the
study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible.
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 brink of destruction. - Tucker, Blackstones commentaries. 1803



Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves. -William Pitt (Pitt the Younger) Speech to the House of Commons, 18 November, 1783