What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.
\n\u2013 Thomas Jefferson<\/p>\n
A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.
\n\u2013 George Washington<\/p>\n
(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation\u2026(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
\n\u2013James Madison.<\/p>\n
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 positive forms of government\u2026
\n\u2013 Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist (#28) .<\/p>\n
To disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them.
\n\u2013 George Mason<\/p>\n
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 bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States.
\n\u2013Noah Webster, \u201cAn Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution (1787) in Pamplets on the Constitution of the United States (P.Ford, 1888)<\/p>\n
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.
\n\u2013Samuel Adams, debates & Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87.<\/p>\n
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\u2026The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.
\n\u2013Patrick Henry.<\/p>\n
Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who didn\u2019t.
\n\u2013 Ben Franklin<\/p>\n
Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property\u2026 Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.
\n\u2013Thomas Paine<\/p>\n
Are we at last brought to such an humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms under our own possession and under our own 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?
\n\u2013 Patrick Henry, 3 Elliot, Debates at 386.<\/p>\n
The right of the people to keep and bear\u2026arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country\u2026
\n\u2013James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789).<\/p>\n
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.
\n\u2013Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-B.<\/p>\n
[T]he 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.
\n\u2013 Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.<\/p>\n
From:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.washingtonsblog.com\/2015\/04\/first-time-many-decades-americans-support-gun-ownership-gun-control.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms. \u2013 Thomas Jefferson A free people ought not only to be armed … Continue reading