"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a
well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free
country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be
compelled to render military service in person."
-- James Madison, I Annuals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789)
[This was Madison's original proposal for the "Second Amendment"]
"It is not certain that with this aid alone [possession of arms], they
would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to
posses the additional advantages of local governments chosen by
themselves, who could collect the national will, and direct the national
force; and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these
governments and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be
affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny
in Europe would be speedily overturned, in spite of the legions which
surround it."
-- James Madison "Federalist No. 46"
"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the
citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the
people with arms."
-- James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46 at 243- 244
"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 shall
have no power 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 state
governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the People."
-- Tench Coxe - 1788.
"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them,
may attempt to tyrannize, ... the people are confirmed by the next
article in their right to keep and bear arms."
-- Tench Coxe in "Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments
to the Federal Constitution", Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men,
undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-- Thomas Paine
"The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be
preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike;
but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. ... Horrid
mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of
them; ... the weak will become a prey to the strong."
-- Thomas Paine
"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 balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be
preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike;
but since some others them aside... Horrid mischief would ensue were one
half the world deprived of the use of them; ... the weak will become the
prey to the strong."
-- Thomas Paine, I Writings of Thomas Paine at 56 (1775).
"The great object is that every man be armed, everyone who is able might
have a gun."
-- Patrick Henry (3 Elliot, Debates at 386)
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who
approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but
downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined."
-- Patrick Henry, speaking to the Virginia convention for the
ratification of the constitution on the necessity of the right
to keep and bear arms.
"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, Philadelphia, 1836.
"They tell us, Sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so
formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the
next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed,
and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we
gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means
of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the
delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and
foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which
the God of nature hath placed in our power."
-- Patrick Henry (1736- 1799) in his famous "The War Inevitable"
speech, March, 1775
"Three millions of People, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in
such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force
which our enemy can send against us. Beside, Sir, we shall not fight our
battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of
Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us."
-- Patrick Henry (1736-1799) in his famous "The War Inevitable"
speech, March, 1775
"Instances of the licentious and outrageous behavior of the military
conservators still multiply upon us, some of which are of such nature,
and have been carried to so great lengths, as must serve fully to evince
that a late vote of this town, calling upon its inhabitants to provide
themselves with arms for their defence, was a measure as it was legal
natural right which the people have reserved to themselves, confirmed by
the Bill of Rights, (the post-Cromwellian English bill of rights) to
keep arms for their own defence; and as Mr. Blackstone observes, it is
to be made use of when the sanctions of society and law are found
insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression."
-- "A Journal of the Times" (1768-1769) colonial Boston newspaper
article.
"Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money,
except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer
to be generous with other people's freedom and security."
-- William F. Buckley
"In recent years it has been suggested that the Second Amendment
protects the "collective" right of states to maintain militias, while it
does not protect the right of "the people" to keep and bear arms... The
phrase "the people" meant the same thing in the Second Amendment as it
did in the First, Fourth, Ninth and Tenth Amendments -- that is, each
and every free person. A select militia defined as only the privileged
class entitled to keep and bear arms was considered an anathema to a
free society, in the same way that Americans denounced select spokesmen
approved by the government as the only class entitled to the freedom of
the press."
-- Stephen P. Holbrook, "That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution
of a Constitutional Right", University of New Mexico Press, 1984,
pp. 83-84.
"Those, who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the
state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please.
[Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the
measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army,
and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people."
-- Aristotle ... Quoted by John Trenchard and Walter Moyle "An
Argument Shewing, That a Standing Army Is Inconsistent with a
Free Government, and Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution
of the English Monarchy" [London, 1697]
"To avoid domestic tyranny, the people must be armed to stand upon
[their] own Defence; which if [they] are enabled to do, [they] shall
never be put upon it, but [their] Swords may grow rusty in [their]
hands; for that Nation is surest to live in Peace, that is most capable
of making War; and a Man that hath a Sword by his side, shall have least
occasion to make use of it."
-- John Trenchard & Walter Moyle, "An Argument Shewing, That a
Standing Army is Inconsistent With a Free Government, and
Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English
Monarchy" [London, 1697] ("An Argument")
"Men that are above all Fear, soon grow above all Shame."
-- John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon "Cato's Letters: Or, Essays
on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects"
[London, 1755]
"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. ... 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, Judge of the Virginia Supreme Court
and U.S. District Court of Virginia in, I Blackstone
COMMENTARIES St. George Tucker Ed., 1803, pg. 300 (App.)
"No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The
possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He,
who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by
him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is
his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to
defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and
at discretion."
-- James Burgh "Political Disquisitions: Or, an Enquiry into
Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses" [London, 1774-1775]
"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been
considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it
offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power
of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first
instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
-- Joseph Story "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United
States; With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History
of the Colonies and States before the Adoption of the
Constitution" [Boston, 1833]
"...And yet, though this truth would seem so clear, and the importance
of a well regulated militia would seem so undeniable, it cannot be
disguised that among the American people there is a growing indifference
to any system of militia discipline, and a strong disposition, from a
sense of its burdens, to be rid of all regulations."
-- Joseph Story "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United
States; With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History
of the Colonies and States before the Adoption of the
Constitution" [Boston, 1833]
"How it is practicable to keep the people duly armed without some
organization, it is difficult to see. There is certainly no small
danger, that indifference may lead to disgust, and disgust to contempt;
and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause
of our national bill of rights."
-- Joseph Story "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United
States; With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History
of the Colonies and States before the Adoption of the
Constitution" [Boston, 1833]
"The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and
military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of
democracy. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns.
Only the police, the secret police, the military. The hired servants of
our rulers. Only the government-and a few outlaws. I intend to be among
the outlaws."
-- Edward Abbey "The Right to Arms" [New York, 1979]
"An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its
citizens than a republic armed by foreign forces. Rome and Sparta were
for many centuries well armed and free. The Swiss are well armed and
enjoy great freedom. Among other evils caused by being disarmed, it
renders you contemptible. It is not reasonable to suppose that one who
is armed will obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man
will remain safe among armed servants."
-- Machiavelli, "The Prince" (1532)
"If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was
landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms -- never -- never -
- NEVER! You cannot conquer America."
-- William Pitt, Earl of Chatham Speech in the House of Lords,
November 18, 1777
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never -- in nothing,
great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of
honor and good sense."
-- Winston Spencer Churchill Address at Harrow School, October
29, 1941
"Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time
that men have died to win them." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
"You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I
say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"
-- Oliver Cromwell in dissolving Parliament, 1653
"Whenever people...entrust the defence 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
"We, the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts
- not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert
the Constitution."
-- Abraham Lincoln
"...The right of the people peacefully to assemble for lawful purposes
existed long before the adoption of the Constitution of the United
States. In fact, it is and always has been one of the attributes of a
free government. It `derives its source,' to use the language of Chief
Justice Marshall, in Gibbons v Ogden, 9 Wheat., 211, `from those laws
whose authority is acknowledged by civilized man throughout the world.'
It is found wherever civilization exists. It was not, therefore, a right
granted to the people by the Constitution... The second and tenth counts
are equally defective. The right there specified is that of `bearing
arms for a lawful purpose.' This is not a right granted by the
constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument
for its existence. The Second Amendment declares that it shall not
infringed; but this, as has been seen, means no more than it shall not
be infringed by Congress. This is one of the amendments that has no
other effect than to restrict the powers of the National Government..."
-- UNITED STATES v. CRUIKSHANK; 92 US 542; (1875)
"The rifle of all descriptions, the shot gun, the musket and repeater
are such arms; and that under the Constitution the right to keep and
bear arms cannot be infringed or forbidden by the legislature."
-- ANDREWS v. STATE; 50 Tenn. 165,179,8 Am. Rep. 8, 14 (Tennessee
Supreme Court, 1871)
"...the right to keep arms necessarily involves the right to purchase
them, to keep them in a state of efficiency for use, and to purchase and
provide ammunition suitable for such arms, and to keep them in repair."
-- ANDREWS v. STATE; 50 Tenn. (3 Heisk) 165, 178; (1871)
"...we incline to the opinion that the Legislature cannot inhibit the
citizen from bearing arms openly, because it authorizes him to bear them
for the purposes of defending himself and the State, and it is only when
carried openly, that they can be efficiently used for defence."
-- STATE v. REID; 1 Ala. 612, 619, 35 Am. Dec. 47; (1840)
"The practical and safe construction is that which must have been in the
minds of those who framed our organic law. The intention was to embrace
the 'arms,' an acquaintance with whose use was necessary for their
protection against the usurpation of illegal power - such as rifles,
muskets, shotguns, swords and pistols. These are now but little used in
war; still they are such weapons that they or their like can still be
considered as 'arms' which the [the people] have a right to bear."
-- STATE v. KERNER; 181 NC 574, 107 SE 222, 224-25 (North Carolina
Supreme Court, 1921.)
"If the text and purpose of the Constitutional guarantee relied
exclusively on the preference for a militia `for defense of the State,'
then the terms `arms' most likely would include only the modern day
equivalents of the weapons used by the Colonial Militia Men."
-- STATE v. KESSLER, 289 Or. 359, 369, 614 p. 2d 94,99 (Oregon
Supreme Court, 1980.)
"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 constitutional privilege."
-- WILSON v. STATE, 33 Ark. 557, at 560, 34 Am. Rep. 52, at 54 (1878)
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'
The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys, and
not militia only, to keep and bear arms of every description, and not
such merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed,
curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for
the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-
regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of a free State.
Our opinion is that any law, State or Federal, is repugnant to the
Constitution, and void, which contravenes this right."
-- NUNN v. STATE, 1 Ga. (1 Kel.) 243, at 251 (1846)
"[T]he right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the second amendment to
the federal constitution is not carried over into the fourteenth
amendment so as to be applicable to the states."
-- STATE v. AMOS, 343 So. 2d 166, 168 (La. 1977)
"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a
reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating
the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for
independence."
-- Charles A. Beard
"The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should
encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes,
as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus,
and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the
world... The first step -- in the direction of preparation to avert war
if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come -- is to teach men
to shoot!"
-- President Theodore Roosevelt's last message to Congress.
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and
degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing
is worth fighting for is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he
is willing to fight, nothing he cares about more than his personal
safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free unless
made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
-- Seen on a poster at a gun show. No author was cited for this
truly excellent statement.
"Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are
therefore called natural rights, such as life and liberty, need not the
aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they
are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by
the municipal laws to be inviolate. On the contrary, no human
legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall
himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture."
-- Sir William Blackstone
"We preserve our freedoms using four boxes: soap, ballot, jury, and
cartridge."
-- Anonymous
"The First Amendment has erected a wall of separation between church
and state, but that wall is a one directional wall; it keeps the
government from running the church, but it makes sure that Christian
principles will always stay in government."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Jan 1, 1802, address to the Danbury Baptists
"the people" seems to have been a term of art employed in select parts
of the Constitution.... "the people" protected the Fourth Amendment, and
by the First and Second Amendments, and to whom rights and powers are
reserved the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, refers to a class of persons who
are part of a national community or who have otherwise developed sufficient
connection with this country to be considered part of that community.
-- Supreme court decision in US v. Vergugo-Urquidez
"It is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute
the reserve military force or reserve militia of the United States as
well as of the states, and, in view of this prerogative of the general
government, as well as of its general powers, that states cannot, even
laying the Constitutional provision in question 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,
and disable the people from performing their duty to the general
government."
-- Justice Woods (Presser vs. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252, 6 S.Ct.
580 (1886)
"[The Second Amendment] is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The Second Amendment declares that it shall not be infringed, ... it shall not be infringed by Congress." -- Supreme Court (U.S. vs. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542, (1876)