More words from our founding
fathers, to prove what they wrote is what they meant to be followed to
the letter, throughout centuries:
"They
that GIVE UP essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety DESERVE
NEITHER liberty nor safety."
--Benjamin
Franklin (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 the people always possess arms and be taught alike...how
to use them."
--Richard
Henry Lee
"No free
man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
--Thomas
Jefferson
"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
"Arms
in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion...in private
self-defense."
--John
Adams
"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
"[The
Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess
over the people of almost every other nation... [where] the governments
are afraid to trust the people with arms."
--James
Madison
"...arms...discourage
and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world
as well as property... Horrid mischief Would ensue Were [the law-abiding]
deprived of the use of them."
--Thomas
Paine
"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 may be attacked with greater confidence than
an armed man."
--Thomas
Jefferson