Interesting Quotes

"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?" - Patrick Henry. 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 might have a gun. - Patrick Henry

I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials. - George Mason To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.... George Mason

The people have a right to keep and bear arms. - Patrick Henry and George Mason

"If we accept the view that the American people cannot be trusted with the material objects necessary to defend their liberty, we will surely accept as well the view that the American people cannot be trusted with liberty itself. Why should a man who can't be trusted to refrain from murder be trusted with the much more difficult and morally subtle task of choosing his leaders responsibly?" - Dr. Alan Keyes

"If we can not trust a freeman with his right to keep and bear arms, then how can we trust him with the right to vote? Surely the right of a freeman to vote has a much greater effect on our collective lives than does any individual's firearm. If one argues that the effect of any one freeman's vote is minimal, then why allow it in the first place? To be armed is to secure one's right to representation." - Thomas Mincher

"The powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty ... Who are the militia? are they not ourselves? Congress has 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 the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." - Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette February 20, 1788 As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the militay forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might prevent 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

"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 of Virginia -- The Federalist, No. 46 - Note how Madison contrasts other governments to the United States.

The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age. - Title 10, section 331 of the U.S. code

"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). "On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." - Thomas Jefferson Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...such saws 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 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 No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. - Thomas Jefferson

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 the use of them. - Thomas Paine

The best that we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed. - Alexander Hamilton 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. - Aleander Hamilton

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

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live. Martin Luther King

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 If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility 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, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion...in private self defense. - John Adams

"The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty - and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies." - H.L. Mencken, February 12, 1923, Baltimore Evening Sun.

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves" - William Pitt 1781

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it." - Justice Learned Hand

The right of the people to keep and bear... arms 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. - James Madison

A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms. - Richard Henry Lee

The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them. - Zachariah Johnson

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. - George Washington

"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

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of 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 bands of regular troops that can be, on an pretense, raised in the United States." - Noah Webster

"This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!" -- Adolph Hitler, 1933

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship." "The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith

From spiritual faith to great courage From courage to liberty From liberty to abundance From abundance to complacency From complacency to apathy From apathy to dependence From dependence back again into bondage." Professor Alexander Tyler, 200 years ago while we were still a British Colony.