Amendment 1 Quotes

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  • 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.

    Men   Gun   Law  
  • The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

    John Adams (1794). “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America: Against the Attack of M. Turgot in His Letter to Dr. Price, Dated the Twenty-second Day of March, 1778”, p.475
  • A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. - Second Amendment to the Constitution An armed society is a polite society.

  • First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.

    Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234, 2002.
  • Arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order.

    Gun   Order   Law  
    Thomas Paine (2014). “Selected Writings of Thomas Paine”, p.4, Yale University Press
  • Wherever standing armies are kept up, 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.

    Army   Gun   Color  
    William Blackstone, St. George Tucker (1996). “Blackstone's Commentaries: With Notes of Reference to the Constitution and Laws, of the Federal Government of the United States, and of the Commonwealth of Virginia: With an Appendix to Each Volume, Containing Short Tracts Upon Such Subjects as Appeared Necessary to Form a Connecte”, p.300, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.
  • The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic.

    Joseph Story (1833). “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”, p.708
  • The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpation of power by rulers. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally ... enable the people to resist and triumph over them.

    Country   Strong   People  
    Joseph Story (1833). “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”, p.746
  • 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, counties or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

    Men   Self   Hands  
    "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government". Book by John Adams. Chapter 3: "Marchamont Nedham: Errors of Government and Rules of Policy", Sixth Rule, 1787.
  • If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of criminal acts reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying - that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the attempts at both Federal and State levels in 1965-1976 - establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable failure of gun laws to control serious crime.

    Gun   Should Have   Law  
    "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms - Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary". Book by Dennis DeConcini and Orrin Hatch, February 1982.
  • The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.

    Gun   Rights   People  
    "The Federalist Papers". Book by Alexander Hamilton, essay No. 69, 1787 - 1788.
  • The 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.

    Debates of the Massachusetts Convention, 1788.
  • A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

    James Madison, Gaillard Hunt, James Brown Scott (1999). “The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: Which Framed the Constitution of the United States of America”, p.690, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.
  • ...that standing army can never be formidable (threatening) to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in the use of arms.

    Army   Gun   Law  
  • What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

    Country   Freedom   Gun  
    Letter toWilliam Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787
  • Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.

    Country   Army   Gun  
    Noah Webster (1787). “An Examination Into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution Proposed by the Late Convention Held at Philadelphia: With Answers to the Principal Objections that Have Been Raised Against the System”, p.43
  • Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an Americans.

    Men   Gun   Soldier  
  • The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

    Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.458, Penguin
  • Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

    Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates, J. W. Randolph, James Madison (1850). “The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions”, p.136
  • To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms.

    Richard Henry Lee (1978). “Letters from the Federal farmer to the Republican”, Univ of Alabama Pr
  • If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.

    Education   Time   Evil  
    Whitney v. California (concurring opinion) (1927) See OliverWendell Holmes, Jr. 29
  • A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves... and include all men capable of bearing arms.

    4th Of July   Men   Gun  
    Richard Henry Lee, Mercy Otis Warren (1962). “An Additional number of letters from the Federal farmer to the Republican, leading to a fair examination of the system of government, proposed by the late Convention: to several essential and necessary alterations in it; and calculated to illustrate and support the principles and positions laid down in the preceding letters. Together with Oberservations on the new Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions by a Columbian patriot”
  • When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British parliament was advised by an artful man [Sir William Keith], who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people. That it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. But that they should not do it openly; but to weaken them and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.

    Men   Gun   America  
    George Mason's address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1788.
  • 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?

    Real   Gun   Differences  
    Speech on the Federal Constitution, Virginia Ratifying Convention, on June 09, 1788. "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution". Book edited by Jonathan Elliot, volume 3, p. 168-169, 1836.
  • 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 inevitably ruined.

    Virginia's U.S. Constitution ratification convention, June 5, 1788.
  • I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.

  • O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone.

    Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, Samuel Bryan, Patrick Henry (2017). “The Federalist Papers & Anti-Federalist Papers: Complete Edition of the Pivotal Constitution Debate: Including Articles of Confederation (1777), Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights & Other Amendments – All With Founding Fathers’ Arguments & Decisions about the Constitution”, p.77, Madison & Adams Press
  • Are we at last brought to such an humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?

    "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: Volume 3". Book by Jonathan Elliot, 1836.
  • I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials.

  • Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

    Gun   Law   Strong Arms  
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