Founding Fathers Second Amendment Quotes

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  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen.

  • 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
  • The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

    Joseph Story (1851). “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.296
  • 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
  • One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.

    Love   Strength   Hope  
    Thomas Jefferson (1830). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.331
  • And that the said 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; or to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions.

    Army   Rights   People  
    Debates of the Massachusetts Convention, 1788.
  • Whereas, 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; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.

    Men   Practice   People  
    "An Additional Number of Letters to the Republican". Letters by the Federal Farmer (pseudonym of Richard Henry Lee), Letter XVIII, teachingamericanhistory.org. January 25, 1988.
  • 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.
  • By calling attention to 'a well regulated militia,' 'the security of the nation,' and the right of each citizen 'to keep and bear arms,' our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy... The Second Amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic civilian-military relationships in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason I believe the Second Amendment will always be important.

  • 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  
  • A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.

    George Washington, Jared Sparks (1837). “The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts; with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.8
  • 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.

    Motivation   Fear   Gun  
  • Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers. But I cannot say who will be the militia of the future day. If that paper on the table [the Constitution] gets no alteration, the militia of the future day may not consist of all classes, high and low, and rich and poor.

    "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution", vol. 3, edited by Jonathan Elliot, 1974.
  • The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many troops quite unecessary. They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them.

    "An American Citizen: An Examination of the Constitution of the United States IV". Publication by Tench Coxe, teachingamericanhistory.org. October 21, 1788.
  • A well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

    Army   Gun   People  
  • 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
  • Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.

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