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"All
of Those in Favor of Gun Control Please "This
year will go down in
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"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal. And they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...”
From the very beginning of our nation's history, the Declaration of Independence has proclaimed and acknowledged the fact that each citizen has, as a free human being, been granted God given rights. It was clear then, as it must be now, that these rights have not in any way been bestowed or granted by any government established by men. This concept is also reflected and reinforced by the Constitution of the United States. So strong was the desire to preserve these rights, that our founding fathers, the framers of this precious document, elected to add ten amendments to the constitution. They deemed this dramatic step necessary to forever prevent the government from subverting those rights, which were deemed to be so important to the citizens of a free country. Among these is the right of each citizen to keep and bear arms. This right of a free man or woman is specifically addressed in the Second Amendment.
“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.“
The Second Amendment of course does not grant each citizen this right, it simply acknowledges and affirms that this right already exists and that the government is expressly forbidden in the language of this amendment, to enact any law or regulation which would in fact limit or remove it!. Yet we face a continuing attack by those who would take away our guns. Radical gun control groups like Handgun Control Inc, and Ultra-Liberal (read that Socialist) politicians like Charles Schumer and Barbara Boxer, lead a relentless attack on your God given rights. They argue that the Second Amendment is not absolute, and that the framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights really intended that firearm ownership and use should be limited to a standing army type of militia. Could this be true? What did the framers of the Constitution have to say about the Militia which they refer to. “The Militia consists of the whole people” - George Mason “A well regulated militia, Composed
of the body of the people being the best
"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress … to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms…" - Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, August 20, 1789 "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 writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic (1787-1788) "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, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p 322 "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 "The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals … It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of." - Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789 "… the people have a right to keep and bear arms." - Patrick Henry and George Mason, Elliot, Debates at 185 "No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334 (C. J. Boyd, Ed., 1950) "As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert 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 in "Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution." Under the pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1 "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, Debates & Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87 "The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them." - Zechariah Johnson, 3 Elliot, Debates at 646 "A free people ought … to be armed …" - George Washington, speech of January 7, 1790 in the Boston Independent Chronicle, January 14, 1790 "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…" - Noah Webster, "An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution" (1787) in Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States (P. Ford, 1888) "To disarm the people [is] the best and most effectual way to enslave them …" - George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380 "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 "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." - Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8 "The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun." - Patrick Henry, 3 Elliott, Debates at 386 "A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks." - Thomas Jefferson, Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson, 318 (Foley, Ed., reissued 1967) "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 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 …" - Thomas Paine, I Writings of Thomas Paine at 56 (1894) "Arms in the hands of citizens [may] be used at individual discretion… in private self-defense …" - John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the USA, 471 (1788) "A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves … and include all men capable of bearing arms." - Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer (1788) at 169 "What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty." - Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress at 750 (August 17, 1789) "I ask, sir, what is the militia?
It is the whole people, except for a few public officials." -
"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, I Annals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789) |
Does
more Gun Control equal Gun
Safety???
NO!
to federal tracking, snooping and harassing honest gun owners!
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