Founding Fathers Second Amendment Quotes by George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, Mahatma Gandhi, James Madison and many others.
I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.
I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.
Militias, 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, especially when young, how to use them.
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.
Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.
Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation…. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
Arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order.
All power is inherent in the people.
No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give to congress a power to disarm the people.
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.
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.
That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience.
A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite.
Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.
The great object is that every man be armed.
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.
