Founding Fathers Second Amendment Quotes by Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, Noah Webster, George Washington, John Adams and many others.
Are we at last brought to such an humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?
The people have a right to keep and bear arms.
One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.
I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials.
Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.
A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.
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.
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.
Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.
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.
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.
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 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.
God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
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.
The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjugated races to possess arms.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
