Quotes on the 2nd Amendment - more to come

"These people want our guns because they want to run our lives, and they don t
want to worry about getting shot when they try to do so. When you hear that
they've confiscated my gun, then you'll know I'm dead". WALTER WILLIAMS
(columnist)

"I look at our public servants as just that - "the help". And so I consider govt
gun grabbers just as I would a yard man or maid who had the audacity to demand
my gun (not that I have a yard man or maid :-)). M.G.

"A well-schooled electorate, being necessary to the security of a free State the
right of the people to keep and read books, shall not be infringed." J. NEIL
SCHULMAN (2nd Amendment wording applied to books)

"Try to twist this [above quote] to mean that you can only read books at the
library; that you have to get a background check to buy a book; that big books
should be banned; etc." UNKNOWN

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as
the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral
check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally,
even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist
and triumph over them." JOSEPH STORY (James Madison's Supreme Court appointee)

"The sophisticated and subtle tyrant will unarm his people, and store up their
weapons, under pretence of keeping them safe." SIR WALTER RALEIGH

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to
take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic
purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and
sacrifice for that freedom." JOHN F. KENNEDY

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution
inevitable." JOHN F. KENNEDY

"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. Although it
is extremely unlikely that the fears of governmental tyranny which gave rise to
the Second Amendment will ever be a major danger to our nation, the 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." JOHN F. KENNEDY

"The Constitution shall never be 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".
SAMUEL ADAMS

"Who are the militia ? Are they not ourselves ? Is it feared, then, that we
shall turn our arms each man against 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 American. ... The unlimited power of the sword
is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but where I trust
in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." TENCH COXE

"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a
standing army, the bane of liberty. ... Whenever Governments mean to invade the
rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia,
in order to raise an army upon their ruins." ELBRIDGE GERRY

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be
properly armed." ALEXANDER HAMILTON

"The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a
gun". PATRICK HENRY

"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." PATRICK
HENRY

"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 ?" PATRICK HENRY

"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." THOMAS JEFFERSON

"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." THOMAS JEFFERSON (quoting Cesare Beccaria)

"The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try
to take it." THOMAS JEFFERSON

"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people them-selves ...and
include all men capable of bearing arms". RICHARD HENRY LEE

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always
possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them...
RICHARD HENRY LEE

"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

"I ask, sir, what is the militia ? It is the whole people except for a few
public officials." GEORGE MASON

"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the
American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence ... From the
hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies
prove that to ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are
equally indispensable ... The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains
evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good. GEORGE
WASHINGTON

"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 that can be, on any
pretense, raised in the United States". NOAH WEBSTER

"The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it
has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest possible
limits... 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." ST. GEORGE TUCKER

"The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it
has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits
possible. 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." HENRY ST.
GEORGE TUCKER (Blackstone's 1768 "Commentaries on the Laws of England")

"Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of
their arms." ARISTOTLE ("Politics")

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected
people to carry arms; history shows that all conquerors who have allowed their
subjected peoples to carry arms have prepared their own fall." ADOLPH HITLER
(Edict of March 18, 1938)

"For it's 'guns this' and 'guns that', and 'chuck 'em out, the brutes', But
they're the 'Savior of our loved ones' when the thugs begin to loot. RUYARD
KIPLING ("Tommy Atkins")

"The NRA compromises only when at all possible." JOHNY ROWLAND (host of "The
Shooting Show")