"Who are the militia ? Are they not ourselves ? The militias of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared to any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible instrument of the solider, are the birth-right of an American. The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or the state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people."
Tench Coxe (1755-1824)
(Tench Coxe wrote the 2nd Amendment)
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.
- Representative Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts
(from 1 Annals of Congress at 750, 17 August 1789):
Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who didn't.
- Ben Franklin
The best we can hope for, concerning the people at large, is that they be properly armed. It is absolutely clear that the Bill of Rights was meant to apply to individuals NOT to collective bodies.
- Alexander Hamilton:
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined. . . . The great object is that every man be armed. . . . Everyone who is able may have a gun."
- Patrick Henry
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. ... The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
"The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it."
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. "
- Thomas Jefferson
"Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them"
"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 ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials."
- George Mason:
"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."
- Thomas Paine
"a well-regulated militia composed of the freeholder, citizen and husbandman, who take up their arms to preserve their property as individuals, and their rights as freemen."
- Josiah Quincy
"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference- they deserve a place of honor with all that is good."
"Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance they are the peoples liberty teeth. A free people ought to be armed. When firearms go, all goes. We need them every hour."
- George Washington