Pro-2A Quotes from Founding Fathers?

R

rhgunguy

Moderator
I see them all the time on gun sites, but rarely are they attributed. Does anyone have some that can actualy be attributed to period documents?

I am trying to form a collection to use as ammo in *ahem*conversations with anti-gunners I happen to meet.
 
Here are a few I have, there are no doubt many more members that can add to this list.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
---Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

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.
---Patrick Henry 1788 (after the revolution)

When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually...I ask, who are the militia? They consist of 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 gets no alteration, the militia of the future day may not consist of all classes, high and low, and rich and poor...
---George Mason Virginia Constitutional Convention

"We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately."
---Ben Franklin.

I am not a subject, I will not be a victim, I am a Citizen and I will defend that status.
---unknown

"...all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
---Thomas Jefferson

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country. -James Madison

Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government. -James Madison

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. -James Madison

To remain silent when one should speak out makes cowards out of men.
—Abraham Lincoln.


"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Abraham Lincoln

"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
 
For the last 40 or so years, the anti-gun crowd claimed that the 2A only protected the right of states to operate state militias, i.e., the National Guard. Now that more and more legal authorities have accepted, to some degree that the 2A is an individual right, the anti-gun crowd is claiming that what was reasonable two hundred plus years ago is no longer valid. They argue that even if the founding fathers intended for all citizens to have the right to own and carry firearms, that in today's world it is no longer a rational option. So finding quotes on the 2A will do nothing to change their opinion. I have learned that facts and statistics regarding guns have no impact on the gun-grabbers. Their position is an emotional position of fear and hatred that, in some, is unassailable. Their wish for a "safe" society makes them imagine that if only all guns are banned they will no longer have to fear criminals. The facts that criminals ignore gun control laws and that even without guns criminals will have weapons to use to assault the citizenry will not diminish their support for more gun control. To some degree, the gun grabbers buy into the belief that they are incapable of protecting themselves and thus this role should only be given to the government, who like a parent will protect them as children. It reflects a basic lack of faith in their fellow man, from whom they want protection from an all knowing and benevolent government. Just look at U.S. Congressman McCarthy, whose husband and son were shot by Colin Ferguson as he moved up and down the aisle of a NYC commuter train, firing his 9mm semi-automatic at passengers, with no fear that he might confront an armed victim since NYC has such strong restrictions on gun ownership. Even all these years later Ms. McCarthy refuses to accept the obvious that if some of those passengers had been armed her husband might still be alive today. She is one of the most virulent anti-gun members of Congress. She is not stupid, she is just so emotionally crippled by her fear and hatred of guns that she acts in this most illogical manner.
 
Guns, Crime, and Freedom by Wayne LaPierre contains a number of second amendment quotes attributed to various founding fatehrs. There are quite a few from the federalist papers.
 
How about a spin on this perennial thread?

Any one have any quotes that are ANTI-2A from the founding fathers?

I don't know of any... but I've never really looked. I'd be surprised if there were any.
 
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