The Constitution be never 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.
The great object is that every man be armed.
To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.
To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms.
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.
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.
Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.
Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. - Second Amendment to the Constitution An armed society is a polite society.
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.
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.
That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience.
All power is inherent in the people.
Are we at last brought to such an humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?
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.
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 band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.
The powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. 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 has no power to disarm the militia.
For an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.
or simply:
