Founding Fathers Second Amendment Quotes by Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, Joseph Story, Tench Coxe, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Jefferson and many others.
To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms.
That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many troops quite unecessary. They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them.
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.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite.
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 tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.
There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters
As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize,… The people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear arms.
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.
I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.
The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals… It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.
The balance of power is the scale of peace.
