On Armed Citizens: Words of Our Forefathers

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjugated races to possess arms." ~ Adolf Hitler

"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself." ~ George Washington

"Let us hope our weapons are never needed - but do not forget what the common people of this nation knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny." ~ Edward Abbey

"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

"The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned." ~ James Madison

"Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be very carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, and one more safeguard against tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." ~ Hubert H. Humphrey

"Militias, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. [...] To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." ~ Richard Henry Lee

"The great object is that every man be armed." ~ Patrick Henry

"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." ~ Samuel Adams

"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

"Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace." ~ James Madison

"Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them." ~ James Madison

"Disarmed citizens encourage crime and violence. Armed citizens encourage criminals to find a safer line of work." ~ Harry Browne

"A people armed and free, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition and is a bulwark for the nation against foreign invasion and domestic oppression." ~ James Madison

"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

"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... The Second 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

"Americans need not fear the federal government because they enjoy the advantage of being armed, which you possess over the people of almost every other nation." ~ James Madison

"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." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"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." ~ Noah Webster

"No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give to congress a power to disarm the people." ~ William Rawle

"No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave… But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion." ~ James Burgh

"This house protected by an armed citizen. There is absolutely nothing here worth dying for." ~ Patrick Henry

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." ~ Alexander Hamilton

"After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it." ~ William S. Burroughs

"If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of criminal acts reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying - that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the attempts at both Federal and State levels in 1965-1976 - establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable failure of gun laws to control serious crime." ~ Orrin Hatch

“An armed society is a polite society." ~ Robert A. Heinlein