Right to Keep and Bear
Arms What the Framers said about our Second Amendment
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make
would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that
all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have
prepared their own downfall by so doing."
-- Adolph Hitler, Hitler's Secret Conversations
403 (Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens trans., 1961) "I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the
whole people, except for a few public officials."
George Mason, in Debates in Virginia
Convention on Ratification of the Constitution, Elliot, Vol. 3, June
16, 1788
"Whereas civil-rulers, not having their duty
to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as
military forces, which must be occasionally raised to defend our
country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow
citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to
keep and bear their private arms."
-- Tench Coxe, in Remarks on the First Part
of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution
"The best we can hope for concerning the
people at large is that they be properly armed."
-- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers
at 184-188
If the representatives of the people betray
their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the
exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount
to all positive forms of government, and which against the
usurpations of the national rulers may be exerted with infinitely
better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an
individual State. In a single State, if the persons entrusted with
supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions,
or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in
each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must
rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without
resource; except in their courage and despair.
-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28
"That the said Constitution shall never be
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, Debates and Proceedings in
the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at 86-87
(Pierce & Hale, eds., Boston, 1850)
"[The Constitution preserves] the advantage
of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost
every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the
people with arms."
--James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No.
46
"To suppose arms in the hands of citizens,
to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense,
or by partial orders of towns, countries or districts of a state, is
to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that
liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the
government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be
created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the
support of the laws."
--John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions
of the United States 475 (1787-1788)
"Before a standing army can rule, the people
must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in 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
pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the
command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people
perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the
power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to
resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and
oppressive."
--Noah Webster, An Examination of the
Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution (Philadelphia
1787).
"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 have no power to disarm the militia.
Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are
the birthright of an American...[T]he unlimited power of the sword
is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but,
where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the
people."
--Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette,
Feb. 20, 1788.
"Whereas, 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; nor does it
follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service
on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be
influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see
many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no
wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against
it."
--Richard Henry Lee, The Pennsylvania
Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
"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 to William Stephens
Smith, 1787. ME 6:373, Papers 12:356
"No Free man shall ever be debarred the use
of arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia
Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334,[C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950]
"The right of the people to keep and bear
... arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed
of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most
natural defense of a free country ..."
-- James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434,
June 8, 1789
"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."
-- Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts,
spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of
Congress at 750, August 17, 1789
" ... to disarm the people - that was the
best and most effectual way to enslave them."
-- George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380
" ... but if circumstances should at any
time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that
army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while
there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them
in discipline and use of arms, who stand ready to defend their
rights ..."
-- Alexander Hamilton speaking of standing
armies in Federalist 29
"Are we at last brought to such humiliating
and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for
our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in
possession and under our direction, and having them under the
management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of them
under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object
of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more
propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?"
-- Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in
the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836
"The great object is, that every man be
armed ... Every one who is able may have a gun."
-- Patrick Henry, Elliot, p.3:386
"O sir, we should have fine times, indeed,
if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the
people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone
..."
-- Patrick Henry, Elliot p. 3:50-53, in
Virginia Ratifying Convention demanding a guarantee of the right to
bear arms
"The people are not to be disarmed of their
weapons. They are left in full possession of them."
-- Zacharia Johnson, delegate to Virginia
Ratifying Convention, Elliot, 3:645-6
"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 ... The right of
citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary
government, one more safeguard, against the tyranny which now
appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be
always possible."
-- Hubert H. Humphrey, Senator, Vice
President, 22 October 1959
"The militia is the natural defense of a
free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic
insurrections, and domestic usurpation of power by rulers. The right
of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as
the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a
strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of
rulers; and will generally ... enable the people to resist and
triumph over them."
-- Joseph Story, Supreme Court Justice,
Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, p. 3:746-7,
1833
" ... most attractive to Americans, the
possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave,
it being the ultimate means by which freedom was to be
preserved."
-- James Burgh, 18th century English
Libertarian writer, Shalhope, The Ideological Origins of the Second
Amendment, p.604
"The right [to bear arms] is general. It may
be supposed from the phraseology of this provision that the right to
keep and bear arms was only guaranteed to the militia; but this
would be an interpretation not warranted by the intent. The militia,
as has been explained elsewhere, consists of those persons who,
under the laws, are liable to the performance of military duty, and
are officered and enrolled for service when called upon.... [I]f the
right were limited to those enrolled, the purpose of the guarantee
might be defeated altogether by the action or the neglect to act of
the government it was meant to hold in check. The meaning of the
provision undoubtedly is, that the people, from whom the militia
must be taken, shall have the right to keep and bear arms, and they
need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose. But this
enables the government to have a well regulated militia; for to bear
arms implies something more than mere keeping; it implies the
learning to handle and use them in a way that makes those who keep
them ready for their efficient use; in other words, it implies the
right to meet for voluntary discipline in arms, observing in so
doing the laws of public order."
-- Thomas M. Cooley, General Principles of
Constitutional Law, Third Edition [1898]
"And that the said Constitution be never
construed to authorize Congress ... to prevent the people of the
United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own
arms.... "
--Samuel Adams
Used With Permission
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