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• No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms. -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), June 1776
• Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms.
  [...] the right of the citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible....
• 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.
  -- The Constitution of the United States of America Amendment 2, 1791...
• The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be _tremendous and irresistable_.
  Who are the militia? _are they not ourselves_. Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms _each man against his own bosom_....
• The right of the citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary governme
  one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible....
• In recent years it has been suggested that the Second Amendment protects the "collective" right of states to maintain militia
  while it does not protect the right of "the people" to keep and bear arms....
• By calling attention to 'a well regulated militia'
  he '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....
• When forced to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification.
  This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. -- Thomas Jefferso...
• The Second Amendment doesn't grant the right to keep and bear arms.
  You already have that right. The Constitution just prohibits the government from taking it away from you....