Gun Groups Slam Stevens' Idea to Alter the Second

[Colonel Dan, SASS #24025]

Seems Justice Stevens' position is that the 2A was meant for the military but that is blatant subterfuge of a left leaning zealot. Team SASS HQs and several of our partner organizations have publicly taken him to task over this ridiculous position.

 

All he or anyone need do is read the writings of the Founders on this subject to gain insight as to their position regarding Americans' right to keep and bear arms. Below are just a few quotes that substantiate that as FACT:

 

Samuel Adams: "The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

During Massachusetts' U.S. Constitution Ratification Convention, (1788.)

 

Thomas Jefferson: "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."

Proposed Virginia Constitution (1776,) Jefferson Papers 344, (J.Boyd, ed. 1950.)

 

John Adams: "Arms in the hands of individual citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self defence." A Defense of the U.S. Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (1787-88.)

 

James Madison: 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." The Federalist #46.

 

Alexander Hamilton: “The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” The Federalist Papers.

 

George Washington: “A free people ought... to be armed” and “When firearms go, all goes - -we need them every hour"

 

 

 

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/advocates-slam-john-paul-stevens-change/2014/04/12/id/565257/

[Subdeacon Joe]

A few more:

 

One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them. (Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1796)

[W]hereas, 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.)

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 pretence, raised in the United States. (Noah Webster of Pennsylvania, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia, 1787)

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

JEFFERSON, THOMAS, proposed Virginia Constitution, June 1776, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed.)1950

 

 

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the 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' under the Pseudonym ‘A Pennsylvanian' in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1)

 

"Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst 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." (Tench Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.)

 

 

A ruling from a bit later, but still on point:

 

... to prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm ... is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege.

WILSON V. STATE, 33 Ark. 557 (1878)

[Augustus Goodnight]

Most of what our founding fathers built into our system of government came from the works on "Natural Law", especially that of Marcus Tulius Cicero. Both Jefferson and S. Adams were great scholars of Cicero. 13 volumes of Jefferson's personal collection are in the Library of Congress to which he donated them after the War of 1812.

 

Natural Law is the basis upon which armed self defense is based..... One of the best documented, and least known quotes on the subject...

 

The Rights of the Colonists

by Samuel Adams

The Report of the Committee of Correspondence to the Boston Town Meeting.

November 20, 1772

 

I. Natural Rights of the Colonists as Men.

Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature.

[Colonel Dan, SASS #24025]

The following was sent to Justice Stevens...short and to the point.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sir; I was taken aback by the position of a highly educated and experienced Justice of our Supreme Court when stating that the Second Amendment was meant only for the military! One has only to read the writings of the Founders to determine what their factual position was regarding Americans’ right to keep and bear arms. Here are but a few quotes that substantiate the FACT that they were referring to all American citizens as having this right. Your reading and interpretation of this amendment is fundamentally distorted and will be challenged at every turn.

 

 

 

Samuel Adams: "The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

 

During Massachusetts' U.S. Constitution Ratification Convention, (1788.)

 

 

 

Thomas Jefferson: "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."

 

Proposed Virginia Constitution (1776,) Jefferson Papers 344, (J.Boyd, ed. 1950.)

 

 

 

John Adams: "Arms in the hands of individual citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self defence." A Defense of the U.S. Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (1787-88.)

 

 

 

James Madison: 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." The Federalist #46.

 

 

 

Alexander Hamilton: “The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” The Federalist Papers.

 

 

 

George Washington: “A free people ought... to be armed” and “When firearms go, all goes - -we need them every hour"

 

 

 

 

 

Very Sincerely,

 

 

 

"Colonel Dan" Dall

 

Director, Team SASS

 

Single Action Shooting Society

[Six-Shot]

Awesome Colonel. I couldn't have said it any better myself.

Thank you for your service and dedication to 2A

[Hacker, SASS #55963]

Col Dan,

Let us know if you ever get a reply.

[StirrupTrouble]

Some of these are repeats of what was already said, but they were good enough to include with some I am adding to everyone's "ammo box":

 

"A free people ought to be armed."
- George Washington

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
- Thomas Jefferson

"I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery."
- Thomas Jefferson

"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They 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 (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria)

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks." - Thomas Jefferson

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
- Thomas Jefferson

"On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
- Thomas Jefferson

"I enclose you a list of the killed, wounded, and captives of the enemy from the commencement of hostilities at Lexington in April, 1775, until November, 1777, since which there has been no event of any consequence ... I think that upon the whole it has been about one half the number lost by them, in some instances more, but in others less. This difference is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his infancy."
- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Giovanni Fabbroni, June 8, 1778

"Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense."
- John Adams

"To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them."
- George Mason

"I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few politicians."
- George Mason (father of the Bill of Rights and The Virginia Declaration of Rights)

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe."
- Noah Webster

"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."
- Noah Webster

"A government resting on the minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic, and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it, without a standing army, an enslaved press and a disarmed populace."
- James Madison

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms."
- James Madison

"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

"The ultimate authority resides in the people alone."
- James Madison

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
- William Pitt

"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

"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves ... and include all men capable of bearing arms."
- Richard Henry Lee

"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 ruined.... The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun."
- Patrick Henry

"This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty.... The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction."
- St. George Tucker

"... arms ... discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property.... Horrid mischief would ensue were (the law-abiding) deprived the use of them."
- Thomas Paine

"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
- Samuel Adams

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
- Joseph Story

"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

" ... for it is a truth, which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger when the means of insuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion."
- Alexander Hamilton

[Six-Shot]

Many of these I had not heard. All are excellent and worthy of saving for appropriate correspondense and testimony to inform those who would deprive us of our nautral rights.

 

"the pen is mightier than the sword" and "there is nothing more powerful than the truth"

 

Thanks, ST

[G. I. Tarpicker, SASS #998]

And one the libtards would do well to heed: "The truth is still the truth, whether you believe it or not." -- Old Pennsylvania Dutch Proverb

 

GIT

[Waimea]

Excellent letter Col. Dan.

 

 

Waimea

[Rye Miles #13621]

Keep up the good work Col. Dan! Rye