| "Those who possess and wield arms are in a position
to decide whether the Constitution is to continue or not."
-Aristotle |
Rights are not granted by the Constitution, they are secured by it. The Second Amendment, for instance, reads "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." It assumes that right already exists, and establishes formal recognition of this "natural right of resistance and self-preservation" long-rooted in the common law and ancient tradition. In recent years it has been suggested that the Second Amendment protects the "collective" right of states to maintain militia and proposes no constitutional limitation on the notion that possession of firearms should be confined to the military and the police. Constitutional guarantees are not to be swept aside because they seem politically inconvenient. Authoritarian governments invariably seek to disarm the people to consolidate their power. Those who drafted and supported the Bill of Rights rejected the idea of a helpless and obedient populous in favor of limiting the government by the consent of an armed citizenry.
-William Pangman
| "The strongest reason for the people to retain the
right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves
against tyranny in government."
-Thomas Jefferson |