THE “RIGHT” TO BEAR ARMS IN AMERICA: 1630 THROUGH 2009!!!!!!!!

How to Defend Home and Land

Ever since the establishment of the Colonies in North America in the early 17th Century, and right through into the later half of the 19th Century, the Idea of an ‘Armed Populace’ or ‘Citizens Militia’ to defend home and land was predominant. It was believed that, instead of depending on a compensated military, that each and every individual, armed, trained, and ready, was indeed the best way to secure one’s nation against foreign invasion or tyranny in government!

"A militia 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 people always possess arms " - Richard Henry Lee - Letters From the Federal Farmer (1788).
Standing Armies; the Bane of Liberty!

The Founders believed that the right to arms was a necessary ingredient in a Free Society. Bearing arms enabled an individual citizen to defend himself, his home and family. A group of arms-bearing citizens functioning as a militia enabled the citizenry at large to defend itself against tyranny.

Mr. George Mason: “But when once a standing army is established in any country, the people lose their liberty...

Mr. Patrick Henry: “The militia, sir, is our ultimate safety. We can have no security without it... The great object is, that every man be armed".


The Failed Experiment: Gun Control

In November of 2003, the Fraser Institute (a Canadian independent public policy organization) released a new study entitled “The Failed Experiment: Gun Control and Public Safety in Canada, Australia, England and Wales”. The Report concluded that “Restrictive firearm legislation has failed to reduce gun violence in Australia, Canada, or Great Britain. The policy of confiscating guns has been an expensive failure”, and “Disarming the public has not reduced criminal violence in any country examined in this study.

To Wrap Things Up

"The whole history of Mankind proves that so far from parting with the powers actually delegated to it, Government is consistently encroaching on the small pittance of Rights reserved by the People to themselves, and gradually wresting them out of their hands until it either terminates in their Slavery or forces them to Arms, and brings about a Revolution" - Luther Martin, Delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, March 28th, 1788.

And Ben Franklin warned us "Those who would give up essential freedoms in order to obtain temporary security, deserve neither freedom nor security." What do we deserve today?