Amendment 1

What, sir, is the

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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. Elbridge Gerry

The laws that forbid

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The laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity…will respect the less important and arbitrary ones… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for … Read more

First Amendment freedoms are

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First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought. Anthony Kennedy

…that standing army can

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…that standing army can never be formidable (threatening) to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in the use of arms. Alexander Hamilton

If the representatives of

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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. Alexander Hamilton

The best we can

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

The whole of the

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The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals… It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of. Albert Gallatin