Our United States Constitution - within it's 2nd Amendment - Preserves and Guarantees our right to Keep and Bear ARMS....
"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."
For those dictionary challenged:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/militia
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/necessary
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/security
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/free
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/state
"endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/right
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/people
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/keep
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/bear
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/arms
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/not
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/infringe?q=infringed
WithIn the spirit of Red Skelton's pledge of allegiance:
A well regulated military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency, required, needed; essential to the state of being free from danger or threat within our nation or state, having freedom and liberty, not subject to foreign domination nor despotic government,
The Moral or legal entitlement to have or obtain to act for The citizens of our country to Have or retain possession of or Retain or reserve these for use in the future Or to Carry Arms, Weapons and ammunition and armaments shall NOT be limited, undermined or encroached upon.
We hold the Right within the viewpoint that the right of the people to keep and bear arms, within arms and armament of sufficient capacity to ensure the continued security of a free state, and to ensure for personal security within, shall not be infringed.
We also hold that the capacity and production of sufficient ammunition and supplies to build, maintain and to support such arms shall not be infringed.
The United States Constitutions 2nd Amendment was not granting our rights, it was protecting and guaranteeing them. It was not intended to protect a certain class of rifles and not others...as in bb guns vs hunting rifles versus military rifles, etc., nor was it intended purpose for hunting or sport, NO... It's intended purpose was to ensure our capacity to maintain our rights of freedom and liberty, and of our government being of, by and for the people.
In the interests of protecting those serving our nation, In regard to recent unfolding events worldwide, terrorist attacks, Islamic jihad, etc...
It's time to stop the nonsense and to demand every one of our Proudly Serving Veterans on Military Bases is armed, prepared and ready to defend America and her citizens, and Justly enabled to instantly defend themselves & our military bases & personnel, in kind.
The states and cities with the least controls on gun ownership and carrying conditions, are typically the safest in the nation, while the cities and states having the strictest controls only serve to remove the capacity for good citizens to defend themselves, and for criminals to overrule the law and safety of the society. IE: The highest crime rates of cities like Chicago and Manhattan...Taking guns away from good people, so the only people carrying guns are criminals and killers, the people who do not care to obey the laws in the first place, nor the sanctity of life, is NOT the answer to achieve safety, and the roots of such thoughts are within purposeful deception not naivety.
Switzerland is one of the safest places in the world. Gun ownership and training is ingrained within the society.
http://world.time.com/2012/12/20/the-swiss-difference-a-gun-culture-that-works/ Yes.....We Know.....
And in the United States of America...no matter what the left wing liberal "progressives" will try to manipulate the law to become, no matter what rogue judges or decisions, we are guaranteed our right to keep and bear arms within the very founding, organization and beliefs of the founders of our Nation. PERIOD.
For very critical and good sound reason.
There are prudent mechanisms available to help prevent the wrongful use of arms, such as encouraging the development and training of correct safety and handling procedures of arms and weaponry for citizens...conducting classes...establishing healthy self-defense practices...encouraging the respect and understanding of our Right to Bear Arms...and the respect, understanding and safety of firearms, arms and ammunition, etc., and the importance of maintaining our capacity to protect the Freedom & Liberty of our Families... and our Nation...
But it seems these days American public schools are more interested in training children to protect themselves for having sex, rather than teaching children to have the capacity to act responsibly and to be able to protect and uphold their rights of freedom, themselves, and from abuse, violent criminals or today's potential of terrorist attacks.
There are mechanisms to prevent ownership of weaponry by foreign terrorists or by criminals who have been convicted of felony related violence...
Convicted felons, traitors and dishonorably discharged service personnel should lose their right to keep and bear arms. Example: The Gun Control Act of 1968, as amended, 18 U.S.C. 921, et seq. provides in part, "a person convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year may not ship, transport, possess, or receive any firearm or ammunition." 18 U.S.C. 921 (a)(3).
Individuals shown and diagnosed to have mental instability while being treated for depression or mental anxiety and treated with any drug capable of negatively altering an individual's perception of life, and their conduct, prescribed the pharmaceuticals which have a noticeable risk of developing suicidal or violent tendencies, should be considered for monitoring and temporary surrender of weaponry during such treatment, as deemed necessary by their attending physicians, in agreement with the patient, before being allowed to prescribe or receive such medication.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers and the doctors dispensing drugs capable of altering a mind enough to induce the possibility of dangerous life threatening, aggressive or irrational behaviors, should be required to perform background checks and to make sure patients holding gun licenses or permits, or who may have been convicted of any gun related crimes, are not given these medications without appropriate review and necessary attempts to ensure community safety, while they are government regulated and licensed to dispense medications granted FDA approval. It is the Pharmaceutical manufacturers responsibility to assure not risking our citizens safety & well being while marketing, manufacturing and dispensing such medications that hold such inherent risks, and of the physician who prescribes them.
Waiting Periods: 24 hour to one week waiting periods have been suggested and are utilized to reduce the chance of instant, enraged violence. The difficulty with such legislation, although not appearing on the surface to interfere with individuals rights to bear arms, albeit momentarily, is that it is typically suggested within prejudice directed against legal arms and gun owners, while utterly ignoring the inherent risk of automobiles, airplanes, tractor trailers, fire & gasoline, pressure cookers, knives, etc., and more poignantly, tragically and actually ignoring the real societal issues of community and societal interaction and involvement & functioning to act in manner to stay aware of abhorrent behavior or malevolent indications to be enabled to prevent tragic criminal human behavior, (as within the circumstances surrounding the columbine shooting, etc).
There will undoubtedly be another tragic incident in the future, pray God there won't be, but undoubtedly there will. Someone with a "targeted" weapon will tragically kill innocent human beings...and the left wing "progressive" propaganda machine will seek to destroy the rights of law abiding citizens to defend ourselves...they'll seek to make a certain weapon that evil device...that device built from evil hands with no purpose but to take innocent human life....that's what they'll do their best to try to convince the press and the voters to accept....they'll poise their word-smithed words to reach into the hearts of mothers and fathers...appealing to their greatest fears., enveloping concerns for their worst potential nightmares, the harm of their loved offspring....Yes, we know what the left wing propaganda machine will try to do...they do it every chance they can...
But NO...they won't tell you how many human lives have been saved by people having the capacity to defend themselves...their nations....and their people...and how not having the capacity to defend oneself has cost many millions and millions of lives which have been taken and slaughtered by the oppressors of liberty, the real evil tyrants of the likes of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Adolf Hitler...and they sure won't tell you how many crimes have been prevented, how many lives have been save, because a potential perpetrator knew that there were people who could defend themselves...close by...prepared...and ready to come to the aid of innocent people...
When somebody tries to take away your Rights to defend yourself...or tries to take away or limit the Rights of other law abiding American Citzens...Don't you dare ever let them!...
The following is a collection of quotes assembled at George Mason University http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/quotes/arms.html
Quotations From Framers of the Constitution... and Others http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/quotes.html
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing."
-- Adolph Hitler, Hitler's Secret Conversations 403 (Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens trans., 1961)
What the Framers said about our Second Amendment
Regarding The Rights to Keep and Bear Arms:
"...if raised, whether they could subdue a Nation of freemen, who know how to prize liberty, and who have arms in their hands?"
� Delegate Sedgwick, during the Massachusetts Convention, rhetorically asking if an oppressive standing army could prevail, Johnathan Elliot, ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol.2 at 97 (2d ed., 1888)
"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).
"The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give to Congress a power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretense by a state legislature. But if in any blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both."
� William Rawle, A View of the Constitution 125-6 (2nd ed. 1829)
"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials."
� George Mason, in Debates in Virginia Convention on Ratification of the Constitution, Elliot, Vol. 3, June 16, 1788
"Whereas civil-rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as 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
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."
-- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188
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, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual State. In a single State, if the persons entrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair.
-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28
"That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms ... "
-- Samuel Adams, Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at 86-87 (Pierce & Hale, eds., Boston, 1850)
"[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."
--James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 46
"To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, countries or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws."
--John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of the United States 475 (1787-1788)
"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 pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive."
--Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution (Philadelphia 1787).
"Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against 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."
--Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
"Whereas, 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.
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787. ME 6:373, Papers 12:356
"No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334,[C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950]
"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, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789
"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, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789
" ... to disarm the people - that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
-- George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380
" ... but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights ..."
-- Alexander Hamilton speaking of standing armies in Federalist 29
"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?"
-- Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836
"The great object is, that every man be armed ... Every one who is able may have a gun."
-- Patrick Henry, Elliot, p.3:386
"O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone ..."
-- Patrick Henry, Elliot p. 3:50-53, in Virginia Ratifying Convention demanding a guarantee of the right to bear arms
"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them."
-- Zachariah Johnson, delegate to Virginia Ratifying Convention, Elliot, 3:645-6
"Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms ... The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard, against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be always possible."
-- Hubert H. Humphrey, Senator, Vice President, 22 October 1959
"The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpation of power by rulers. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally ... enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
-- Joseph Story, Supreme Court Justice, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, p. 3:746-7, 1833
" ... most attractive to Americans, the possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave, it being the ultimate means by which freedom was to be preserved."
-- James Burgh, 18th century English Libertarian writer, Shalhope, The Ideological Origins of the Second Amendment, p.604
"The right [to bear arms] is general. It may be supposed from the phraseology of this provision that the right to keep and bear arms was only guaranteed to the militia; but this would be an interpretation not warranted by the intent. The militia, as has been explained elsewhere, consists of those persons who, under the laws, are liable to the performance of military duty, and are officered and enrolled for service when called upon.... [I]f the right were limited to those enrolled, the purpose of the guarantee might be defeated altogether by the action or the neglect to act of the government it was meant to hold in check. The meaning of the provision undoubtedly is, that the people, from whom the militia must be taken, shall have the right to keep and bear arms, and they need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose. But this enables the government to have a well regulated militia; for to bear arms implies something more than mere keeping; it implies the learning to handle and use them in a way that makes those who keep them ready for their efficient use; in other words, it implies the right to meet for voluntary discipline in arms, observing in so doing the laws of public order."
-- Thomas M. Cooley, General Principles of Constitutional Law, Third Edition [1898]
"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress ... to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.... "
--Samuel Adams
