"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly 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 next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms."
-Tench Coxe - Philadelphia Federal Gazette - June 18, 1789
- And yet some people will continue to insist that the words of the founders were collective in nature in regards to the 2nd Amendment. The "collective rights" interpretation just won't die.
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3 comments:
Great quote.
Excellent job Sir.
I still want to know how we can have a citizen militia without the individual citizens having a right to keep and bear their own arms.
Outstanding find of a quote, Mike W! What amazes me is that quotes like that exist throughout the beginning century or so of our country, both before and after the Revolutionary War, and yet anti-rights advocates would still have us believe that the right to keep and bear arms is somehow a "collective" entity.
I am going to have to go with Marko - "collective" rights simply do not exist. Either I possess a right by dint of being human, or the government allows for us to have an ability (which, by definition, is not a right).
Strangely, the Founding Fathers were not far from that opinion themselves, and their very words bear out that fact.
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
-George Washington
"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves in all cases to which they think themselves competent..., or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press."
-Thomas Jefferson
"The great object is, that every man be armed."
-Patrick Henry
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