| On the Right to Bear Arms and Enforcement of the Law |
| "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." ~ Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States 1791 |
| Power, wherever it lies, ultimately has to be backed by force. Nations need military forces to protect themselves against intruders threatening their integrity, and they need an internal police force to put down disorder and make people obey the law. The delegates to the [Constitutional] Convention took this as a matter of course. There was little sense among them that human beings would live in peace and brotherhood if left to themselves. Without physical might, they were certain, the new nation would not last long. * * * Making enforcement difficult was the fact that American citizens were armed to an extent that would have astonished Europeans, both nobles and peasants. Not every household owned a gun, but certainly on the frontier, where the danger of Indian attack was real, every farmer did. Even in more settled areas farmers usually had a musket or rifle for hunting and for killing wolves and foxes that preyed on livestock. The American citizenry, potentially, constituted an army of its own, and if any substantial portion of it chose to face down a militia, it probably could. Americans, unlike most people elsewhere, could not be governed without their own consent. ~ Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787 |
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| "The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference -- they deserve a place of honor with all that is good." ~ George Washington |