"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in their government." --Thomas Jefferson

"(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

"Both the oligarch and Tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of arms."--Aristotle

"Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any colour or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction." St. George Tucker, in his edition of 'Blackstone's Commentaries,' 1:300 (1803).

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution (1833).

" 'Necessity' is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." --William Pitt

"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 of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789.

"The right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against tyranny, which though now appears remote in America, history has proven to be always possible."--Senator Hubert H. Humphrey

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." John Stuart Mill

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."-- Thomas Paine, Common Sense, (1776), Chap. 1.

Although the founders of this nation understood very well the reason the right to keep and bear arms must be preserved, it is equally apparent that we as modern people striving for little may not. This writer is not an advocate (at this time) of an armed confrontation against any out-of-hand government, whether foreign or domestic, but that is the purpose for which the 2nd Amendment was added to the Constitution.

Richard Henry Lee, a statesman against the Constitution but not individual liberty, had this to say in his �Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican� on page 5: �...the Constitution ought to secure a genuine, and guard against a select militia,...�, meaning that a genuine militia made up of the people keeping and bearing arms was the "proper" course while a select militia (such as the now standing National Guard) be guarded against. He feared that a select militia with the purposes the same as that of a federal army would leave the people defenseless.

Lee further stated that �...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.� Walter Bennett, ed., Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican, at 21, 22, 124 (Univ. of Alabama Press, 1975)

The writer doesn�t know how many people have noted it, but the reasons for the overthrow of English rule have now been far exceeded by the federal government and nearly equally so by state governments. In regards to the latter, each state is sovereign to the federal government and has the power to not allow federal laws to interfere with the rights of citizens, with interference in rights likewise prohibited to the states.

Of course, one might now ask - what rights? Newspapers and the media only use what the government wants used. Try voicing your opinions in your local paper if those opinions are against unconstitutional actions by any level of government. Freedom of speech has little impact if all are not free to choose whether to read comments both pro and con, and, instead, have the decision made for them by a government controlled media lackeys.

Courts are ran by corrupted judges and attorneys. Both have a hidden agenda of preserving the system as it is as it makes them the most money and allows for exercising power that doesn�t constitutionally exist. Don�t believe it? Try to bring up the Constitution and your rights as a natural right citizen who must only be heard in a common law court established by Article III of the Constitution.

Try to force Article VI, Clauses 2 and 3, to be obeyed. These are the required actions that judges and all officials must take, which includes to obey the law secured by the Constitution, and that no official may act without obeying the constitution and subscribing to doing so.

However, judges, who above all must assure the rights of the people be protected do not do so. Each may be impeached for failing to fulfill their duties, but when judges hear the cases, is it more probable another judge will be decided against or the citizen decided against? Guess we all know the answer to that since thousands of unconstitutional laws and convictions exist.

How many thousands of people are prosecuted nationwide by city ordinances in violation of the very essence of the Constitution, almost half of the amendments to the Constitution, multiple state statutes, and by a judge and prosecutor who know not the law, nor their responsibility to the Constitution and the citizen? In fact, this writer would wager that at least 90 percent are prosecuted in direct violation not only of due process but, if it were a citizen doing the same (violating a state statute), also in the criminal sense by violating specific statutes of which the officials haven�t any immunity.

He will also wager that at least half of traffic violations are not within the laws as written. It has become quite clear in his studies that the many states distort statutes for their own purposes, primarily to generate income for the state and to establish control over the sovereign individual that is not within their authority. Read the statutes and it is certain each will agree. In other words, quit going by what someone has told you or what you think it is and go to the source.

How about the 9th Amendment? Does anyone in government know that all unalienable, self-evident rights not enumerated in the Constitution, are secured by this amendment? Probably not since all any in state or political subdivisions can partially quote is the 10th Amendment. And, they conveniently forget that sovereignty in the 10th rests with the people, not elected officials.

What of the 13th? Are you or are you not in servitude to the different levels of government over half of your working life? Do you own your personal and private property that is constitutionally yours and yours alone? Or do you have to pay fees each and every year to use it?

What of the 14th? Although this is intended to protect people who are not by birth citizens of the 50 states, it still provides for equality of the law. Are you treated equally with all other citizens? Or, may you be arrested or taxed or harassed when others are not? Think about the common man verses the self-proclaimed elite when you answer this. And if you think you are equally taxed, demand the list of abatements made on personal, including Real, property from your county assessor.

And, then, find where in the Constitution it is stated that every level of government has proprietary interest in your property, property meaning all that you obtain through the fruits of your own labor and your personal self, such as your talent, your life, your sense of well-being. As you look, take note of Article I, Section 9, Clause 4, and Article I, Section X, Clause 1. Then, read 18 USC, Section 8; 12 USC, Section 411; and 31 USC, Section 3124. You might be amazed at the actual laws and authority for use concerning federal reserve notes, the fiat �money� assumed to have value.

As you know, this could go on but this is enough to point out this one simple fact, a fact that has now been strengthened by the recent treasonous ruling by the Supreme Court essentially alleviating the government of the burdensome 4th Amendment. Not only has due process of law and the common law established through 6 millennia and millions upon millions of lives been destroyed as we sat placidly by, now the last �protection� we had against a full police state has been taken from us without much more than a whimper.

The traitors in the Supreme Court violating all that is good and not evil have ruled in favor of all that is evil and not good.

So, just when is enough - enough? I know how our forefathers would have responded - it is in the Declaration of Independence if you care to read it.