“The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden to have in their possession any swords, short swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other types of arms.
The possession of unnecessary implements makes difficult the collection of taxes and dues and tends to foment uprisings.”
– Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Dictator of Japan, August 1588
“One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms.”
– Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story
“He who thinks he is his own master, and has anything he may call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself and what he possesses, or else he lives precariously and at discretion.”
– Andrew Fletcher, Scottish Writer and Politician
“Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon — rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything — any time, any place, without asking anyone’s permission. Since the ability to own and carry weapons unmolested by the State is a fundamental right, there can be no thought of any unit of that state “allowing” it or not “allowing” it.
Note that I am not saying that peace and civil order are a bad thing, just that it has to be achieved within Constitutional parameters. The Founders put them there for a reason; they had seen the rule of law abused too often by arrogant and brutish British authorities.”
– L. Neil Smith, Author and Political Activist.
“The bearing of arms is the essential medium through which the individual asserts both his social power and his participation in politics as a responsible moral being…”
– J.G.A. Pocock, Historian, describing the beliefs of the founders of the U.S.
“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker.
It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”
– Ronald Reagan
