2nd Amendment Blasts from the Past

(Image from:  Red Planet Cartoons)

 

As our nation prepares for Obama's second inauguration, I found myself thinking how our Dear Leader compares to our past presidents.  As if on que, a friend of mine e-mailed me a batch of quotes the Founding Fathers made regarding the 2nd Amendment.  I thought I'd re-post them here in the message's entirety:

“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

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
- Benjamin Franklin

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”
- Benjamin Franklin

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

“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense.”
- John Adams

“To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them.”
- George Mason (father of the Bill of Rights and The Virginia Declaration of Rights)

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms.”
- James Madison

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”
- William Pitt

“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.”
- Richard Henry Lee

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.”
- Patrick Henry

“... arms ... discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property.... Horrid mischief would ensue were (the law-abiding) deprived the use of them.”
- Thomas Paine

“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
- Samuel Adams
 

My favorite quote is Thomas Paine's "Horrid mischief" comment.

 

And speaking of mischief:

Even Bill Clinton gets it--sort of. 

 

Bill of course, is speaking from a politically motivated perspective.  But hey, even the Founding Fathers recognized that a greater good would unfold if citizens were given the freedom to pursue their own self-interests. 

 

A 13-year old article from Mark Steyn, writing about the plight of law-abiding British subjects, illustrates the possible shape of things to come in a dystopian future without the right to defend ourselves.

 

Sarah Palin almost was a vice-president and her Obamacare tie-in prediction back in 2009 is on the cusp of becoming an Orwellian reality.