WHAT THE FOUNDING FATHERS SAID ABOUT
GUNS
ever wonder what the second amendment
really means?
Compiled by James R. Petersen
From The Playboy Forum (forum@playboy.com)
December 1995
Copyright © 1995 Playboy Enterprises,
Inc.
Militias. Distrust of government.
Abuse of power. The right to bear arms. Not a day passed without
a passionate article or an editorial on the role of guns in American
life. The year was 1775. More than 200 years later, the seminal
debate undertaken as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
formulated the laws of the land still echoes. Is the Michigan
Militia an aberration or the Constitution in action? Is Gordon
Liddy a dangerous demagogue or a devoted patriot? What exactly
did the founding fathers mean when they penned the Second Amendment?
No sampler can do justice to the debate, but we hope the following
scrapbook helps shed light on the relation between arms and liberty.
Our sources were Alexander Hamilton, Madison and John Jay's Federalist,
"That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional
Right," by Stephen Halbrook, "The Road to the Bill of
Rights," by Craig Smith, and a collection of quotes compiled
by Charles Curley.
TO TAKE ARMS AGAINST THE BRITISH
From "A Journal of the Times,"
calling the citizens of Boston to arm themselves in response to
British abuses of power, 1769: "Instances of the licentious
and outrageous behavior of the military conservators of the peace
still multiply upon us, some of which are of such nature and have
been carried to so great lengths as must serve fully to evince
that a late vote of this town, calling upon the inhabitants to
provide themselves with arms for their defense, was a measure
as prudent as it was legal. It is a natural right which the people
have reserved to themselves, confirmed by the [English] Bill of
Rights, to keep arms for their own defense, and as Mr. Blackstone
observes, it is to be made use of when the sanctions of society
and law are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression."
ASSAULT RIFLES, COLONIAL STYLE
George Mason's Fairfax County Militia
Plan, 1775:
"And we do each of us, for
ourselves respectively, promise and engage to keep a good firelock
in proper order, & to furnish ourselves as soon as possible
with, & always keep by us, one pound of gunpowder, four pounds
of lead, one dozen gunflints, & a pair of bullet moulds, with
a cartouch box, or powder horn, and bag for balls."
GIVE ME FLINTLOCKS OR GIVE ME DEATH
Patrick Henry, 1775:
"They tell us that we are weak
-- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall
we be stronger? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when
a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Three million
people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, are invincible by
any force which our enemy can send against us."
THOUGHTS ON DEFENSIVE WAR
Thomas Paine, writing to religious
pacifists in 1775:
"The supposed quietude of a
good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like
laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance
of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved
were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike;
but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. Horrid
mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use
of them; the weak would become a prey to the strong."
SOUND BITES FROM BEFORE AND AFTER
THE REVOLUTION
Samuel Adams:
"Among the natural rights of
the colonists are these: first, a right to life, secondly to liberty,
thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in
the best manner they can."
John Adams:
"Arms in the hands of the citizens
may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country,
the overthrow of tyranny or private self-defense."
Thomas Jefferson:
"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 government."
Thomas Jefferson, in an early draft
of the Virginia constitution:
"No free man shall ever be
debarred the use of arms in his own lands."
WE HAVE SEEN THE ENEMY AND HE IS
US
Patrick Henry:
"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 may have a gun."
TREAD LIGHTLY
Thomas Jefferson's advice to his
15-year-old nephew:
"A strong body makes the mind
strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While
this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise
and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others
of that nature are too violent for the body and stamp no character
on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion
of your walks."
Noah Webster, 1787:
"Before a standing army can
rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every
kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce
unjust laws by the sword, because the whole of the people are
armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular
troops."
ON THE ROLE OF A MILITIA
James Madison, "The Influence
of the State and Federal Governments Compared," 46 Federalist
New York Packet, January 29, 1788:
"Besides the advantage of being
armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every
other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which
the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are
appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition
more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any
form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments
in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as
the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to
trust the people with arms. And it is not certain that with this
aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But
were the people to possess the additional advantages of local
governments chosen by themselves, that could collect the national
will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed
out of the militia, by these governments and attached both to
them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest
assurance that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be
speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it."
Alexander Hamilton, "Concerning
the Militia," 29 Federalist Daily Advertiser, January 10,
1788:
"There is something so far-fetched
and so extravagant in the idea of danger to liberty from the militia
that one is at a loss whether to treat it with gravity or raillery.
Where, in the name of common sense, are our fears to end if we
may not trust our sons, our brothers, our neighbors, our fellow
citizens? What shadow of danger can there be from men who are
daily mingling with the rest of their countrymen and who participate
with them in the same feelings, sentiments, habits and interests?
What reasonable cause of apprehension can be inferred from a power
in the Union to prescribe regulations for the militia, and to
command its services when necessary, while the particular states
are to have the sole and exclusive appointment of the officers?
If it were possible seriously to indulge a jealousy of the militia
upon any conceivable establishment under the federal government,
the circumstance of the officers being in the appointment of the
states ought at once to extinguish it. There can be no doubt that
this circumstance will always secure to them a preponderating
infiuence over the militia."
Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters
from the Federal Farmer, 1788:
"Militias, when properly formed,
are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable
of bearing arms. 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."
Tench Coxe, writing as "the
Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 1788:
"The power of the sword, say
the minority of Pennsylvania, is in the hands of Congress. My
friends and countrymen, it is not so, for the powers of the sword
are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from 16 to 60. The
militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to
their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous
and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves?
Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against
his own bosom? Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their
swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are
the birthright of an American. The unlimited power of the sword
is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments,
but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of
the people."
ANTECEDENTS
Connecticut gun code of 1650:
"All persons shall bear arms,
and every male person shall have in continual readiness a good
muskitt or other gunn, fitt for service."
Article 3 of the West Virginia state
constitution:
"A person has the right to
keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home and state,
and for lawful hunting and recreational use."
Virginia Declaration of Rights 13
(June 12, 1776), drafted by George Mason:
"That a well-regulated militia,
composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper,
natural and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies,
in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and
that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination
to, and governed by, the civil power."
A proposed amendment to the Federal
Constitution, as passed by the Pennsylvania legislature:
"That the people have a right
to bear arms for the defense of themselves and their own states
or the United States, or for the purpose of killing game; and
no law shall be passed for disarming the people or any of them,
unless for crimes committed, or real danger of public injury from
individuals."
ROUGH DRAFT
An amendment to the Constitution,
proposed by James Madison:
"The right of the people to
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, a well- armed and well-regulated
militia being the best security of a free country; but no person
religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render
military service in person."
THE FINAL DRAFT
The Second Amendment, as passed
September 25, 1789:
"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."
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