DO YOU HAVE LIBERTY ?

NOTICE READ SEN. W. STUMP

*****Preamble Citizens (also known as de jure Citizens)*****former Arizona State Senator Wayne Stump (1989)

The Preamble to the Bill of Rights

[This is a note from Dr. Linda Thompson of the American Justice Federation that I am passing along to everyone..]

The MOST IMPORTANT PART of the Bill of Rights -- the PREAMBLE which tells SPECIFICALLY that the Bill of Rights was to make sure the government knew it was limited to the powers stated in the Constitution and if it didn't, the amendments were rights of the people the government couldn't screw with. Our revisionist historians ALWAYS leave this off the Constitution!!!

Here's a copy!!!

Effective December 15, 1791

Articles in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

PREAMBLE

The conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.

The first ten amendments are "declaratory and restrictive clauses". This means they supersede all other parts of our Constitution and restrict the powers of our Constitution.

There are people in this country that do not want you to know that these two sentences ever existed. For many years these words were "omitted" from copies of our Constitution. Public and private colleges alike have based their whole interpretation of our Constitution on the fraudulent version of this text. Those corrupt individuals have claimed that the amendments can be changed by the will of the people. By this line of reasoning the amendments are open to interpretation. This is a clever deception. The Bill of Rights is separate from the other amendments. The Bill of Rights is a declaration of restrictions to the powers of our Constitution. The Bill of Rights restricts the Constitution. The Constitution restricts the powers of government. The deception is that the government can interpret the all of the amendments and the Constitution itself. Without the presence of the Preamble to the Bill of Rights this may be a valid argument.

End the deception.

Larry Becraft Devvy WALLACE INSTITUTE WALLACE INSTITUTE defence = your Reliance on Government Information

Warning - Please NOTE !!!! There are articles & links on UCC REDEMPTION on these pages, the information is interesting to read but case loses linked below tells it not a good way to go !

UCC REDEMPTION Court Loses

IRS Case Loses

Return to Know Your Rights

http://www.harbornet.com/rights/lindat.html

Lopez - SC Ends Federal Police Power http://www.doprocess.net/articles/article%20sc%20ends%20pp.htm -----------------------------------------

Sovereign thats you before the tricks started ! Very Important reading!

Liberty - or not?

elewis@mail.shighway.com

We believe we live in the country that epitomizes the very concept of ‘being free’, that we are the harbinger of liberty. Maybe we are but, if we are, the concept of liberty has changed to a form unrecognizable by our founders.

Originally, the founders fought for the right to establish very limited governments directed only to protecting the unalienable, self-evident rights of the People. It was never intended to govern the people except when rights were threatened. Each individual is sovereign, meaning each individual and his rights is the rule of law, that the only interference may be when one threatens another’s rights.

Thus, no legislation may be produced affecting law-abiding citizens making decisions concerning their lives. Law-abiding is the key word. Law abiding means not interfering with the rights of others. Lawful behaviors are those in which an individual exercises his rights without interfering with the rights of others.

But, government in its ever expanding role, whether it be federal, State, or some political subdivision such as cities, now interfere with nearly every law, statute, ordinance, or edict made unconstitutionally into law. And, thus, because the People have little understanding of liberty and the full force of the united States Constitution, I spend most of my time fighting for my rights and, secondarily, the rights of all citizens of this once great nation.

Answer these questions:

1. If told by license whether you can get married or not, are you free?

2. If permitted by license to use your talents in an occupation, are you free?

3. If stopped on the street, whether driving or not, and asked to show your ID and answer questions about who you are, where you are going, and what you are going to do when you get there, are you free?

4. If your earnings, your fruits of labor, are taken, are you free? Currently, this amounts to half of your earnings. Thus who are you working for half the time?

5. When you buy an item, whether it be a car, truck, land, a house, and the State, county, and city tax your ownership produced through the fruits of your labor in order to dole it out to others, are you free?

6. When unconstitutional invasions on your private property are done by government agents, including law enforcement, are you free?

7. When government tells you what lawful business (any that do not interfere with the rights of others) you may start on your own property, are you free?

8. When government tells you whether you can build a shed on your property, are you free?

9. When government makes laws in direct contradiction to the Constitution of the united States of America, including arms and the God-given unalienable right of self-protection, are you free?

10. When government allows a telephone company to charge its customers in order to pay the company’s taxes (also, unlawful), are you free?

11. When government uses intimidation and coercement through threats of bodily harm, unlawful seizure of property, unlawful in-home invasions, heavily armed government trained troops (meaning any government employees trained to use firearms, unlawful stops, searches, seizures and make arrests using fraudulent or no evidence indicating wrong-doing), are you free?

12. When government tells you what lawful property (obtained through the fruits of your lawful labor) you can keep on your property, are you free?

13. When judges make rulings or force rulings from juries in direct contradiction to the Constitution, are you free?

14. When every government official, or nearly every government official, violates their Oaths of Office to protect your rights secured in the Constitution and make unlawful, unconstitutional statutes, ordinances and the like, are you free?

15. When your communiqués are monitored by the government, especially the federal government, are you free? (Yes, Folks, unlawful acts you see in the movies are true - the government monitors every form of communication looking for key words that ‘trigger’ them to take unlawful actions against law-abiding citizens. It is not fiction - it is fact.)

This list of questions could go on all day long but it would mean each would have to have a thorough understanding of the Constitution, the applicable State constitution, the Federalists Papers, many quotes by the founders of this nation, and the difference between "lawful" and "legal".

But, you see, the People don’t have an understanding and - why? Because public education is controlled by the government. What is taught is what the government wants taught, not what is true. It controls by threats of cutting of funding, or threats of IRS invasion, or threats of bodily harm. And, to top it off, education is outside an area of control permitted to the federal government - and any other level of government.

The People are the sovereigns in this nation, not any level of government, not the courts (read about jury nullification), not local law enforcement people who are as in the dark concerning the rights of Man as are most people, and certainly not any government bodies without jurisdiction or control over law-abiding citizens making up this nation.

This includes but is not limited to, IRS agents, DEA agents (by the way, all drug usage laws are unconstitutional just as was ruled with the control of alcohol), FBI, CIA, troops used against citizens of this nation (WACO, Ruby Ridge, Flight 800 investigators, gun owners and sellers, and many hundreds of others), and, yes, your local law enforcement agencies when conducting what are essentially acts of war against your rights.

One last question. Why do you behave as if you must pay unlawful income and property taxes, must wear a seatbelt, must get a driver’s license, must get a business license, must not build on your own property without a permit, must do as a school dictates, must cut your yard when a city tells you to or unlawfully invades your property charging you for cutting your grass, and so on to include the hundreds of thousands of unlawful (determined only by the Constitution of the united States, the Declaration of Independence, and common law maxims in existence for 6000 years) statutes and ordinances?

Is that Freedom - or - Oppression?

This was copied off email sent to RMNA. I have no idea if it works! Please do your research.

Subject: The Constitutional Drivers License....

Message:

JUDICIAL NOTICE AND DEMAND FOR RIGHTS BE IT KNOWN BY ALL PRESENT,

That I, (Your Name Here), do travel upon the highways and roads of these United States of America as a matter of asserted Common Law Right. That I assert my full sovereignty as a free and natural human being under the Common Law and the Constitution for the United States of America, to wit:

1. 'The use of the highway for the purpose of travel and transportation is not a mere privilege, but a common and fundamental right of which the public and individuals cannot rightfully be deprived'. Chicago Motor Coach v Chicago, 169 NE 22, 66 ALR 834 Ligare v Chicago, 139 Ill. 46, 28 NE 934 Boone v Clark, 214 SW 607, 25 AM Jur (1st), Highways, Sec 163

2. 'The right of the citizen to travel upon the highways and to transport his property `thereon, either by a carriage or automobile, is not a mere privilege which a city may prohibit or permit at will, but a common right which he has under the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness'. Thompson v Smith, 154 SE 579

3. 'The right to travel is part of the Liberty of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of Law under the Fifth Amendment'. Kent v Dulles 357 US 116, 125

4. 'Where rights secured by the Constitution for the United States are involved, there can be no rulemaking or Legislation which would abrogate them'. Miranda v Arizona, 384 US 436, 491

5. 'The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime'. Miller v US, 230 F2d 485, 489

6. 'Our system of government, based upon the individuality and intelligence of the citizen, the state does not claim to control him, except as to his conduct to others, leaving him the sole judge as to all that only effects himself'. Mugler v Kansas, 123 US 623, 659, 660

This statement has been submitted upon DEMAND of a drivers license, registration, and/ or proof of insurance, and therefore is part of the official record of any ensuing action(s) and MUST be introduced as evidence in said action(s). It will be noted that willful suppression of evidence is a felony. Any cause for action will result in action in the nature of an action under Title 42, USC Section 1983. ____________________________________

(Your Name Here) STATE OF XXXXXXXXX COUNTY OF XXXXXXX

Subscribed and attested to before me this, the _____ day of___________, in the year of________.

NOTARY PUBLIC, in and for the STATE OF XXXXXXXXX.

seal __________________________________________________

Notary Public ----------------------------------- Additional Info :

Subject: Re: KABA article - Liberty

Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 09:27:02 -0600

From: "Ed Lewis"

To:

It's up to the "We The People" to Act or Nothing will change !

Dear Awdragon,

Thanks for reading the piece and commenting. First, you are right - the vote can solve nothing since who is run for office is controlled and, also, because those who vote don't necessarily have the slightest idea of what is going on. Plus, so many vote blindly for the party "of their choice" - you know, the old "I'm a Demo. or I'm a Republican, My daddy was, my granddaddy was, and so on" which relieves them of any decision making.

What it would presently take to change things is a complete replacement of all the two major parties, any in politics who are members of the Council on Foreign Relations (I have sites that tell about the establishment of the one world government and essentially changing our system to communism), doing away with the Federal Reserve (an independent corporation owned primarily by foreigners), the Public Salary Tax Act of 1939, and the Buck Act of 1940, and then the doing away with every unconstitutional law which is nearly every law put on the books in the federal, State, and political subdivisions such as cities in the past 100 to 150 years. This isn't likely to happen, I am afraid, without bloodshed.

If it can be done peaceably, it will have to be by enough citizens getting together in unity and begin, law by law, statute by statute, ordinance by ordinance, demanding their rescinding. No citizen has to obey any unconstitutional law, whether it be concerning carrying arms (loaded) or wearing a seatbelt.

Nearly every law passed by any level of government has been done "under color of law" which puts it on a legal basis rather than a lawful basis. We still have the Constitution as not even the CFR has tried to remove it totally. Instead, they circumvent by convincing citizens what is done is done for their good.

But, we also have laws which we as individuals or small groups can use. Examples are Title 18, Sections 241 and 242, 42 USCS 1981 and 1982, and others including many Supreme Court rulings. Cities can be forced to remove unconstitutional ordinances, especially if it is kept from a court of equity (the courts most are aware of) or Admiralty. We have Article IV, V, and VI in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights along with the 10th, 13th, and 14th Amendments (not to be used in establishing your own citizenship, though - it was done so the feds could protect slaves who had been recently freed and other foreigners who became citizens through edicts or the like by the federal government).

So, it will take people becoming knowledgeable concerning these and then having the courage to stand up against any level of government. Faith in elected officials must be done away with and only whether or not they obey their oaths of office to protect the Constitution and, hence, the freedom of the people, remaining as the primary consideration. We have the power to remove them whether it is on a city level, county, State, or federal, and, on an individual basis, to assure those in elected offices do their jobs properly based only on what is lawful (by the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, Mosaic Law, and Maxims of Common Law), not on what is legal as determined by procedure, court decisions, and procedures which essentially ignore the Constitution.

I am now fighting my city over its unconstitutional ordinances concerning my private property. The document I am in the process of preparing will also be modified to do away with property tax by the county and State and to assure any invasions on my privacy will be by the Constitution which, since I am law-abiding, means none whatsoever by any level of government.

I realize I haven't really answered your question except with a few hints of material to learn. The reason is I (I am 55) have just began my quest in the past 5 years, that is, learning about government and what is really going on, and then I am still in the process of learning about how necessary changes can be done without an out and out war against government, regardless of the level. I will say this, though, the feds are looking for a forced complete takeover since they are arming nearly every government entity, training troops in civilian communities, making deals with governments that are essentially our enemies, doing inhome invasions on innocent people, cases such as WACO, Ruby Ridge, and hundreds of others that haven't been publicized at all. Thus, the reason they are misleading people and convincing them crime can be controlled by removing arms from people. It is actually the last step in taking over.

Anyway, here are some links that go a long way in explaining why the government has done and is doing what it is. Study these very carefully and you can more or less follow along with what has been done during our lifetimes in the removal of rights.

I have a huge amount of material I have used and kept on disks. If you need any information, I may already have it. The point is that two have joined in common cause. If two can get two, and those two two - well, you see what I mean. We can start a geometric progression.

Here are items I know about.

1. Federal income tax does not make citizens with domestic earnings only liable

2. Social security is not required and no business has to withhold it.

3. The W-4 has nothing to do with income tax, nor does what is withheld.

4. Property tax is unconstitutional as well by any level of government

5. The difference between lawful and legal and the fact statutes are made under color of law and what 'under color of law' means and its implications for those fighting for their freedom.

6. Federal jurisdiction, State jurisdiction, and most important, the jurisdiction of citizens as sovereigns.

7. The Federal Reserve Bank and reserve system.

8. The fact federal reserve notes are debts or obligations and may not be used in determining any form of tax except for franchises and a couple of other indirect tax.

9. Maxims of Law

10. A complete understanding of the Constitution and its amendments and what the founders intended.

I just tell you this in order to state if you have any questions concerning these, I might be able to help. If I don't have the answer, I will try to find it. Soon I am going to write an article concerning jurisdiction and the facts that the people are the supreme power, that government essentially relies on fear and coercement in causing people to give up their rights. It should be posted on the KABA site as Angel has set up an archive for me. Hopefully, I will get started today on it and finish it tomorrow. It should give some insight to the powers of government which are extremely limited.

If you want it, I can send parts of the document I am preparing that contains much of the proof that cities and town officials, State officials, and the like don't have any power to speak of concerning private property, whether the property is Real, our so-called money, or any of our own 'fruits of our labor'. Here are a few links in regards to this:

I also have a file on the creation of the Straw man, which is part of the plan after government created the shadow states. It is after I compiled it 22 pages long and I can attach it in another email. It goes a long ways to explaining how governments have fooled the people into accepting debts and unlawful treatment of their property. I also have info on MIXED WAR, a situation that is created when officials act "under color of law". Just let me know what you need.

Once again, thanks for writing and your concern.

Regards,ed lewis

The quote from Mr. Powell, per the Russian Scientists that every American "NEEDS" to hear immediately is as follows:

[Colin Powell] - "Finding the Russian scientists may be a problem being that Russia does not have a Social Security System, as here in America, that allows us to monitor, track down and capture an American citizen"

" EMPHASIS added to the word CAPTURE! "

the BILL OF RIGHTS were and remain "inalienable" rights; "God-given" rights that can not be taken away by government.

What the Founding Fathers Said About the Second Amendment and Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms

"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 of the use of them." - Thomas Paine, Thoughts on Defensive War (1775).

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution (1776).

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion." - Edmund Burke (1784).

"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops." Noah Webster, An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution Proposed BV the Late Convention (1787).

"To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense or by partial orders of towns...is a dissolution of the government." - John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (1787-1788).

"Americans need not fear the federal government because they enjoy the advantage of being armed, which you possess over the people of almost every other nation." - James Madison.

"A militia 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 people always possess arms . . . " - Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters From the Federal Farmer 53 (1788).

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." - George Mason, during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788).

"…The said Constitution be never construed …to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." Samuel Adams, during Massachusetts's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788).

"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." - Patrick Henry, during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (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." - James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 46

"Suppose that we let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal: still it would not be going to far to say that the State governments with the people at their side would be able to repel the danger...half a million citizens with arms in their hands" - James Madison, The Federalist Papers

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crime." -Cesare Beccaria, quoted by Thomas Jefferson

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been recognized by the General Government; but the best security of that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free citizens of these States....Such men form the best barrier to the liberties of America" - Gazette of the United States, October 14, 1789.

"The right of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country..." -James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789.

"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms." -Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Framer (1788) at p. 169

"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins." -Rep Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at p. 750, August 17, 1789.

"...to disarm the people - that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them." - George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380.

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." -James Madison, The Federalist Papers No. 46 at 243-244.

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States" -Noah Webster in "An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution," 1787, in Paul Ford, ed., Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, at p. 56 (New York, 1888).

"...but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights..." - Alexander Hamilton speaking of standing armies in Federalist No. 29.

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." -Tench Coxe in `Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution' under the Pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1.

"Congress have 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 government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people" - - Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike especially when young, how to use them." -Richard Henry Lee, 1788, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights, Walter Bennett, ed., Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican, at 21,22,124 (Univ. of Alabama Press,1975.

"The great object is that every man be armed" and "everyone who is able may have a gun." -Patrick Henry, in the Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution. Debates and other Proceedings of the Convention of Virginia,...taken in shorthand by David Robertson of Petersburg, at 271, 275 2d ed. Richmond, 1805. Also 3 Elliot, Debates at 386

"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them." -Zachariah Johnson, 3 Elliot, Debates at 646

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" -Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8)

"That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms..." -Samuel Adams, Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at 86-87 (Pierce & Hale, eds., Boston, 1850).

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants" -Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William S. Smith in 1787. Taken from Jefferson, On Democracy p. 20, S. Padover ed., 1939

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, 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. -Thomas Jefferson, Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson, 318, Foley, Ed., reissued 1967.

"The supposed quietude of a good mans 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 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..." -Thomas Paine, I Writings of Thomas Paine at 56 (1894).

"...the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms" --from article in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette , June 18, 1789 at 2, col.2.

"What country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms." -Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Dec. 20, 1787, in Papers of Jefferson, ed. Boyd et al.)

"[The American Colonies were] all democratic governments, where the power is in the hands of the people and where there is not the least difficulty or jealousy about putting arms into the hands of every man in the country. [European countries should not] be ignorant of the strength and the force of such a form of government and how strenuously and almost wonderfully people living under one have sometimes exerted themselves in defence of their rights and liberties and how fatally it has ended with many a man and many a state who have entered into quarrels, wars and contests with them." -George Mason, "Remarks on Annual Elections for the Fairfax Independent Company" in The Papers of George Mason, 1725-1792, ed Robert A. Rutland (Chapel Hill, 1970).

"It is not certain that with this aid alone [possession of arms], they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to posses the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who 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." -- James Madison, Federalist No. 46.

What the Courts Have Said About the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

"To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm . . . is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege." [Wilson v. State, 33 Ark. 557, at 560, 34 Am. Rep. 52, at 54 (1878)]

"For, in principle, there is no difference between a law prohibiting the wearing of concealed arms, and a law forbidding the wearing such as are exposed; and if the former be unconstitutional, the latter must be so likewise. But it should not be forgotten, that it is not only a part of the right that is secured by the constitution; it is the right entire and complete, as it existed at the adoption of the constitution; and if any portion of that right be impaired, immaterial how small the part may be, and immaterial the order of time at which it be done, it is equally forbidden by the constitution." [Bliss vs. Commonwealth, 12 Ky. (2 Litt.) 90, at 92, and 93, 13 Am. Dec. 251 (1822)

" `The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys, and not militia only, to keep and bear arms of every description, and not such merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of a free State. Our opinion is that any law, State or Federal, is repugnant to the Constitution, and void, which contravenes this right." [Nunn vs. State, 1 Ga. (1 Kel.) 243, at 251 (1846)]

"The provision in the Constitution granting the right to all persons to bear arms is a limitation upon the power of the Legislature to enact any law to the contrary. The exercise of a right guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be made subject to the will of the sheriff." [People vs. Zerillo, 219 Mich. 635, 189 N.W. 927, at 928 (1922)]

"The maintenance of the right to bear arms is a most essential one to every free people and should not be whittled down by technical constructions." [State vs. Kerner, 181 N.C. 574, 107 S.E. 222, at 224 (1921)]

"The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the "high powers" delegated directly to the citizen, and `is excepted out of the general powers of government.' A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independen of the lawmaking power." [Cockrum v. State, 24 Tex. 394, at 401-402 (1859)]

About the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."

"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."

"the ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone,"

Other Quotes About the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and Freedom

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.--There may be even a worse fate. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

"Certainly, one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be very carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." -Humphrey, Hubert, "Know Your Lawmakers," Guns, February 1960, p.4.

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

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."

"If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms-- never --never--never!" - William Pitt (1777)

"Those, who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people." - Aristotle, as quoted by John Trenchard and Water Moyle, An Argument Shewing, That a Standing Army Is Inconsistent with a Free Government, and Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy [London, 1697].

"No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion." - James Burgh, Political Disquisitions: Or, an Enquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses [London, 1774-1775].

"Men that are above all Fear, soon grow above all Shame."

"The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give to Congress a power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretense by a state legislature. But if in any blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both."

"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."

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."

"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."

If the Constitution is to be construed to mean what the majority at any given period in history wish the Constitution to mean, why a written Constitution?"

"If we advert to the nature of republican government, we shall find that the censorial power is in the people over the government, and not in the government over the people."

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

"One man with courage is a majority."

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

"To trust arms in the hands of the people at large has, in Europe, been believed...to be an experiment fraught only with danger. Here by a long trial it has been proved to be perfectly harmless...If the government be equitable; if it be reasonable in its exactions; if proper attention be paid to the education of children in knowledge and religion, few men will be disposed to use arms, unless for their amusement, and for the defence ofthemselves and their country." - - Timothy Dwight, Travels in New England and New York [London 1823]

"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."

"Gentlemen may cry, 'peace, peace'--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! Is life so precious, or peace so dear, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

"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 inevitably ruined" -- Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836)

"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."

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women."

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise."- - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, (1776), Chap. 1.

"When my country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir." - Thomas Paine, 1788.

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." - Lord Acton, English historian, 1907

"It is the American vice, the democratic disease which expresses its tyranny by reducing everything unique to the level of the herd." - Henry Miller, American author, 1947

"You can never have a revolution to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution." - G.K. Chesterton, English journalist and author, 1955

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: "From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage." -- Alexander Fraser Tytler (later Lord Alexander Fraser Woodhouslee), in The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic," published 1776.

"You are bound to meet misfortune if you are unarmed because, among other reasons, people despise you....There is simply no comparison between a man who is armed and one who is not. It is unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey one who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed. In the latter case, there will be suspicion on the one hand and contempt on the other, making cooperation impossible." --Niccolo Machiavelli in "The Prince."

"You must understand, therefore, that there are two ways of fighting: by law or by force. The first way is natural to men, and the second to beasts. But as the first way often proves inadequate one must needs have recourse to the second." --Niccolo Machiavelli in "The Prince."

"Giving money and power to Government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." -- P.J. O'Rourke

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce. ... The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State." --James Madison, author of our Constitution, in Federalist Paper No. 45

"No free man shall ever be debarred from the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the Republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers...." Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story

USE YOU BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO MAIN PAGE