For those who say our forefathers's intent on the right to bear arms has been misconstrued:
1) "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 which it was passed." - Thomas Jefferson.
2) "A free people ought ... to be armed ..." - George Washington.
3) "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." - Alexander Hamilton.
4) " ... the people have the right to keep and bear arms." - Patrick Henry.
5) "The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun." - Patrick Henry.
6) "To disarm the people (is) the best and most effectual way to enslave them." - George Mason.
7) "The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are to be left in full possession of them." - Zachariah Johnson.
8) "Arms in the hands of citizens (may) be used at individual discretion ... in private self-defense." - John Adams.
9) "And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress ... to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms ..." - Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, Aug. 20, 1789.
a quote from Justice Scalia - US SUPREME COURT - "We regularly find laws Unconstitutional if we think the Founding Fathers would have been offended by them.".
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