I'm back, and I'll resume with a Gem from Jefferson

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
--Thomas Jefferson, 1803.

I guess we've found that out by now, haven't we?

Switzerland's Version of the US Second Amendment

Why No One Invades Switzerland



Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution: 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.

Our Second Amendment prevented the Japanese from invading the United States after they bombed Pearl Harbor: "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." This was a statement made by Japanese Admiral Yamamoto (Great Quotations)

Switzerland's example is similar to what the founding fathers intended when they inserted the Second Amendment into the Constitution. Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence … from the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurences and tendencies prove that to ensure peace security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable … the very atmosphere of firearms anywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that's good. George Washington, First President of the United States.

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that … it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; … Thomas Jefferson, letter to Justice John Cartwright, June 5, 1824. ME 16:45.

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, Co-author of the Second Amendment during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution, 1788. Source.

No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms. ---Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution, 1776. Source.

By and large, the states followed the intent of the Second Amendment by establishing their own militias under the governor's office. Both North and South fought the War Between the States with their militias. The Second Amendment was designed to protect each state from abuse from the federal government and other states.

This Amendment is the one which protects our First Amendment rights of free speech. If we lose it, we lose both.

The intent of the Second Amendment Was to Guarantee States Rights through militias and the right of the citizens to own and bear weapons

Arguments that float around today about whether or not the Second Amendment applies to the states, is smoke and mirrors, thrown out by those that oppose the rights of citizens to own, carry, or bear arms. All arguments against the Second Amendment is based on either a deliberate attack on it, or a misunderstanding of the intention of the Bill of Rights founders.

The federal government was created by the several states extant at the time of the creation of the constitution. However, the states were well aware of how dangerous and abusive a government can be from their experience with the English government that was over them until the Declaration of Independence.

The states envision themselves as sovereign states and they created the federal government for several reasons: To enable commerce to be carried on among the states by establishing a mail system, to raise an army in case of threats by other nations, and to make treaties with other countries. The representatives of the states in forming the constitution developed the Bill of Rights to ensure their sovereignty by the central government and to provide a safety net against abuses by the new federal government against the states. Therefore, all of the amendments of the Bill of Rights are automatically “incorporated” to the states.

The form of the Second Amendment sent to the states for ratification is as follows: “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.” The first clause, is prefatory, explaining the reason for the amendment. A militia was necessary to ensure that each state was to retain their rights to be able to defend itself from federal abuses, or from other states. The second clause explains who were to make up the militia and that possessing arms by the people should not be infringed. This would indicate the people keeping their own arms, not government issue, members or non-members of the state’s militia.

We need to look at the statements of the founders to know the intent of the Second Amendment. Quote from Tench Coxe, a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress: “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 have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right 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.”

Statements of Thomas Jefferson: “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms..disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one." - Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria, Criminologist in 1764. Source.

"No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms (within his own lands or tenements)." --Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution (with his note added), 1776. Papers 1:353 Source.

Does any doubt remain that the Second Amendment was to guarantee states rights, and their right to their own militias and the right of their citizens to own and bear personal weapons? We don’t need to ‘incorporate the Second Amendment into the ‘Fourteenth, it is there.’ It is already a right for every American Citizen, regardless of which state he resides.