Information

on our

Practices

“no man can be perfectly secure against wrong…and cities are like individuals in this…Wherefore the citizens ought to practice war – not in time of war, but rather while they are at peace.“                                                                                            

                                                - Plato (Laws viii:829 Jowett translation)

“In a popular or mixed government, the body of the people is the publick defence, and every man is arm’d and disciplin’d.”

                                                - Algernon Sidney

“…swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American”

                                                - Tench Coxe

"The Exercise of despotick Power is the unrelenting War of an armed Tyrant upon his unarmed Subjects: It is a War of one Side, and in it there is neither Peace nor Truce.''

                                                - John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon in “Cato’s Letters”

”a general Exercise of the best of their People in the use of Arms, was the only Bulwark of their Liberties; this was reckon'd the surest way to preserve them both at home and abroad, the People being secured thereby as well against the Domestick Affronts of any of their own Citizens, as against the Foreign Invasions of ambitious and unruly Neighbours."

- John Trenchard and Walter 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)

"It's the misfortune of all Countries, that they sometimes lie under an unhappy necessity to defend themselves by Arms against the Ambition of their Governours, and to fight for what's their own."

- John Trenchard and Walter 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)

“…for that Nation is surest to live in Peace, that is most capable of making War; and a Man that hath a Sword by his side, shall have least occasion to make use of it."

- John Trenchard and Walter 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

“[T]he said Constitution [should] be never construed…to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.”

                                                - Samuel Adams

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.  Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.  Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force.”

                                                - Patrick Henry

“Resistance to sudden violence for the preservation not only of my person, my limbs, and life, but of my property, is an indisputable right of nature which I never surrendered to the public by the compact of society and which, perhaps, I could surrender if I would.”

                                                - John Adams

“[T]o 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

“Forty years ago, when the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British parliament was advised…to disarm the people.  That it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.  But that they should not do it openly, but to weaken them and let them sink gradually.”

                                                - George Mason

“[N]o man should scruple or hesitate a moment to use arms in defense.”

                                                - George Washington

“The right of self defence is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible.  Wherever…the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”

- St. George Tucker

“The next amendment is: ‘A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free sate, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’ The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons who have duly reflected upon the subject…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; an will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them…There is certainly no small danger that indifference may lead to disgust, and disgust to contempt, and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national Bill of Rights.”

                                                - Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story

"An oppressed class which did not aspire to possess arms and learn how to handle them would deserve only to be treated as slaves"

-  Lenin

 “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest”

                                                - Gandhi

How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual… as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.”

- Representative Suzanna Gratia Hupp (TX)

“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”

- The Dali Lama