1. Why We Train
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“The right of self-defense 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 prohibited under any color or pretext whatsoever, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”
– St. George Tucker Revolution Soldier, Federal Judge, & Law Professor
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CONSTITUTIONAL DEFENSE
[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, Declaration Signer
While the Second Amendment protects our right to keep and bear arms, it is our job to protect the Second Amendment through our activity as citizens.
EPISODE ONE: Why We Train
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Original proposals for the Bill of Rights give us insight into what the Founders meant for the 2nd Amendment:
New Hampshire proposed the following language:
Congress shall never disarm any citizen.i
At the Massachusetts Convention, wording had been proposed declaring:
[T]hat the said Constitution be never construed . . . to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.ii
“Self-defense, or self-preservation, is one of the first laws of nature, which no man ever resigned upon entering society.”
– Judge Zephaniah Swift
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CONSTITUTIONAL DEFENSE
“The municipal law of our country has likewise left with individuals the exercise of the natural right of self-defense. The right of self-defense is founded in the law of nature and is not – and cannot be – superseded by the law of society.”
– James Kent
“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 enable the people to 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.”
– Joseph Story, original Supreme Court Justice
EPISODE ONE: Why We Train
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“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, father of the Bill of Rights
“The Constitution should never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
– Samuel Adams, Declaration signer
“The advantage of being armed is an advantage which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation. In the several kingdoms of Europe, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
– James Madison, father of the Constitution
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CONSTITUTIONAL DEFENSE
“No citizen shall be debarred the use of arms within his own lands.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“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 not surrender if I would.… [T]he maxims of the law and the precepts of Christianity are precisely coincident in relation to this subject.”iii
– John Adams, U.S. President, Signer of The Declaration, One of The Two Signers of The Bill of Rights
“The Supreme Being gave existence to man, together with the means of preserving that existence. He invested man with an inviolable right to personal liberty and personal safety.”
– Alexander Hamilton
EPISODE ONE: Why We Train
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“The great natural law of self-preservation cannot be repealed or superseded or suspended by any human institution. The right of the citizens to bear arms in the defense of themselves shall not be questioned.”
“Every man’s house is deemed by the law to be his castle; and the law invests him with the power and places on him the duty of the commanding officer of his house. Every man’s house is his castle, and if anyone be robbed in it, it shall be esteemed his own default and negligence.”
– James Wilson
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CONSTITUTIONAL DEFENSE
EPISODE ONE TAKE AWAYS:
- The right of self-defense is a law of nature, not something given to us by government…it is to be protected by government.
- We each have a responsibility as a citizen to study the foundations of liberty and our Constitution so that we can peaceably protect, defend and assert our rights.