[T]he enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table … Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our Nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.
Category: Second Amendment
Carrying a gun
The entire purpose of carrying a gun is because a cop is too heavy.
The ultimate authority lies in an armed populace
The ultimate authority … resides in the people alone … The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition.
Protection against monarchs, etc.
A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and collected into constitutional assemblies form the only balance capable of preserving a free constitution against the enterprise of an aspiring prince.
Swords and plowshares
Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.
Trustworthiness of government
A government that does not trust its law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is itself unworthy of trust.
Government is a threat
A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
Natural rights
Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.
Arms are a protection against government tyranny
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Arms for free men
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.