"How Strangely will the tools of a tyrant pervert the plain meaning of words." --Samuel Adams
There is a lot of talk about what the second amendment means or doesn't mean. For an accurate interpretation, we must always look to the context in which it was written and to the words of its framers.
Consider these gems of wisdom:
"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They 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 to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
--Thomas Jefferson (quoting Cesare Beccaria)
"A free people ought to be armed." --George Washington
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." --Thomas Jefferson
"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed." --Thomas Jefferson
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." --George Washington
"The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." --Thomas Jefferson
"Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense." --John Adams
"On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Consttitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed." --Thomas Jefferson
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is
the creed of slaves." --William Pitt
"To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them." --George Mason
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country. --James Madison
"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms." --Richard Henry Lee
"The Constitution shall never be 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 everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined...the great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun." --Patrick Henry | 
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