“A free people…ought to be armed”

Thomas Jefferson said, “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”  But did he foresee guns being used in mass murders, the most recent leaving three dead in Colorado?  There a gunman killed two people and wounded two others at a missionary training center in Arvada.  Later the same day he killed one person and wounded four others at a church in Colorado Springs before he was shot by an armed security guard. 

In our country handguns are used in two-thirds of the robberies and in half the 15,000 murders a year.  Isn’t it time we ban handguns?  Why aren’t we enacting gun laws?   The stumbling block is the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights which states, “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.”  

Before gun control can be enacted in a wholesale way we must first determine if the Second Amendment protects the citizens’ right to bear arms.  And in 2008 we may hear the United States Supreme Court’s opinion on the Second Amendment, when it rules on the constitutionality of Washington, D.C.’s 31 year old handgun ban. 

Many of those favoring gun control interpret the Second Amendment to mean only members of militias are guaranteed gun ownership, not private citizens.  And they liken the militia to our current National Guard.  But were the founding fathers referring to a government army like the National Guard when they said militias? Hadn’t they just gone through a revolution and didn’t they fear government armies?  Weren’t they referring to private citizens owning guns so if needed, they could band together into a militia and forcefully oppose government armies?

What were the intentions of the authors of the Bill of Rights on private citizens owning guns?  Are there any reasons they would favor the right of private citizens to own guns?  Their beliefs on this issue were molded by their lives in the countries from which they emigrated.  I believe the American scholar Noah Webster best stated the fears of our Founding Fathers saying, “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe.”  This accurately sums up the beliefs of the Founding Fathers. 

They had seen firsthand the effects of a government removing guns from the people.  They brought this fear of government with them, believing it was almost mandatory for citizens to own guns to prevent what had occurred in Europe from occurring here.  Even while creating our country’s government they were substantially fearful of the very government they were creating.  Wouldn’t it be fair to assume that their fears and the lives they left in Europe would be translated into the text of the Bill of Rights?  And their fears of government suppression should obviate any speculation that they considered gun ownership a privilege rather than a right.  

Further proof of their beliefs can be appreciated in statements they made outside the Bill of Rights, defining their views on gun ownership.  Richard Henry Lee, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence and a member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights said, “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms . . .”  

Samuel Adams added, “The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress . . . to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. . .” 

George Washington said, “Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the people’s liberty’s teeth.”  He added, “A free people ought . . . to be armed.” 

And James Madison wrote in the Federalist Paper 46, “. . . of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation. . .” 

Besides their statements we should also consider what actions they were willing to undertake should the government try to confiscate their guns.  How strongly did our Founding Fathers feel about the need for private gun ownership?  A quote from the Lexicon Universal Encyclopedia:  “When a column (of British army regulars) under Lt. Col. Francis Smith moved into the countryside to collect arms and munitions gathered by the patriot militia, hostilities erupted at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.” 

It appears they were willing to fight and die rather than give up their guns as they had in Europe.  It is equally evident that they did not view the militia as a government army, a National Guard.  Instead, they viewed it as private citizens banded together fighting the government’s army.

Maybe those who say, “I’ll give up my gun – when they pry it from my cold, dead hands,” understood precisely what the Founding Fathers meant.

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