[Vaquero]

More Quotes for you: Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately nothing will preserve it but downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined. Patrick Henry, Virginia's US constitution ratification. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Ben Franklin Arms in the hands of individual citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense John Adams The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans posses over almost every other nation…where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. James Mason The Constitution shall be never construed to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. Samuel Adams

[RobbyS]

I am sure that George Washington, who mustered several militias to put down the Whiskey tax Rebellion. must also have parroted similar words as an abstract principal. But why guns and not swords if everyone had individual self-defence in mind rather than the right of the right of revolution? I suppose because with the proliferation of guns in the United States, a sword or long knife, which was adequate defence in 18th Century London or New York, is not today.