SCOTUS Upholds Right To Bear Arms

In a 5 to 4 decision the Supreme Court upheld the 2nd Amendment right of citizens to bear arms.

It always seemed pretty clear-cut to me. In fact it's admittedly troubling that the vote was as close as it was.

"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."

The arguments that traditionally favored the interpretation that the 2nd Amendment only protected gun rights for 'militias' lacked historical context and ignored the portion that cites "the people" rather than any specificity to government or law enforcement personnel.

Ghandi, arguably the most well known proponent of peaceful revolt, had this to say:

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."


Not only do we retain the right to protect home and family, but, like our Founding Fathers, we have the means to effect an armed revolt in case of a future tyranny.


"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
- George Washington

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

"To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character."
- Alexander Hamilton

"The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property... Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
- Thomas Paine

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the people's liberty teeth and keystone..."
- George Washington

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. 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."
- Thomas Jefferson

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it."
- Abraham Lincoln

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."
- Alexander Hamilton

"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 usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
- Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all."
- Thomas Jefferson

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual State."
- Alexander Hamilton

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure."
- Thomas Jefferson

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
- from The Declaration of Independence

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
- from The Declaration of Independence