U.S. Representative Bob Good voiced his support for the 2nd Amendment.
James Madison -- our fourth president, the primary architect of the Constitution, and the first congressman from Virginia’s 5th District said:
“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
Our right to arm and defend ourselves is a God-given right, and we are privileged to live in a country whose founders had the wisdom and the strength to codify that right in the Constitution.
James Madison and our other Founders recognized that this was a fundamental right---to protect our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness---and they had the foresight to include the enumeration of this right among those listed in the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, intended to protect us from our government.
James Madison also said: “The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.”
The Second Amendment is not about hunting---that’s great---it is not even primarily about self defense or protecting our family---that is essential---it is about being a check against tyranny and to ensure we remain a free people.
There is a reason it was the second right listed in the Bill of Rights, second only to the guarantee of our rights to worship, speak freely, have a free press, peaceably assemble, and petition our government.
The Second Amendment is the guarantor or protector of all other rights. If our Second Amendment right is not safe, no rights are safe.
In my last quote for tonight from James Madison, he also said: “I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
The Second Amendment was essential to freedom when James Madison and the Founders recognized it 200 years ago; and it is just as essential to us remaining free 200 years from today.
