... WILLIAM GRAYSON
"Last Monday a string of amendments were presented to the lower house;  these altogether respect personal liberty..." Sen. WILLIAM GRAYSON of Virginia in a letter to Patrick Henry.

... ZACHARIA JOHNSON
"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons.  They are left in full possession of them."  ZACHARIA JOHNSON, 3 Elliot, Debates at 646.

... JOHN ADAMS
"Arms in the hands of citizens [may] be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense..." JOHN ADAMS, A Defense of the Constitutions  of the Government of the USA, 471 (1788)

... NOAH WEBSTER
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe.  The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the whole body of the people are armed, and they constitute a force superior to any bands of  regular  troop(s)."  NOAH
WEBSTER.

... And now, some quotes from two 20th Century leaders:
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...  THEODORE ROOSEVELT:
"Patriotism means to stand by the country.   It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country.  It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand
by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else..."
   
... ADOLPH HITLER: (definitely NOT a founding father of the United States)  "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms.   History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so."    

Andrew Ford:  "Without either the first or second amendment, we
would have no liberty; the first allows us to find out what's
happening, the second allows us to do something about it!  The
second will be taken away first, followed by the first and then
the rest of our freedoms."

Adolf Hitler:  "1935 will go down in History!  For the first
time, a civilized nation has full gun registration!  Our streets
will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will
follow our lead to the future!"

Charles A. Beard, American Historian, 1874-1948:  "You need only
reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as
a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very
phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for
independence."

Benjamin Franklin, 1759 (Franklin B. Historical Review of
Pennsylvania. 1759):  "They that can give up essential liberty to
obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety."

Daniel Webster:  "Good intentions will always be pleaded for
every assumption of authority.  It is hardly too strong to say
that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the
dangers of good intentions.  There are men in all ages who mean
to govern well, but they mean to govern.  They promise to be good
masters, but they mean to be masters."

Edmund Burke (1729-1797):  "The only thing necessary for the
triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Gandhi:  "You may think your actions are meaningless and that
they won't help, but that is no excuse, you must still act."

George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380:  "...to disarm the people
(is) the best and most effective way to enslave them..."

George Washington:  "Firearms are second only to the Constitution
in importance; they are the people's liberty's teeth."

Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead vs. United States, United States
Supreme Court, 1928:  "Experience should teach us to be most on
our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are
beneficent . . .  the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in
insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without
understanding."

Gandhi:  "Noncooperation with evil is as much a duty as
cooperation with good."

Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, June 1776 1
Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C. J. Boyd, Ed., 1950):  "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."

Winston Churchill:  "If you will not fight for the right when you
can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your
victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the
moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you
and only a small chance of survival.  There may even be a worse
case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory,
because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

Thomas Jefferson:  "We mutually pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

President William Clinton, March 1, 1993 during a press
conference in Piscataway, NJ source: Boston Globe, 3/2/93, page
3:  "[the United States] can't be so fixed on our desire to
preserve the rights of ordinary Americans..."

Senator Howard Metzenbaum:  "I don't care about crime, I just
want to get the guns."

Walter Williams, Professor of Economics, George Mason University.
"Today's liberals wish to disarm us so they can run their evil
and oppressive agenda on us.  The fight against crime is just a
convenient excuse to further their agenda.  I don't know about
you, but if you hear that Williams' guns have been taken, you'll
know Williams is dead."

Here are some more:  The Federalist papers and the correspondence from the founders are full off them!
=================================================================

... ALEXANDER HAMILTON
   "The Constitution shall never be construed....to prevent the
people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from 
keeping their own arms."
  
   "Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to 
our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we 
cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the 
ambition of others."

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."  ALEXANDER HAMILTON, the Federalist Papers at 184-8

... JAMES MADISON:
   "Americans have the right and advantage of being armed ...the 
Americans possess over the people of all other nations...Notwith-
standing the military establishments in the several Kingdoms of 
Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will 
bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."

   "Congress shall never disarm any citizen unless such as are or 
have been in Actual Rebellion."

   "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."

   "Have we the means of resisting disciplined armies, when our 
only defense, the militia, is put in the hands of Congress?  Of 
what service would militia be to you when, most probably, you 
will not have a single musket in the state?  For, as arms are to 
be provided by Congress, they may or may not provide them."

   "Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing 
degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own 
defense?  Where is the difference between having our arms in our 
own possession and under our own direction, and having them under 
the management of Congress?  If our defense be the real object of 
having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more 
propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?

"The  right  of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be  infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the people, trained to arms is the best and most natural defense of a free country..."  JAMES MADISON, 1 Annals of Congress  434 (June 8, 1789).

"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation... Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."   JAMES MADISON, Federalist Papers, #46.

"Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace."  JAMES MADISON.

"Whenever there is an interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done and not less readily by a powerful and interested Party, than by a prince."  JAMES MADISON.

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."   JAMES MADISON

... THOMAS PAINE
"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property.  The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside... Horrid mischief would
ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them..."
THOMAS PAINE, I Writings of Thomas Paine at 56 (1894)

... BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
"Those who would sacrifice Liberty for temporary safety deserve neither Liberty nor safety."  BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

... RICHARD HENRY LEE:
   "No free government was ever founded, or ever preserved its 
liberty, without uniting the characters of the citizen and sol-
dier in those destined for the defense of the state...Such are a 
well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and 
husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as 
individuals, and their rights as freemen."

"To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them..." RICHARD  HENRY  (LIGHT HORSE HARRY) LEE, writing in Letters  from  the Federal Farmer to the Republic (1787-1788)

"A militia, when properly formed are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms."
RICHARD HENRY (LIGHT HORSE HARRY)  LEE,
 
Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer (1788) at 169.

... TENCH COXE:
   "The power of the sword, say the minority of Pennsylvania, is 
in the hands of Congress.  My friends and countrymen, it is not 
so, for THE POWERS OF THE SWORD ARE IN THE HANDS OF THE YEOMANRY 
OF AMERICA FROM SIXTEEN TO SIXTY.  The militia of these free 
commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when com-
pared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresisti-
ble.  Who are the militia?  Are they not ourselves?  Is it 
feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his 
own bosom?  Congress have no power to disarm the militia.  Their 
swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are 
the birth-right of an American...[T]he unlimited power of the 
sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state govern-
ments, but, where I trust in God it ever will remain, in the 
hands of the people." Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms."   in "Remarks on the First Part of  the  Amendments to the Federal Constitution," under the pseudonym "A 
Pennsylvanian"  in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789.

... JOHN DEWITT:
   "It is asserted by the most respectable writers upon govern-
ment, that a well regulated militia, composed of the yeomanry of 
the country, have ever been considered as the bulwark of a free 
people.  Tyrants have never placed any confidence on a militia 
composed of freemen."

... GEORGE MASON:
   "I ask, sir, what is the militia?  It is the whole people, 
except for a few public officials." "To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."

... SAM ADAMS:
"And that said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress...to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms..." SAM ADAMS, in the Philadelphia  Independent Gazetteer, Aug. 20, 1789.

... ALBERT GALLATIN:
"The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of."  ALBERT GALLATIN of the NY Historical Society,  October 7, 1789

    "I am convinced that we can do to guns what we've done to drugs: create a multi-billion dollar underground market over which we have absolutely no control."
-- George L. Roman

    "They :The makers of the Constitution: conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men."
     "Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial ... the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by
men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
-- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1928

    "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, 1759

    "The usual road to slavery is that first they take away your guns, then they take away your property, then last of all they tell you to shut up and say you are enjoying it."
-- James A. Donald

    "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
-- William Pitt, 18 Nov 1783
=================================================================

           THE SECOND AMENDMENT

     By Those Who Designed, Constructed, 
             and Erected It.

  "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."
  
   Problems with the interpretation?  Well, let's ask some of the 
people who should know; the men who wrote the Constitution, the 
Bill of Rights, AND the Second Amendment.

... GEORGE WASHINGTON:
  "Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.  
They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under 
independence...From the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present 
day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure 
peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally 
indispensable...The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere re-
strains evil interference--they deserve a place of honor with all 
that's good."

"A  free  people ought...to be armed..." GEORGE WASHINGTON, speech of Jan. 7, 1790 in the Boston Independent Chronicle, Jan. 14, 1790.

"When firearms go, all goes - we need them every hour."  GEORGE WASHINGTON.


... THOMAS JEFFERSON:
   "And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers 
are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the 
right of resistance?  Let them take arms...The tree of liberty 
must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots 
and tyrants.  It is its natural manure."

"On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, found  in The Complete Jefferson, p. 322

"A strong body makes the mind strong.  As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun.  While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind.  Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.  Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."
THOMAS JEFFERSON, Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson, 318 (Foley, Ed.,
1967).

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.", Proposal  for  a Virginia Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334
(C.J.  Boyd,  Ed. 1950)

"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... The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." THOMAS JEFFERSON,  letter to William S. Smith,  1787, in S. Padover (Ed.), Jefferson, On Democracy (1939), p. 20.

"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."
......
"The general (federal) government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cures."  THOMAS JEFFERSON.

"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion."  THOMAS JEFFERSON.

... PATRICK HENRY
"The great object is that every man be armed.  Everyone who is able might have a gun."  PATRICK HENRY,  3 Elliot, Debates at 386.

"Have we the means of resisting disciplined armies, when our only defence, the militia, is put in the hands of Congress?" PATRICK HENRY, 3 Elliot Debates at 48.

"Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense?  Where is the difference between having our arms in our possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress?  If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more
propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" PATRICK HENRY, 3 Elliot  Debates 168-169.

"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."  PATRICK HENRY.