"Resistance to sudden violence, for the preservation not only of my person, my limbs, and life, but of my property, is an indisputable right of nature which I have never surrendered to the public by the compact of society, and which perhaps, I could not surrender if I would." ---
John Adams, Boston Gazette, Sept. 5, 1763,reprinted in 3 The Works of John Adams 438 (Charles F. Adams ed., 1851).
Our Bill of Rights does not
grant rights, it
preserves and
guarantees pre-existing
individual rights. How do we know this? The Ninth Amendment states:
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."In other words, we have other rights beyond what is expressly stated in the Constitution, and the
federal government is not justified in denying us those rights.referenced