I received this in an email.

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"They that can give up liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of
Pennsylvania..
                       
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 "The legitimate powers of government extend to such
acts only as they are injurious to others." -Thomas
Jefferson, Notes on the  State of Virginia
(1781-1785).
                       
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"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole
people, except for a few public officials." -George
Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at  425-426.
                       
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  "The Constitution of most of our states (and of the
United States) assert that all power is inherent in
the people; that they may  exercise it by themselves;
that it is their right and duty to be at all times
armed." -Thomas Jefferson.
                       
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 "(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being
armed which Americans possess over the people of
almost every other nation...(where) the governments
are afraid to trust the people with arms." -James
Madison.
                       
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 "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only
those who are neither inclined nor determined to
commit crimes...Such laws   make things worse for the
assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve
rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for  an
unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence
than an armed man." -Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare
Beccaria.
                       
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 "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).
                       
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 "...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 the use of them." -Thomas
Paine.

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  "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, The  Complete
Jefferson, p322.
                       
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 "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best
forms [of government] those entrusted with power have,
in time, and by slow  operations, perverted it into
tyranny." -Thomas Jefferson, Bill for the More General diffusion of Knowledge (1778).
                       
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 "To disarm the people (is) the best and most
effectual way to enslave them..." -George Mason, 3
Elliot, Debates at 380.
                       
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 "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.
                       
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 "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...The great object is that every man be armed.
Everyone  who is able might have a gun.: -Patrick
Henry.
                       
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"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be
purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid
it, Almighty God! I know not what  course others may
take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me
death!" -Patrick Henry
                       
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 "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 Lee writing in Letters from the Federal
Farmer to the Republic (1787-1788).
                       

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"The Constitution shall never be construed to
authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United
States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their
own arms." -Samuel Adams, debates & Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87.
                       
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"...the people have a right to keep and bear arms."
-Patrick Henry and George Mason, Elliot, Debates at
185.
                       
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"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, I Annals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789).
                       
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 "A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the
people themselves...and include all men capable of
bearing arms." -Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters
from the Federal Farmer (1788) at 169.
                       
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"The militia of the United States consists of all
able-bodied males at least 17 years of age..." -Title
10, Section 311 of the U.S Code.  (see
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/)
                       
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 "The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons.
They are left in full possession of them." -Zachariah
Johnson, 3 Elliot, Debates at 646.
                       
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 "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of
arms." -Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia
Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd,
Ed., 1950).
                       
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 "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..."-Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist (#28).
                       
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"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." -Tench Coxe, Remarks on the
First Part of the Amendments to the Federal
Constitution, under the pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in
the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1989 at
col. 1.
                       
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 "The right of the people to keep and bear arms has
been recognized by the General Government; but the
best security of that  right after all is, the
military spirit, that taste for martial exercises,
which has always distinguished the free citizens of
these States...Such men form the best barrier to the
liberties of America." -gazette of the United States,
October 14, 1789.
                       
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"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be
disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of
Europe. the supreme power in America cannot enforce
unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of
the people are armed, and constitute a  force superior
to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any
pretense, raised in the United States." -Noah Webster,
An Examination into the Leading Principles of the
federal Constitution (1787) in Pamphlets to the
Constitution of the United States (P. Ford, 1888).
                       
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 "If a man hasn't discovered something that he will
die for, he isn't fit to live." -Martin Luther King
Jr., June 23, 1963. Speech in Detroit.
                       
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       Statements of The Enemies of Liberty:
                       
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"Government begins at the end of the gun barrel." -
Chaiman Mao
                       
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"One man with a gun can control 100 without one. ...
Make mass searches and hold executions for found
arms." --V.I. Lenin.
                       
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  "If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it
refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves."
--Joseph Stalin.
                       
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 "We are taking the law and bending it as far as we
can to capture a whole new class of guns." - Jose
Cerada, (White House official who specializes in gun
control policy), The Los Angeles Times
                       
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 "We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve
the rights of ordinary Americans ..." Bill Clinton
(USA TODAY, 11 March 1993,  page 2A)
                       
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It's all a lie, I tell ya!!

This whole "right to bear arms" crap was just cooked up by the NRA back around 1975. Before that, few if any Americans owned guns.

[whacko]