Posted on 04/16/2022 9:18:45 AM PDT by rktman
Those who lived in the original New England colonies thought differently about guns and the responsibility of their citizens. Leftist Massachusetts is a perfect example of the pendulum wildly swinging from one extreme to the other.
The Massachusetts Bay colony "required" that every able-bodied man (adult male) own a weapon. In 1632 a Plymouth colony statute ordered that "every free man or other inhabitant of this colony provide for himself … a sufficient musket … 2 pounds of powder and 10 pounds of bullets with a fine of 10 shillings per person who was not armed."
The 1632 statute added specifics to a 1630 order requiring that every town in the colony make sure that every person, servants included, be "furnished with good and sufficient Armes." The residents had to reimburse the towns "when they shall be able." In other words, the town would provide you with a firearm and you would pay the town back, "when … able."
Apparently, they didn't have much fear of more guns bringing more violence. On the contrary. They held the correct belief that more guns equaled less potential for violence.
But, you may say, we conservatives are always arguing against the government forcing us to do things – so the forced purchase of anything is unconstitutional. Well, you'd be correct, except there was no United States or Constitution in 1630.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Not after Obamacare.
Constitution.......😂🙌
I wonder what the crime rate was back then.. .
Using the afternoon after church to train the militia goes back as far as the Byzantines. Only then the men trained with spears and shields or bows.
Women we’re granted the right to vote and “Liberalism” wasn’t outlawed as being what it is - unconstitutional
“fine of 10 shillings per person”
That was a pretty hefty sum.
I wonder how much that works to in todays funny money.
I thjnk even a state like ny had soemthing simi,ar to what Massachusetts had at one point. The early founders were well acquainted with having to fight to defend agaisnt foreign enemies, so they required able bodied men to own guns incase of attack. The whole purpose of the 2nd amendment was for enough civi,Ian’s to be armed that invading armies, and domestic terrorists woul,d have a hard go,of it if they attacked. And also for survival in harsh environments, and as a confirmation of the inalienable right to self defense. I’ll post some of the founders comments below
Gun Quotations of the Founding Fathers
“A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined...”
- George Washington, First Annual Address, to both House of Congress, January 8, 1790
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”
- Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776
“I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, January 30, 1787
“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.”
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787
“The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They 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, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776
“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 your constant companion of your walks.” - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785
“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, letter to to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824
“On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, 12 June 1823
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
“To disarm the people...[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them.”
- George Mason, referencing advice given to the British Parliament by Pennsylvania governor Sir William Keith, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adooption of the Federal Constitution, June 14, 1788
“I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.”
- George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788
“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in 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 band of regular troops.”
- Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787
“Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.”
- James Madison, Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788
“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body 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
“A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms… “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, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788
“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, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778
“This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty.... The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”
- St. George Tucker, Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1803
” The balance ofpower is the scale of peace. 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. And while a single nation refuses to lay them down, it is proper that all should keep them up. Horrid mischief would ensue were one-half the world deprived of the use of them; for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a prey to the strong. The history of every age and nation establishes these truths, and facts need but little arguments when they prove themselves.”
- Thomas Paine, “Thoughts on Defensive War” in Pennsylvania Magazine, July 1775
“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
- Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788
“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 the 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.”
- Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833
“What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty .... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.”
- Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress 750, August 17, 1789
“For it is a truth, which the experience of ages has attested, that the people are always most in danger when the means of injuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion.”
- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 25, December 21, 1787
“If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource 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. In a single state, if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair.”
- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28
https://www.buckeyefirearms.org/gun-quotations-founding-fathers
The 1632 Project.
Regarding "the government" forcing us to do things, a distinction needs to be made between the federal and state government powers.
More specifically, while the states have deliberately constitutionally crippled the powers of the federal government, requiring people to acquire guns being one of the very few powers that the feds actually have in stark contrast to politically correct, unconstitutional federal gun control laws," it is the the states who acually have the lion's share of 10th Amendment (10A)-protected power to order people what to do.
For example, the states, not the feds, have the 10A power to issue driver licenses and require health and vehicle insurance, scandalous, unconstitutional, desparate Democratic Obamacare based on stolen state powers imo.
But also note that state power is limited by personal protections that the states have amended the Constitution to expressly protect.
Corrections, insights welcome.
The second Militia Act of 1792 REQUIRED every able bodied free man to have full military kit
https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Militia_Acts_of_1792
Militia members were to arm themselves with a musket, bayonet and belt, two spare flints, a cartridge box with 24 bullets, and a knapsack. Men owning rifles were required to provide a powder horn, 1/4 pound of gunpowder, 20 rifle balls, a shooting pouch, and a knapsack.[5] Some occupations were exempt, such as congressmen, stagecoach drivers, and ferryboatmen. Otherwise, men were required to report for training twice a year, usually in the Spring and Fall.
My kin were in the New Amsterdam bunch in the Hudson Valley, NY area but I don’t have any knowledge of the arms requirement from that time frame. Anyone? Bueller?
There was no constitution at that time. These were British subjects under order of the crown.
Low. Slaves couldn’t own firearms and penalties were stiff.
it was something about state militias- and the militias act- back then- basically it stated that folks had to be pepared to defend the state if it came to that if i recall right-
I’m not sure this was what i was thinking of- but it’s similar
“New York — That the People have a right to keep and bear Arms; that a well regulated Militia, including the body of the People capable of bearing Arms, is the proper, natural and safe defence of a free State; that the Militia should not be subject to Martial Law, except in time of War Rebellion or Insurrection.”
https://constitution.org/1-Activism/mil/militia_debate_1789.htm
.
The left are now arguing that militias need to be made illegal because ‘Jan 6’, claiming that militias are ‘powder kegs waiting to explode’ but militias have been around for many many decades and nothing serious has happened due to militias- infact, BLM is farm ore dangerous than most law abiding militias are
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