Cast your mind back in time... way way back to the 18th century.

Now ask yourself if America would be free if the ruling British back then had thought,

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected peoples to carry arms have prepared their own fall. - Adolph Hitler, Edict of March 18, 1938

That's why the men of the constitution wrote things such as...

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. - Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1776, Jefferson Papers 344

A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms...To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them... - Richard Henry Lee, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights Additional Letters From the Federal Farmer 53, 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 Annuals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789)

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. - Jefferson quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in On Crimes and Punishment, 1764

The Constitution of the United States shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. - Samuel Adams, During the Massachusetts U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788

As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the miltary 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 (writing as "A Pennsylvanian") in "Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution." Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789

...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, Thoughts on Defensive War, 1775

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 Priciples of the Federal Constitution"(1787).

These wise men had to FIGHT for their FREEDOM. They new what could happen if the population was not armed. They new they couldn't not prevent tyrants from taking office. So to help prevent what those tyrants were cabable of, they urged the population to be armed and insisted that this right NOT be infringed upon.

And while there may be no need to protect yourself from a tyrannical gummit today. Tomorrow and next year is a different story.

Also, an armed populace makes any possible invader think twice because...

An armed man fighting for his home land is worth ten paid soldiers on a foreign shore.

Michael Ross