The following is from the November / December 2000 edition of the AMERICAN RIFLEMAN, p61

It seems inane to claim that the Framers intended the amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights to recognize and preserve individual rights-- all except the second one. Such revisionist twisting of the Founding Father's intent should bring courageous scholars and freedom's defenders to their feet. Even a third grader needn't read far to understand that our Founders meant what they said.

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

JOHN ADAMS: "Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense."

THOMAS JEFFERSON  in a letter to an Englishman: " The constitutions of most of our states assert, that all power is inherent in the people, ...that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed." Elsewhere he wrote. "No free man shall be debarred the use of arms within his own land."

JAMES MADISON: "[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."
In early drafts recently discovered by historians, Madison in fact placed "the right of the people" as the first clause, evidence of his view that the right of the people to keeip and bear arms is the prerequisite of a well-regulated militia.

THOMAS PAINE: "...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-abibing] deprived of the use of them."

RICHARD HENRY LEE: "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 the people always possess arms and be taught alike ... how to use them."

SAMUEL ADAMS: "The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

THE AMERICAN RIFLEMAN IS THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA