Blessings to you, the readers of this page, in Jesus Christ our Lord. May He guide you and protect you always.

    "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security
     of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
     shall not be infringed." - U.S. Constitution, Second Amendment 

"Yes, but aren't they suffering under the yoke of Saddam's oppression, yearning to be free, waiting eagerly for us to liberate them?" No. That idea is a fairy tale, born of ignorance and wishful thinking, if not willful deception. No matter how bad Saddam may be, they love him far more than they love George Bush. If you don't think so, just wait and see.

According to media reports, Iraq is one of the most heavily armed 
countries in the world. It is believed that there are enough guns in Iraq 
for at last every person in Iraq to possess one, a level similar to gun 
ownership in clans in Yemen and Somalia, as well as in the United States. 
With a population of approximately 24 million, that means there could be 
millions of small arms in the hands of civilians. The gun culture is 
pervasive in Iraq. There is even an Iraqi saying, "Give everything to your 
friend, except your car, your wife, and your gun."
       Source: http://www.cdi.org/iraq/small-arms-pr.cfm

"Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular point in our circumference 
where an enemy may choose to invade us, the only force which can be ready 
at every point and competent to oppose them, is the body of neighboring 
citizens as formed into a militia. On these, collected from the parts most 
convenient, in numbers proportioned to the invading foe, it is best to 
rely, not only to meet the first attack, but if it threatens to be 
permanent, to maintain the defence until regulars may be engaged to 
relieve them."
--Thomas Jefferson: 1st Annual Message, 1801. ME 3:334 


A Well-Organized and Armed Militia
"For a people who are free and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and 
armed militia is their best security. It is, therefore, incumbent on us at 
every meeting [of Congress] to revise the condition of the militia and to 
ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point 
of our territories exposed to invasion... Congress alone have power to 
produce a uniform state of preparation in this great organ of defense. The 
interests which they so deeply feel in their own and their country's 
security will present this as among the most important objects of their 
deliberation."
--Thomas Jefferson: 8th Annual Message, 1808. ME 3:482 
"None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours 
armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important." --Thomas 
Jefferson, 1803. 
"It is more a subject of joy [than of regret] that we have so few of the 
desperate characters which compose modern regular armies. But it proves 
more forcibly the necessity of obliging every citizen to be a soldier; 
this was the case with the Greeks and Romans and must be that of every 
free State. Where there is no oppression there can be no pauper 
hirelings." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1813. 
"A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first 
moments of war till regulars may relieve them, I deem [one of] the 
essential principles of our Government, and consequently [one of] those 
which ought to shape its administration." 
--Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801. 
"[The] governor [is] constitutionally the commander of the militia of the 
State, that is to say, of every man in it able to bear arms." --Thomas 
Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1811. 

Every Citizen a Member of the Militia
"We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make 
military instruction a regular part of collegiate education. We can never 
be safe till this is done." 
--Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1813. 
"I think the truth must now be obvious that our people are too happy at 
home to enter into regular service, and that we cannot be defended but by 
making every citizen a soldier, as the Greeks and Romans who had no 
standing armies; and that in doing this all must be marshaled, classed by 
their ages, and every service ascribed to its competent class."
--Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1814. 

On Civil Rights
The Right to Bear Arms 
In a nation governed by the people themselves, the possession of arms to 
defend their nation against usurpers within and without was deemed 
absolutely necessary. This right was protected by the 2nd Amendment. 
"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."
--Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824. 
"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for 
them."
--Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1796. ME 9:341 
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I 
advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the Body, it gives 
boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind . . . Let your gun 
therefore be the constant companion of your walks." 
--Thomas Jefferson, Letter to his nephew Peter Carr, August 19, 1785. 
"No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms (within his own lands or 
tenements)."
--Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution with (his note added), 
1776. Papers, 1:353 
"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 in On Crimes and Punishment 
(1764). 




 Source: http://hematite.com/dragon/jefferson2nd.html

Rev. Bill McGinnis, Editor
http://TheAmericanCitizen.US

https://loveallpeople.org

Blessings to you. May God help us all.

       Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - LoveAllPeople.org

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