The Constitution, U.S. Government and Thomas Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms.
The strongest reason for the people
to retain their right to keep and bear arms
is as a last resort to protect themselves
against tyranny in government."
-- Thomas Jefferson

...And what country can preserve

its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time

to time,that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? 

Let them take arms.The remedy is to set them right as to the 

facts, pardon and pacify them.What signify a few lives lost 

in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from 

time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure."

-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith, quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy

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