They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither and will lose both.
– Benjamin Franklin
Obama should be encouraging law-abiding Americans to be prepared to defend their country, not taking away their ability to do so. The founding fathers recognized that a well armed citizenry comprised “the militia” which made America safe.
]]>That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.
“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.”
— George Mason, in Debates in Virginia Convention on Ratification of the Constitution, Elliot, Vol. 3, June 16, 1788