"Owning a gun is a precious, fundamental right"

Found the following article of the Mansfield News Journal:

(Links and highlighting added)

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

If "people" above refers only to the militia, then "We The People" in the preamble of the Constitution, has to refer to the militia only.

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If you study the history of the Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment, there were many reasons our forefathers wanted the people to have firearms. Some called it the keystone amendment, the one that protected all the other freedoms. First, if all the people have firearms common to the time, they can repel any aggressor. With our military stretched thin, and the border and terrorist problems, do you want to take a chance?

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Second, they wanted the people to have the ultimate power over government. Paraphrasing the Declaration of Independence, government derives its power from the consent of the governed; and when the government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to abolish it and form a new one. Every dictator in modern history has disarmed the citizens first.

Third is the right to protect yourself and your property. Check out what happened in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. The authorities confiscated all registered guns. The criminals had never registered theirs, so the crime rate skyrocketed.

Fourth, hunting. The animal population would be totally out of control without hunting, and many people count on this food.

Some, including the U.N., are trying to take our gun rights. Listen to our forefathers before you give them up.

"No free man shall be debarred the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson.

"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." George Mason.

"Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self-defense." John Adams.

And finally, Benjamin Franklin: "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

George Schneider