[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 185 (Wednesday, December 5, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H14228]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE SECOND AMENDMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court is considering Washington, 
DC's total handgun ban. It is illegal to buy, sell or own a handgun in 
this Nation's Capital of ours. Of course, DC has one of the highest 
homicide rates in the entire country.
  The center of this debate is a question that has never really been 
clearly answered. What exactly does the second amendment to our 
Constitution mean? Did the Framers intend to protect an individual 
right or provide for State militias?
  The second amendment states, ``A well regulated militia being 
necessary to the security of a free state, right of the people to keep 
and bear arms, shall not be infringed.''
  Our Founding Fathers risked their lives in the American revolution to 
create our Nation. They distrusted government, especially a government 
that wouldn't trust its own citizens.
  Our Founding Fathers knew the importance of an armed citizenry from 
their experiences in the American War of Independence. They trusted an 
armed citizenry and a citizen militia as the best safeguard against the 
tyranny of government.
  To truly understand the meaning and purpose of the second amendment, 
we need to understand the men that wrote the Constitution and what they 
said when it was ratified. The Founding Fathers were very concerned 
that a strong Federal Government would trample on individual freedom 
and individual rights because that's what happened to the colonists, 
and that's what governments historically do to their people, trample on 
individual rights.
  So after the ratification of the Constitution, the Framers knew that 
a declaration of rights had to be added to protect basic individual 
rights, rights that are inalienable, created by our creator and not 
created by government.
  So the Founders looked at the English common law, at the English 
declaration of rights of 1689, which specified the guaranteed right of 
the people to bear arms.
  Those who claim there is no individual in the second amendment ignore 
the most basic feature of American rights: Rights in this nation belong 
to individuals.
  The second amendment was included in the Bill of Rights to prevent 
the Federal Government from disarming the public like the British Army 
did to American citizens. The right of the free people to defend 
freedom and protect themselves was so important that it was placed 
second in the Bill of Rights.
  Thomas Jefferson knew the importance of an armed citizenry. He said, 
``No free man shall ever be debarred from the use of arms.''
  Samuel Adams wrote that ``The Constitution shall never be construed 
to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens 
from keeping their arms.''
  And of course James Madison, who helped write the Bill of Rights, 
once wrote that the Americans had ``the advantage of being armed,'' and 
that other nations governments were ``afraid to trust the people with 
such arms.''
  So, Mr. Speaker, the second amendment is a personal right for 
individuals in this country, and the DC ban is a violation of the 
United States Constitution, specifically, the second amendment to that 
Constitution.
  And that's just the way it is.

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