Quotes & Sayings About The Second Amendment

The Second Amendment has no place in modern society. — Alan Dershowitz

I think it's very important to have a public discussion about why we're denying our soldiers the ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights. — Ted Cruz

Our love affair with guns has nothing to do with tyranny, or militias, or self-preservation. Just ask any NRA member the following: If Jesus Christ himself were to come down off the cross and grant you one wish, would you opt for a world without guns
or the one we live in now? If every gun owner truly feared for their life and liberty, the answer would be obvious. But it's not about life and liberty. It's all about the sheer hard-on of owning a gun. — Quentin R. Bufogle

How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual ... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of. — Suzanna Hupp

She is running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment. She's talking like she's Annie Oakley. — Barack Obama

I never bought into the whole "second amendment" argument as it relates to the 21st century. Originally, it was put into place for the simple reason that our forefathers were fighting or had just fought off a government that threatened them with weapons. If those in the revolution had no weapons, there would be no United States of America, but rather New England of the New World. So, I understood why they thought it was so important. — Martin Manley

The Second Amendment reveals a profound principle of American government - the principle of civilian ascendency over the military. — William O. Douglas

Most gun control arguments miss the point. If all control boils fundamentally to force, how can one resist aggression without equal force? How can a truly "free" state exist if the individual citizen is enslaved to the forceful will of individual or organized aggressors? It cannot. — Tiffany Madison

The Second Amendment is not really a right. — Rosie O'Donnell

The founders also knew that every government system risks corruption, and they wanted to make sure Americans would be able to defend themselves should the nation's leaders become tyrannical. To that end, they ratified the Second Amendment, guaranteeing the right of Americans to bear arms. An armed populace is a powerful deterrent to tyrants both domestically and internationally, and we must defend this liberty as part of our common defense. — Ben Carson

If a responsible, mentally sound American wants to own and AR-15, that's their right. Besides, when the zombies come ... okay, you don't like the zombie thing. When the Chinese invade our country, who do you want to depend on? The over-extended police force and the National Guard? Or the next door neighbor who's a former Marine and has enough guns and ammunition for your entire block? — Aaron B. Powell

The Second Amendment, like the rest of the Bill of Rights, was meant to inhibit only the federal government, not the states. The framers, as The Federalist Papers attest (see No. 28), saw the state militias as forces that might be summoned into action against the federal government itself, if it became tyrannical. — Joseph Sobran

The framers gave us the Second Amendment not so we could go deer or duck hunting but to give us a modicum of protection against congressional tyranny. — Walter E. Williams

Almost all gun control legislation is constitutionally fine. And if the court is right, then fundamentalism does not justify the view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms. — Cass Sunstein

If you hit minorities they're gonna blame conservatives, Second Amendment, guns, and the terrorists won't get their due credit. So from now on acts of terror, only hit white people, because hate crimes against them are permitted, and the media will play it up. — Rush Limbaugh

I strongly believe that the Second Amendment creates an individual right to possess and use guns for purposes of both hunting and self-defense. — Cass Sunstein

[The] National Rifle Association is always arguing that the Second Amendment determines the right to bear arms. But I think it really is the people's right to bear arms in a militia. The NRA thinks it protects their right to have Teflon-coated bullets. But that's not the original understanding. — Robert Bork

As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated. — Charlton Heston

Federal gun control of the twentieth century has made machine guns unusual and uncommon, while the absence of serious restrictions on the availability of handguns has given people the opportunity to choose them for self-defense. The scope of the Second Amendment's protections was not, in other words, defined by the original meaning of the Constitution. The protections were shaped instead by the marketplace choices of twentieth-century consumers, made within the confines of contemporary government regulation. — Adam Winkler

I am a Republican because of my military background, my pro-life beliefs, my support for the Second Amendment, and my belief that government should not grow excessively. — John Shimkus

Oh-h, I see. So are you saying that the Second Amendment is every bit as important as the first? But a lot of people say it's not an individual right, that it's not even needed anymore. The crime rate is way down you know." "The Second Amendment will always be needed, if for no other reason than to protect your right to publish free of government censorship. The Second Amendment is the one right that protects all others. It's about accountability. An armed society is all that holds the government accountable to the people who elected them. All people are inherently flawed. We are predisposed toward selfishness and vain ambition. — Skip Coryell

The Second Amendment isn't about duck hunting or target shooting. — Massad Ayoob

Politicians need to rethink their reflexive invocations of the Second Amendment and the idea that the gun lobby is too powerful to challenge. — David Ignatius

I'm a defender of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. — Joe Manchin

Chief Justice Warren Burger, a conservative appointed by Richard Nixon, described the new interpretation of the Second Amendment in an interview after his tenure as 'one of the greatest pieces of fraud-I repeat the word FRAUD-on the American public by special-interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime. — Fareed Zakaria

Respecting the Second Amendment does not mean abandoning common sense. The right to own guns in this country must remain, while we also must strengthen our laws to prevent mass shootings. — Claire McCaskill

I have a lot of guns on my ranch. I don't use them for hunting. I'm not a hunter. It's for protection. The Second Amendment was designed for tyranny. — Chuck Norris

It would be refreshing to have a politician try to defend guns without any reference to the Second Amendment, but on the merits of guns. — Jonathan Safran Foer

I think that for most of our history, there was a nuanced reading of the Second Amendment until the decision by the late Justice [Antoine] Scalia and there was no argument until then that localities and states and the federal government had a right, as we do with every amendment, to impose reasonable regulation. — Hillary Clinton

By calling attention to 'a well regulated militia,' 'the security of the nation,' and the right of each citizen 'to keep and bear arms,' our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy ... The Second Amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic civilian-military relationships in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason I believe the Second Amendment will always be important. — John F. Kennedy

One of the basic conditions for the victory of socialism is the arming of the workers Communist and the disarming of the bourgeoisie the middle class. — Vladimir Lenin

When unspeakable violence is enacted upon innocents, say, in a school or movie theatre, and the survivors and the families of the victims, in the throes of pain and anguish, want to ask, "Why did this happen?," "How did this happen?," and "What can we do to prevent this from happening again?," and one of the areas they (still we) focus their scrutiny is that of the highly efficient weapons of warfare that are casually available to us citizens of the United States, then we frightened gun owners have the chance to be human and say, "Okay, this is a horrible tragedy. Let's open up a conversation here." Instead, I'm surmising, out of fear, we throw up our defenses and behave in a very confrontational way toward such a conversation , citing the Second Amendment as the ultimate protection of our rights, no matter how ridiculously murderous the firearm, which, unfortunately, makes us look like dicks. — Nick Offerman

First, the firearms industry has been around and has been respected for generations. They provide a valuable service and a highly desirable product to millions of sportsmen and supporters of those second amendment rights. — Cliff Stearns

The Second Amendment only protects the people who want all the guns they can have. The rest of us, we've got no Second Amendment. What are we supposed to do? — Louise Slaughter

The Second Amendment! It says you have the right to bear arms, or the right to arm bears, whatever the hell you want to do! — Robin Williams

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. — James Madison

I feel that the Second Amendment is the right to keep and bear arms for our citizenry. This not for someone who's in the military. This is not for law enforcement. This is for us. And, in fact, when you read that Constitution and the Founding Fathers, they intended this to stop tyranny. — Sharron Angle

1. So, disturbed kids are taking guns to school and killing teachers and classmates. We better make sure kids can't get guns.
2. So, disturbed kids are taking guns to school and killing teachers and classmates. We better find out what's making these kids want to kill, fix that, and then they won't want to use guns to kill teachers and classmates.
See what I did there? Which statement makes more sense? Don't bring up politics. Don't refer to statistical data. Don't nervously look at your cell phone. Just read the two statements and be honest with yourself. We can do better. We're smarter than this. WAKE UP. — Aaron B. Powell

A Cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible studies; who has a high level of financial giving to a Christian cause; who home schools his children; who has accumulated survival foods and has a strong belief in the 2nd Amendment, and who distrusts Big Government. — Janet Reno

I support gun safety measures, and I'll tell you, I grew up in a family of gun owners and hunters, and I went hunting with my dad as a kid, and you know, I have deep respect for the Second Amendment and the culture of our country. — Eric Swalwell

If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them ... 'Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in,' I would have done it. — Dianne Feinstein

You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one. — Rush Limbaugh

The Second Amendment comes from the right to protect themselves from slave revolts, and from uprisings by Native Americans. A revolt from people who were stolen from their land or revolt from people whose land was stolen from, that's what the genesis of the Second Amendment is. — Danny Glover

Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. — John F. Kennedy

Indeed, that the Second Amendment poses no barrier to strong gun laws is perhaps the most well-settled proposition in American constitutional law. — Erwin Griswold

The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic ... — Joseph Story

[T]he enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table ... Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our Nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct. — Antonin Scalia

The Second Amendment's language and historical and philosophical background demonstrated that it was designed to guarantee individuals the possession of certain kinds of arms for three purposes: (1) crime prevention or what we would today describe as self-defense; (2) national defense; and (3) preservation of individual liberty ... — Don Kates

Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers. But I cannot say who will be the militia of the future day. If that paper on the table [the Constitution] gets no alteration, the militia of the future day may not consist of all classes, high and low, and rich and poor ... — George Mason

Folks in the media ask at the behest of Democrats, "isn't it insensitive for us to do a Second Amendment rally following this terror attack?" Let me tell you something. I really don't view our job as being sensitive to Islamic terrorists. — Dalia Mogahed

For the Second Amendment to do its job, the other side must become much better informed. I watched an action-adventure program last night that asserted that the famous AK-47 the original peoples' rifle (and Authority's greatest mistake) is rare in this country, and that the only ones here were originally smuggled in from the Middle East, or possibly from South America. The idiots who wrote this mess seemed unaware that after legal imports mostly from China were illegally cut off by executive order, they began to be manufactured here. — L. Neil Smith

It is a very odd sort of Patriot that would destroy the First Amendment to protect the Second. — Jerry Holkins

We've seen Second Amendment enthusiasts take action against abortion doctors. There's an attempt to paint us as villains in the same way. — Jane Mayer

I intend to dedicate my remaining time as president of the NRA to ensure that the Second Amendment is safe from Al Gore and all those who threaten it. — Charlton Heston

Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a public safety hazard, don't see the danger in the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like. — Alan M. Dershowitz

We've got some people who think Shariah law oughta be the law of the land, forget the Constitution. But the guns are there, the Second Amendment is there, to make sure all of the rest of the amendments are followed. — Louie Gohmert

There is a sort of Neo-Confederate thread that runs through these sort of pro-gun movements and the NRA movement. — Joy-Ann Reid

Americans have the right under the Second Amendment to own firearms, and that is not going to change. — Wendy Davis

The very purpose of the Second Amendment is to stop the government from disallowing people the means to defend themselves against tyranny. Any proposal to abuse executive power and infringe upon gun rights must be repelled with the stiffest legislative force possible. — Steve Stockman

My view is that we have the Second Amendment rights to bear arms, and in this country my view is that we should not add new legistlation. I do not believe in new laws restricting gun ownership and gun use. — Mitt Romney

Anyone who claims that weapons like semi-automatics are so modern and unique that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to them would also have to believe that the First Amendment protects only writing done with quill pens on parchment paper, since those were the norm back then. How could we expect the Founders to have ever imagined the world we live in today? — Glenn Beck

The people have a right to keep and bear arms. — Patrick Henry

I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people. — George Mason

Little more can reasonably be aimed at with respect to the people at large than to have them properly armed. — Alexander Hamilton

A well-regulated militia," Bode added, "like they talk about in the Second Amendment." "Oh," said Shiner. He hadn't read the first one yet. — Carl Hiaasen

The National Guard fulfills the militia mentioned in the Second amendment. Citizens no longer need to protect the states or themselves. — Dianne Feinstein

The contention that a standing army and navy is the best security of peace is about as logical as the claim that the most peaceful citizen is he who goes about heavily armed. The experience of every-day life fully proves that the armed individual is invariably anxious to try his strength. The same is historically true of governments. Really peaceful countries do not waste life and energy in war preparations, with the result that peace is maintained. — Emma Goldman

Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. — George Washington

GUNS ARE NOT THE ISSUE. WE ARE. — Aaron B. Powell

I do not accept that we cannot find a common sense way to preserve our traditions, including our basic second amendment freedoms and the rights of law abiding gun owners, while at the same time reducing the gun violence that unleashes so much mayhem on a regular basis. — Barack Obama

We need to get some rationality on the Second Amendment. This is crazy what we allow ourselves. — George Takei

The First Amendment is crucial. Of course it is. So are all the others. And the Second Amendment is the one that guarantees that people can bear arms to protect themselves. — Charlton Heston

We have to fulfill what the real meaning of the Second Amendment is: reasonable access to guns for self-protection and for hunting. And there's no room in America for these semiautomatic, automatic and other kinds of weapons that are simply designed to cause mass havoc. — Alan Dershowitz

Loving the Second Amendment while opposing the NRA is every bit as natural as loving Jesus while opposing Westboro Baptist Church. — John Fugelsang

And it never, ever was interpreted that the Second Amendment meant individual's right to bear arms — Rosie O'Donnell

Let's remember, the Second Amendment has been around for over 200 years. — Rick Scott

The first phrase of the First Amendment spoke to the freedom uppermost in Jefferson's mind when it provided that, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Here a double guarantee could be found: first, that government would do nothing to give official endorsement to a religion or to set one faith above another; second, that government would do nothing to inhibit the freedom of religion. — Edwin Gaustad

Recent school shootings have lured ill-informed Americans into a war on our Second Amendment guarantees, led by the nation's tyrants and their useful idiots ... The Second Amendment was given to us as protection against tyranny by the federal government and the Congress of the United States. — Walter E. Williams

When they took the Fourth Amendment, I was silent because I don't deal drugs. When they took the Sixth Amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent. When they took the Second Amendment, I said nothing because I don't own a gun. Now they've come for the First Amendment, and I can't say anything at all. — Tim Freeman

The health of the second amendment is the primary indicator of the overall health of the nation. — John Longenecker

An efficient militia is authorized and contemplated by the Constitution and required by the spirit and safety of free government. — James Madison

I believe we can have common sense gun safety measures consistent with the Second Amendment, and, in fact, what I have proposed is supported by 90 percent of the American people and more than 75 percent of responsible gun owners. — Hillary Clinton

Let us remind ourselves again that the Second Amendment of the US Constitution should be referred to as the Statute of Liberty. — Jeff Cooper

The Second Amendment is a constitutional right. I didn't make it up, the Republican Party didn't make it up. It's in the Constitution. I think it's just as important as any of the other rights in our constitution. — Marco Rubio

The urban barbarism that has turned our streets into battlegrounds and our classrooms into killing fields will not be stopped by an assault on the Second Amendment right of American gunowners to keep and bear arms. — Pat Buchanan

The people will not understand the importance of the Second Amendment until it is too late. — Thomas Jefferson

Thank God for the second amendment. — Jesse Petersen

Without either the first or second amendment, we would have no liberty; the first allows us to find out what's happening, the second allows us to do something about it! The second will be taken away first, followed by the first and then the rest of our freedoms. — Andrew Ford

The fundamental force behind the Second Amendment is to empower the people and give them the greatest measure of authority over the tyranny of runaway government. — Bob Schaffer

Regulated" rights are not rights. They are niceties and platitudes intended to keep the populace thinking their individual autonomy is respected by their government. — A.E. Samaan

The people who talk most about the need to regulate guns are also usually the same people who know the least about them. Ask these gun prohibitionists about the Second Amendment and they'll usually mention hunting or sport shooting. — Glenn Beck

The Second Amendment to our Constitution is clear. The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed upon. Period. — Donald Trump

Because the Second Amendment is an incomprehensible mess, because too many lobbyists have argued that it is an absolute protection of actions and items never considered at the time of our nation's founding, and because there is a clear state interest in protecting the lives of its citizens, the words must be removed from the Constitution. — Kurt Eichenwald

It's part of the Constitution. People have the right to bear arms. Then the restrictions of it have to be reasonable and sensible. You can't just remove that right. You've got to regulate, consistent with the Second Amendment. — Rudy Giuliani

Whatever right the Second Amendment protects is not as important as it was 200 years ago ... The government should deconstitutionalize the subject by repealing the embarrasing Amendment. — George Will

The Second Amendment is timeless for our Founders grasped that self-defense is three-fold: every free individual must protect themselves against the evil will of the man, the mob and the state. — Tiffany Madison

Liberty and order will never be perfectly safe until a trespass on the Constitution provisions for either, shall be felt with the same keenness that resents and invasion of the dearest rights ... — James Madison

The Second Amendment is an integral part of the Bill of Rights. — Ted Cruz

The Second Amendment says we have the right to bear arms, not to bear artillery. — Robin Williams

The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many troops quite unecessary. They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them — Tench Coxe