<In article <C5Bu9M.2K7@ulowell.ulowell.edu>
<
<> [ ... excellent exchange deleted ... ]
<> It seems to me the whole reason for the Second Amendment, to give
<> the people protection from the US government by guaranteeing that the
<> people can over through the government if necessary, is a little bit
<> of an anachronism is this day and age.  Maybe its time to re-think
<> how this should be done and amend the constitution appropriately.
<
<    Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861: "This
<    country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit
<    it.  Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government,
<    they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or
<    their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it."
<
<    Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate
<    over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, 17 August
<    1789: "What, Sir, is the use of a militia?  It is to prevent the
<    establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. ...
<    Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of
<    the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order
<    to raise an army upon their ruins."
<
<So now we know which category Mr. Rutledge is in; He means to destroy
<our Liberties and Rights.

What I find so hard to understand is how come some people, apparantly
NOT connected with government or otherwise privileged, will
go to great lengths, redefinitions, re-interpretations, in a full-bore
attempt to THROW AWAY THE PROTECTION OF THEIR OWN RIGHTS under the
Constitution!!!

Almost makes me think of lemmings running into the sea during a lemming
year...

I really wonder that Jefferson and Madison would say to these folks?

<-------------------------------------------------------------
<"...when all government... in little as in great things, shall be
<drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render
<powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will
<become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we
<separated."   Thomas Jefferson, 1821

Excellent quote.
