Few rights are more essential to the preservation of liberty than the right to keep and bear arms. The Founding Fathers saw it as an inalienable, natural right — not a privilege granted by government. And yet, that right has been whittled away by a relentless series of unconstitutional laws, regulations, and judicial betrayals. If we are to remain a free people, we must restore the full breadth of our natural right to self-defense and resistance against oppression.

The right to bear arms is not conferred by the Second Amendment; rather, the amendment acknowledges and protects a pre-existing right granted by God and inherent to all free men. It is the right of every individual to defend his life, liberty, and property. The Founders understood this truth well, having studied the works of Algernon Sidney, John Locke, and Montesquieu, all of whom recognized the inseparable connection between arms and liberty.

Indeed, James Madison, in The Federalist, No. 46, described an armed citizenry as the most effective check on a despotic government. He warned that if a government should become oppressive, the people would have no choice but to resist. Thomas Jefferson echoed this sentiment, famously writing that the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. This was no endorsement of violence for its own sake, but an acknowledgment that without arms, the people would be powerless against those who would subjugate them.

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