 James Madison wrote that "Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms." Thomas Jefferson observed "No free man shall ever be disbarred from the use of arms."

Our founding fathers understood that firearms brought us freedom from the oppression of the king who was so anxious to disarm us. They understood that firearms are involved in national security as well as the personal security of the individual citizen. They acknowledged that self-defense is the inherent right of all law-abiding citizens.