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"This declaration of rights, as I take it, is intended to secure the people against the mal-administration of the government," stated Congressman Elbridge Gerry (Mass.) as he opened discussion of the Second Amendment on August 17, 1789. "If we could suppose that, in all cases, the rights of the people would be attended to, the occasion for guards of this kind would be removed.... 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."
Like the other Founders, Gerry used the term "militia" to describe an armed, law-abiding citizenry capable of defending ...