"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.
They are the people's liberty teeth (and) keystone... the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable... more than
99% of them [guns] by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very
atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference [crime]. When firearms go, all goes, we need them every hour." -George Washington (Address to 1st session of Congress)
Most of the knowledge on which we rely in the pursuit of our ends is the unintended by-product of others exploring the world in different directions from those we pursue ourselves because they are impelled by different aims; it would never have become available to us if only those ends were pursued which we regarded as desirable. - F. A. Hayek, Law, Legislation, and Liberty (306)
"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose people are afraid to trust them with arms." -James Madison (Federalist Paper #46)
"The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which obliges every one, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions;"
John Locke
Redefined into the "Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness" in our founding documents.