Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?
--Patrick Henry
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is one of the most mistakenly maligned and intentionally misunderstood of our freedoms. The use of the word "militia" often causes anti-gun groups and individuals to claim the amendment applies only to the National Guard - conveniently forgetting that the National Guard didn't exist when the Constitution was written and that, at the time of the writing, "militia" was clearly defined as "all able-bodied men". The use of the words "the people", of course, are further indicators of the intent for the Second Amendment to apply to individuals (a point agreed upon by the vast majority of Constitutional scholars). Numerous further writings of the framers state in no uncertain terms, lest anyone misunderstand, that the founders fully intended for individuals to be armed, both for self-defense against crime and as a hedge against government tyranny (a note for the "it can't happen here" crowd: Adolf Hitler was freely elected).
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