The Constitution was written to keep the power in the hands of the people. With the Second Amendment, the Founding Fathers' intent was to ensure that every person could take up arms and join others to fight off tyranny, invasions or unjustified insurrections.

Its meaning was that the government couldn't infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Here are a few quotes, not from 1987 or 1995 but from those responsible with creating and ratifying the Constitution:

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." -- Richard Henry Lee, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

"(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." -- James Madison (Federalist Papers No. 46.)

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials." -- George Mason (Virginia convention to ratify the Constitution, 1788.)

For nearly a century liberals/ progressives have attempted to redefine the Constitution and have succeeded in many instances. On this right, it won't happen, literally, without a fight. Again, what the founders intended.

Russell C. Fette

Collinsville