James Madison’s Vice President, Signer of Declaration of Independence, Delegate to the Constitutional Convention and Governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry said, “What Sir is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty…. 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.”
(Rep. Eldridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment {I Annals of Congress at 750, 17 August 1789})
