“Collective Right” Ends Today
We are a political action committee dedicated to repealing the ban on firearm possession by cannabis patients, but it is our related purpose to debunk the lie that fundamentally enables it. A government that genuinely believes the general public has a constitutional right does not seize on any slight excuse to take it from them.
What we have done is scour online resources for relevant statements starting from 1789, when the Second Amendment was drafted, through the late 1960s, when gun control solidified as a partisan issue. From presidents and Supreme Court justices to textbook authors and newspaper editors, over 300 quotes provide a direct view into the past. To ensure this information reaches the widest possible audience, it’s essential to raise a sum too enormous for the media to ignore.
Dishonest academics only ever address the relatively small number quotes from before the Second Amendment existed, which are easy to dismiss as "out of context" or "cherry-picked," but every one of the numerous statements here links to its full source. As there is no way to prove the non-existence of material that supports "collective right," its proponents are asked to publicly submit any that appears prior to the first known example in 1874. Some recommended guidance follows, but you can skip right to the quotes.
A few bits of guidance before diving in:
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A significant number of quotes are found at genealogybank.com, which requires a subscription to access but offers a free trial. These links sometimes go to the full article instead of right to the quote, and if no highlighting is visible just click “Find” next to the search box at the top.
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Extensive edits have been made for the sake of conciseness and readability, but the meaning is never altered. Portions of text linked by an ellipsis are generally found within the same paragraph, but may be a full page or more from each other. Minor changes were also made to archaic or incorrect spelling and grammar.
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Many of the full quotes convey that the Second Amendment didn't restrain state law, as this was the prevailing view until 2010 when the Supreme Court ruled that it does. These portions are generally omitted as they are irrelevant to the point at hand.
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Some authors erroneously use “privilege” and “right” interchangeably or refer to a right as “granted” rather than “protected,” but never in a context where they are making a distinction between these pairs of terms.
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“Collective right” material starts appearing often in the early 1900s, but the quotes extend through 1968 to show how many people rejected or were unaware of it even after its invention. Only with the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which failed to impact skyrocketing homicide rates and was quickly followed by widespread calls to ban handguns, did “collective right” explode into mainstream acceptance.
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Some quotes refer to the whole Bill of Rights, rather than the Second Amendment specifically, as "protecting every American" etc. If “collective right” had existed, this would be followed by words such as “except of course for the Second Amendment.” That never happens until the 1900s.
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Regarding the analyses of political ideology found at voteview.com, hovering over the colored bar of the chart reveals the information used. Different sessions of Congress can be selected from the dropdown menu.
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The text of each quote is one hyperlink to its source, but the additional information below it often contains multiple non-underlined links. Most relevant excerpts pull up directly, but you may need to search within the page or use the direction at the end of the quote.
