"... well regulated ..." as in controlled by rules and laws... "... uniting the characters of the citizen and soldier ..." as in serving in the organized organization... nothing here says that cowboys should wander around with six shooters on their hips (or hidden in their boots) shooting without cause and expecting to get away with it... so, while I agree with the quote, I do not agree with the modern misinterpretation, and thus give it the thumbs down.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" Is that all the wacko right thinks about? Oh, no, that's right, there is also "Control the woman's body as they are just breeding animals." Sick...

given this web site's other shameful quoting out of context today, I have to wonder what the true context of this quote is... please give the full quote IN CONTEXT or don't waste our time like this...

... they were talking about hunting rifles, not the war ships and canons of their time (or the rocket launchers and armor piercing ammo of ours).

This quote is grossly taken out of context, to such an extent as to be down right dishonest. I am personally shocked by the implications for this entire collection of quotes and how compromised they become by association to this out of context quote!

How typical, to look at gun ownership as more important than how people are treated as human beings... sad... and so explains the high death rates in the US from gun violence... those guns are far more important than the people that get killed by them. (And no, I am not talking about animal hunting weapons or target shooting weapons, I'm talking about tools ment to kill people.)

A crazed mob mentaility... time to set aside your toys and grow up.

What we learn from the above comments is that we should persue violent solutions to problems rather than peacable ones, that quotes don't need to be valid to be venerated and that those with guns feel that they can rule from a minority position... says quite a bit about the worship of the concept of might making right...

Waco & Ruby Ridge were not the homes of patriots, but rather of radical fools. Of much greater concern is the blood of the patriots of our troops which is being neadlessly spilled on a daily basis these past 5 years, all due to the lies of King George W. Yet armed rebellion is not the answer, the answer is for the congress to respect the measure of the people that this monarch is on the wrong path and must either turn or be turned out.

Joe's got at least half the issue, the other half being that the prosecution has many powers to tilt the scales of justice, be it the dishonest law officer who lies or plants evidence, or just as simple as highly skewed jury selection or a biased judge... its a tenuous balance at best.

... but a lawyer with a briefcase will not always be a crook, and does not take your life. Likewise, moral, ethical, sane men with guns are not to be feared.

Well put EGL.

There is no positive corelation between "moral" and "fanatics", though there may well be a very strong negitive corelation. King George W's reign is a perfect example. Corrupt and immoral to the core, yet strongly (perhaps even definitionally) fanatic. Yet, if you eliminate the first sentance from this quote, it rings very true.

And thus we have the reason King George W and his jesters & fools lie to us...

It is (past) time for King George W to go...

Hogwash... "foreign influence" is no more than other human beings seeking to interact with us in civil manners. "No man is an island."

LOL, how typical, deny that anyone with an opinion different from your own to be a non-American... small minds... yup, Jefferson was at least partially right on this one... the fat slob business owner living on the work of his slaves... same as it ever was. Communist, hardly, unlike some, I just happen to truly care about other people who are less fortunate than myself... you should try it sometime.

Its not the so called "tax & spend liberals" that are the problem... it is the radical religious right who sold us out to King George W, who in turn sold us all out to corporate America.

It is not the politicians, it is us, when we let people like King George W give away money in the trilions to corporate interests and the military industrial complex, then there is no choice. Stop KIng George W and the problem goes away. Clinton had us well on the way to a repaired economy until the radical religious right sold us all out.

Logan and so many do not understand that the problem is not the fellow making $3 more an hour, or even $300 more an hour... it is the ones making $5000 more an hour! (Yes, do the math.) When people like the CA execs (who made $300,000 an hour!) are allowed to lie & cheat to achieve that, then it IS taking money out of everyone else's pocket.

As fine a reasoning as one could find for why King George W & his jesters must go... hanging is too good for these upsurper devils who demand that all must simply (and simple mindedly) "trust them"... that in and of itself is grounds for distrust!

A clever play on words, which does not mean that they speak truth... or have anything at all to do with the constitution or welfare.

BF spoke in a time when those of great wealth lived in homes that are quite modest by today's standards, in a time when great projects were minor undertakings by today's standards, in a time when the wealthy actually helped the poor unlike today. Times and needs change. That which does not change with the times will die with the times.

Right on... clean air & water, safe food, shelter, basic health care, good educational systems... our true needs are relatively simple... no one NEEDS a second (third, fourth) "home" (house really) when there are others that have none. Jesus taught us that caring for the needy is godly, too bad so many have forgotten this...

What tripe... success in life is so much more than just self-centered thumbing your nose at others...