"OLD HICKORY"

Back when Andy "Old Hickory" Jackson was President, in the year 1833, Joseph Story was writing a series of commentaries on the Constitution of the United States.  The following is one of those commentaries:

"The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject.  The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations off power by rulers.  It is against sound policy fort a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample on the rights of the people.  The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has been justly considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic, since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers, and will generally, even if these are sucessful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."

It may seem that a lot has changed since "Old Hickory" was in the White House, but the Bill of Rights is unchangeable......Medicineman!