Thomas Jefferson

I received an email with a quote wrongly attributed to Thomas Jefferson saying; "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. " it turned out President Ford said this in 1974. While researching this I did run across a lot of good quotes by Jefferson. After reading some of Jefferson's writings, I wonder how someone could question the intent of the Right To Bear Arms in the constitution. Jefferson specifically states that the main reason the people must retain their right to bear arms is to protect themselves from Tyranny in government. He confirms his belief in God while he also cautions the public to be religiously tolerant because of historical abuses by the church.

* No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands].
o Draft Constitution for Virginia (June 1776) This quote often appears with the parenthetical omitted and with the spurious extension, "The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government".

* Whensoever hostile aggressions...require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.
o Letter to Andrew Jackson (December 3, 1806).

* Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.
o Letter to John Norvell (June 11, 1807).

* And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
o Letter to William Stevens Smith (November 13, 1787), quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy