Ted Poe: “the Supreme Court is considering Washington, DC's total handgun ban. It is illegal to buy, sell or own a handgun in this…”

“the Supreme Court is considering Washington, DC's total handgun ban. It is illegal to buy, sell or own a handgun in this Nation's Capital of ours. Of course, DC has one of the highest homicide rates in the entire country. The center of this debate is a question that has never really been clearly answered. What exactly does the second amendment to our Constitution mean? Did the Framers intend to protect an individual right or provide for State militias? The second amendment states, ``A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.'' Our Founding Fathers risked their lives in the American revolution to create our Nation. They distrusted government, especially a government that wouldn't trust its own citizens. Our Founding Fathers knew the importance of an armed citizenry from their experiences in the American War of Independence. They trusted an armed citizenry and a citizen militia as the best safeguard against the tyranny of government. To truly understand the meaning and purpose of the second amendment, we need to understand the men that wrote the Constitution and what they said when it was ratified. The Founding Fathers were very concerned that a strong Federal Government would trample on individual freedom and individual rights because that's what happened to the colonists, and that's what governments historically do to their people, trample on individual rights.”