Documentation of founders' intent

[ishi]

As some of you may have read, I intend to build a website/forum to educate and convert the left with regard to 2nd amendment rights. One of the first and main points of argument I will be making are the founders' statements of intent that the 2nd amendment is 1) an individual, not a collective right and 2) is intended to ensure the ability to overthrow a tyrannical government.

I'm trying to collate all original references to these arguments, along with a full and correct bibliography. I'd be grateful for any information or websites you guys know about.

thanks,

ishi

[ronwill]

Hope this gets you started:

http://www.rkba.org/research/founders-quotes

http://www.constitution.org/leglrkba.htm (not forefathers but very compelling)

[Dave]

http://www.foundingfathers.info/
http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html
http://www.rkba.org/
http://www.thegunzone.com/rkba/rkba-9.html
http://www.thegunzone.com/rkba/rkbadex.html
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/c...n/amendment02/
http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/2amteach/sources.htm
http://www.saf.org/
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_2nd.html
http://www.secondamendmentcenter.org/
http://www.nraila.org/images/Ashcroft.pdf
http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/GunsExe...tion012501.pdf

[Ektarr]

If you want to know what they intended, you must turn to The Federalist Papers...85 essays by The Founders identifying the "Why" of the choices they made for the Country. Absolute Gold!

Here are a coupl'a resources:

http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/federal/fed.htm (Searchable Link)
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ou...ederalist.html

That should do for now.

[ElZorro]

Googling "journals of the continental congress". It's a long and boring read, what with all the jockeying and counter-suggesting, but it'll give you the real basis for what and how things were arived at. (I know, that's not grammatical, but to paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill, "That is the sort of criticism up with which I will not put".)

At any rate, those recordings and the resultant and contributory Federalist (not to ignore the Anti-Federalist) Papers should give you ample fodder for your guns. And much more complete than the Federalist Papers alone.

ElZorro

[boris]

you guys rock!! i love history and i am gonna check these out, especially since i can't find my copy of the federalist papers.

[Dave]

This is a very easy to read version of the papers.
Nothing changed, just easier to understand and fully indexed.

Amazon.com: The Federalist Papers: In Modern Language : Indexed for Today's Political Issues: Mary E. Webster: Books