Just as the First and Fourth Amendment secure individual rights of speech and security respectively, the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers.
John AshcroftThe charges of the hysterics are revealed for what they are: castles in the air built on misrepresentation, supported by unfounded fear, held aloft by hysteria.
John AshcroftWe are a nation called to defend freedom - a tradition that is not a grant of any government or document, but is an endowment from God.
John AshcroftIf America is to be great in the future, it will be if we understand that our source is not civic and temporal, but our source is godly and eternal.
John AshcroftBy tearing down the wall between law enforcement and the intelligence community, we have been able to share information in a way that was virtually impossible before the Patriot Act.
John AshcroftThere is a concern that the Internet could be used to commit crimes and that advanced encryption could disguise such activity. However, we do not provide the government with phone jacks outside our homes for unlimited wiretaps. Why, then, should we grant government the Orwellian capability to listen at will and in real time to our communications across the Web?
John Ashcroft