Some things to remember...

Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience, and are left to the common refuge which God hath provided for all men against force and violence.
-John Locke



This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.
-Abraham Lincoln



The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
-Thomas Jefferson


A well regulated Militia, being necessary to defense of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
-Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution



I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.
-George Mason


(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and . . . under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

(b) The classes of the militia are --

(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and

(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia
-Militia Act of 1956
(first enacted in 1792)