"the constitution of the United States provides that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"

   "It had long been firmly established by the common law that every individual member of the community or nation possessed by nature, and as the gift of God, three primary rights; namely, the right of personal security, right of personal liberty, and the right to acquire, hold, transfer property.

   "These three great rights may be regarded as the upon which the whole superstructure of our laws is built; for it is the very object and aim, not only of the form of government we have adopted, but of the great body of laws, both civil and criminal, to maintain and enforce them.

   "These rights are termed by the common law absolute rights, because they were supposed to be held and enjoyed independently of the government. The people, in giving up a portion of their natural liberty to establish a government, in consideration of receiving the advantages of mutual association and protection, retained these rights absolutely, considering them of so sacred a character that they should never be given up for any purposes whatever.

   "It has always been most firmly and jealously insisted by our English ancestors that none of these rights could ever, on any pretence, be alienated, taken away, or infringed in the slightest degree, except by their own consent freely given, either immediately or through the medium of their representatives, and then only in the particular mode and manner which they prescribed. Nor was it ever doubted that such was the law; but we find in the history of our race that attempts were frequently made by ambitious kings and others to whom the governmental authority was intrusted, to violate or subvert them.

   "Such attempts were, however, always resisted, even by force of arms; and it may with truth be said that every civil war and revolution which has occurred in England for many hundreds of years has been occasioned by tyrannical attempts of kings and parliaments to infringe these great natural rights. Finally, it is well known an attempt of this kind brought on the conflict which resulted in the separation of the American colonies from the parent state.

   "A keen remembrance of the arduous contests which had been maintained by our ancestors for so long a period in the preservation of these great rights, is quite perceptible in several of the provisions introduced in our national and state constitutions. For though it is clear that no department of government in this country has any power given it to infringe or violate these rights, the framers of our constitutions, and especially of the earliest of them, were not content with merely withholding powers that might be dangerous, but insisted on inserting clauses positively prohibiting such arbitrary and unlawful acts as in their experience they had found so much difficulty in opposing.

   "The right of personal security, as established by the common law, consists in a person's legal right to the uninterrupted enjoyment of life, health, and reputation. As an additional safeguard for the preservation of this right, and in remembrance of oppressions that had been experienced in England, the constitution of the United States provides that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; that their right to be secure in their persons and houses against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; and that no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

   "Life, being the gift of God, is a right inherent by nature in every individual, and it follows, as a necessary consequence, that the right to the enjoyment of life includes a right to the means necessary to support it. Thus every individual is entitled to a sufficient portion of the fruits of the earth to preserve life, and no one and no class of persons are entitled to acquire or possess all to the entire exclusion of others. Upon this principle the indigent are supposed to be entitled to a support from the more opulent portion of the community. So also, every individual is entitled to be protected in the preservation of his health, and from such practices as may prejudice it. And as, in a state of society, the value of life depends much upon the reputation or good name of the individual, he is entitled to protection from slander and detraction."--Indiana Supreme Court Judge Thomas L. Smith
[Elements of the Laws; OR, OUTLINES OF THE SYSTEM OF CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LAWS IN FORCE IN THE UNITED STATES, AND IN THE SEVERAL STATES OF THE UNION. Designed as a Text Book and for General Use, AND TO ENABLE ANY ONE TO ACQUIRE A COMPETENT KNOWLEDGE OF HIS LEGAL RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES, ALL THE MOST IMPORTANT POLITICAL AND BUSINESS RELATIONS OF THE CITIZENS OF THE COUNTRY; WITH THE PRINCIPLES UPON WHICH THEY ARE FOUNDED, AND THE MEANS OF ASSERTING AND MAINTAINING THEM IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CASES. By THOMAS L. SMITH, LATE ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF INDIANA. NEW AND REVISED EDITION. PHILADELPHIA J.B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 1882. Pg. 54-56]'