Saturday, August 14, 2004 The right [to bear arms] is general. It may be supposed from the phraseology of this provision that the right to keep and bear arms was only guaranteed to the militia; but this would be an interpretation not warranted by the intent. The militia, as has been explained elsewhere, consists of those persons who, under the laws, are liable to the performance of military duty, and are officered and enrolled for service when called upon.... [I]f the right were limited to those enrolled, the purpose of the guarantee might be defeated altogether by the action or the neglect to act of the government it was meant to hold in check. The meaning of the provision undoubtedly is, that the people, from whom the militia must be taken, shall have the right to keep and bear arms, and they need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose. But this enables the government to have a well regulated militia; for to bear arms implies something more than mere keeping; it implies the learning to handle and use them in a way that makes those who keep them ready for their efficient use; in other words, it implies the right to meet for voluntary discipline in arms, observing in so doing the laws of public order. -- Thomas M. Cooley, General Principles of Constitutional Law, Third Edition [1898]

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FREEDOM BIOGRAPHY: THOMAS MCINTYRE COOLEY Thomas McIntyre Cooley 1824-1898 Thomas M. Cooley Law School Thomas McIntyre Cooley Short Biography Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society Thomas McIntyre Cooley: Michigan's Most Influential Lawyer by William J. Fleener, Jr. Michigan Bar Association The General Principles of Constitutional Law in The United States of America by Thomas M. Cooley McMaster University PREVIOUS BIOGRAPHIES Juan Bautista Alberdi Benjamin M. Anderson Frederic Bastiat William Blackstone Peter Thomas Bauer Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk John Bright James M. Buchanan Frank Chodorov Richard Cobden Ralph Waldo Emerson Adam Ferguson John T. Flynn Milton Friedman Garet Garrett Henry George F.A. Harper Friedrich A. Hayek Henry Hazlitt Patrick Henry Auberon Herbert David Hume W.H. Hutt John Jay Thomas Jefferson William Stanley Jevons Israel M. Kirzner Ludwig Lachmann Rose Wilder Lane John Locke Bernard de Mandeville Clarence Manion John Marshall George Mason H.L. Mencken Carl Menger John Stuart Mill Ludwig von Mises Albert J. Nock Edmund A. Opitz Thomas Paine Isabel Paterson Ron Paul Ayn Rand Leonard E. Read David Ricardo Wilhelm Röpke Murray N. Rothbard Julian Simon Adam Smith Lysander Spooner William Graham Sumner Henry David Thoreau Marie-Ésprit Léon Walras George Washington Max Weber E.G. West Friedrich von Wieser

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