Proclaiming Liberty

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Historical Quote Of The Week

March 26, 2012 by

I have been remiss in posting these historical quotes of the week and hope this quote will get things back on track. It comes from James Wilson who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence as well as one of the first Justices of the Supreme Court appointed by President George Washington.

“The defence of one’s self, justly called the primary law of nature, is not, nor can it be abrogated by any regulation of municipal law. This principle of defence is not confined merely to the person; it extends to the liberty and the property of a man: it is not confined merely to his own person; it extends to the persons of all those, to whom he bears a peculiar relation – of his wife, of his parent, of his child, of his master, of his servant: nay, it extends to the person of every one, who is in danger; perhaps, to the liberty of every one, whose liberty is unjustly and forcibly attacked. It becomes humanity as well as justice.”

Wilson, James. “Lectures on Law: Of the Natural Rights of Individuals.” The Works of the Honourable James Wilson. Ed. Bird Wilson. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: Lorenzo Press, 1804. 496. Print.

This quote is found on page 65 of Proclaiming Liberty which is available from Amazon.com for $12.95. The Kindle edition is now available for $3.95.

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Proclaiming Liberty – A Review

January 16, 2012 by 1 Comment

Philip Mulivor recently sent me a copy of his book Proclaiming Liberty: What patriots and heroes really said about the right to keep and bear arms for review. It is a book of quotes on the Second Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms by everyone from the Founding Fathers to modern-day bloggers such as Dave Hardy and Marko Kloos. While the quotations are primarily from the pro-rights side, Mulivor does include some quotes from the opposition.

Why a book of quotations?

Mulivor offers three reasons. First, the Internet is rife with either inaccurate or phony gun rights quotations. Because of this, it is important for our side of the debate to have accurate quotes that are properly attributed and sourced. Mulivor notes that his biggest job wasn’t assembling a set of quotes but rather verifying their word-for-word accuracy and vetting their original sources. All of the quotes are fully cited.

Second, the author wants to provide the reader a gateway to “to classic works that promise a genuine understanding of the Second Amendment.” He provides an extensive bibliography at the end of the book.

Finally, and in my opinion the most important, the author  wants to better equip pro-rights people when we engage in debate with the gun prohibitionists.

Quotations are the haiku of political discourse, carrying a disproportionate amount of power for their size. That alone qualifies them as important, if not critical, elements of our gun rights conversation. Their efficacy is especially apparent today, when sound bites designed for arrested attention spans play a key role in shaping public opinion. One can indeed experience the sensation of pulling the pin on a grenade when preparing to quote a Founding Father. 

Proclaiming Liberty is a useful little book and I recommend it highly. You can find it on Amazon.com or through the author’s website www.gunquotebook.com. It retails for $12.95 and is eligible for free Super Saver shipping on Amazon.

In my emails with the author, he reports that Kindle and Nook versions will be available very soon. I think having these quotations available on your Kindle or Nook equipped smart phone would be very useful when discussing gun rights with those occupying the middle ground in the gun rights debate. By this, I mean those who might be coming out of Gun Culture v.1.0 who are not strongly pro-gun rights but are not gun prohibitionists either.

To comply with the nanny-staters at the FTC, the author sent me a copy of this book for review purposes.