in their own words

Mike W. over at Another Gun Blog has a positively outstanding quote of the day, that you should hop on over and congratulate him for finding. I am going to take the liberty of reprinting it below, but only because I have something to add that requires an understanding of the quote to begin with:

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.

- James Wilson – ‘Of the Natural Rights of Individuals’ – 1790-1792

To begin with, who was James Wilson? Simply put, he was one of the Pennsylvanian signatories of the Declaration of Independence, one of the most learned members of the Constitutional Convention (both by objective measurement and by subjective opinions of his peers), one of the writers of the first draft of the Constitution, one of its strongest supporters… and occasionally its loudest critic, and finally a Supreme Court Justice on circuit. Simply put, this man is undeniably a Founding Father, and one of the more-significant influences on the eventual development of our current Constitution.
As such, his opinions and statements clearly and obviously dovetail into the “original purpose” of the Second Amendment, a concept so very elusive for those individuals who are not properly versed in the specifics of American history.
But Mr. Wilson made no reference to firearms… so how does that work? Simple. A right you are legally barred from exercising is, at best, a right abridged, which simply cannot be tolerated or allowed when it comes to self-defense. Likewise, the concept of defending one’s self relies on your ability to actually accomplish this act – a 110-pound untrained female stands no chance of being able to defend herself, though she can certainly try, against a 300-pound cage fighter. However, being the thinking animals we are, we have devised tools and technology to allow all people to have an equal playing field in ensuring their own self-preservation, and those tools and technology are an ingrained part of our cultural history at the moment, and not something that can simply be wished away.
Given that this technology does exist, is widespread, and cannot be stuffed back in its lamp, it would stand to reason that the right to self-preservation also includes a right to avail yourself, so far as you are financially capable, of the technologies available to ensure that self-preservation. Otherwise, the right protects nothing more than the ability of a man to try to engage in fisticuffs with a mob, which is certainly not “self-preservation” by an rational individual’s definition.
Being the weak and frail creatures we are, tools are an essential part of ensuring our self-preservation, whether those tools are flashlights, knives, or firearms. As such, access to those tools, so far as you are financially capable or personally willing, is likewise protected by our inherent right, as living, breathing creatures, to self-preservation, in addition to the protections afforded by the Second Amendment. Claiming otherwise exposes either gross ignorance, or blatant bigotry, on the part of the objector, and flies in the face of the recorded words and intended desires of our Founding Fathers.