Staff Reports
Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist No. 26 masterfully exposes the Founders’ dread of standing armies as instruments of tyranny, a warning that bolsters the Second Amendment’s guarantee of an armed populace as the ultimate safeguard against overreach. Hamilton argued that military funding must renew every two years through Congress, tethering any standing force to the people’s consent via elected representatives and preventing presidents or generals from unleashing permanent firepower on citizens. This check mirrors the militia clause of the Second Amendment, ensuring armed freemen—not faceless bureaucrats—stand ready to repel domestic despotism just as they did against British redcoats.
The European horrors of kings deploying mercenaries to crush liberties haunted the Framers, who rejected such perils by design. Hamilton’s logic demolishes modern gun-grabbers’ hysteria: disarming law-abiding patriots doesn’t enhance safety but invites the very oppression he feared, leaving only elites and criminals armed. Today’s assaults on firearms—from red flag laws to ATF edicts—echo that normalized creep toward “permanent power,” where crisis regulations morph into eternal shackles, much like pandemic overreaches that never sunset.
An armed citizenry deters tyranny far better than congressional purse strings alone, as the Founders trusted everyday Americans with muskets to balance any federal excess. History validates this: Switzerland’s neutral bliss stems from universal gun rights, while Australia’s confiscations bred complacency amid rising crime. Progressives peddling “common-sense” controls ignore that the right precedes the militia, protecting self-defense and state sovereignty against Washington’s whims.
Vigilance demands rejecting incremental erosions that Hamilton foresaw, from Biden-era ghost gun bans to state ammo taxes that price out the working man. President Trump’s judicial warriors, armed with Bruen’s history test, shred such nonsense, reaffirming that no “historical tradition” supports neutering citizens while cartels feast.
Federalist 26 isn’t abstract theory—it’s a battle cry for patriots to wield ballots and bullets against complacency. Yielding arms surrenders liberty; upholding the Second Amendment fortifies the republic. Stay armed, stay engaged, stay sovereign.
