"We therefore conclude that the right to keep and bear
arms is �deeply rooted in this Nation�s history and tradition.�
Colonial revolutionaries, the Founders, and a host of commentators
and lawmakers living during the first one hundred years of the Republic
all insisted on the fundamental nature of the right. It has long been
regarded as the �true palladium of liberty.� Colonists relied on it to
assert and to win their independence, and the victorious Union sought
to prevent a recalcitrant South from abridging it less than a century
later. The crucial role this deeply rooted right has played in our
birth and history compels us to recognize that it is indeed
fundamental, that it is necessary to the Anglo-American conception
of ordered liberty that we have inherited. We are therefore persuaded
that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates
the Second Amendment and applies it against the states and local governments."
