CUFOA

Canadian Unlicensed Firearms Owners Association
Association canadienne des propriétaires d’armes sans permis

Press Release
Canadian Unregistered Firearms Owners Association

On Pepper Spray, Handguns, and Hobbs

These words were written 350 years ago in England.

I believe they are still applicable now.

Eduardo

"Whensoever a man Transferreth his Right or Renounceth it; it is either in consideration of some Right reciprocally transferred to himselfe; or for some other good he hopeth for thereby. For it is a voluntary act: and of the voluntary acts of every man, the object is some Good to himselfe. And therefore there be some Rights, which no man can be understood by any word, or other signes, to have abandoned, or transferred. As first a man can not lay down the right of resisting them, that assault him by force, to take away his life; because he cannot be understood to ayme thereby, at any Good to himselfe. The same may be sayd of Wounds and Chaynes, and Imprisonment; both because there is no benefit consequent to such patience ... as also because a man cannot tell, when he seeth men proceed against him by violence, whether they intend his death or not. ... And therefore if a man by words, or other signes, seems to despoyle himselfe of the End, for which these signes were intended; he is not to be understood as if he meant it, or that it were his will; but that he was ignorant of how such words and actions were to be interpreted." pg 68

To come now to the particulars of the true Liberty of a Subject; that is to say, what are the things, which though commanded by the Soveraign, he may nevertheless, without Injustice, refuse to do; we are to consider what rights we passe away, when we make a Commonwealth; or (which is all one) what Liberty we deny ourselves, by owning all the Actions (without exception) of the Man, or Assembly we make our Soveraign. For in the act of our Submission, consisteth both our Obligations and our Liberty; which must therefore be inferred by arguments taken from thence; there being no Obligation on any man, which ariseth not from some Act of his own; for all men equally, are by Nature Free. And because such arguments, must either be drawn from the expresse words. I authorize all his Actions, or from the Intention of him who submittedth to his Power, which Intention is to be understood by the End for which he so submitteth) ; The Obligation, and Liberty of the Subject is to be derived, either from those Words (or other equivalent;) or else from the End of the Institution of Soveraignty; namely, the Peace of the Subjects within themselves, and their Defence against a common Enemy.

First therefore, seeing Soveraignty by Institution, is by Covenant of every one to every one, ... or Child to the Parent; It is manifest, that every Subject has Liberty in all those things, the right whereof cannot by Covenant be transferred. I ahve shewn before in the 14 Chapter, that Covenants, not to defend a mans own body, are void. Therefore,

If the Soveraign command a man ... not to resist those that assault him; yet hath that man the Liberty to disobey.

Again, the Consent of a Subject to a Soveraign Power, is contained in these words, I authorize, or take upon me, all his actions; in which there is not restriction at all, of his own former natural Liberty. pg 114

The Obligations of subjects to the Soveraign, is understood to last, and no longer, than the power lasteth, by which he is able to protect them. For the right men have by Nature to protect themselves, when none else can protect them, can by no Covenant be relinquished. ... the end of Obedience is Protection; which, wheresoever a man seeth it, either in his own, or in anothers sword. pg 116

Chap XIV

The Right of Nature, which Writers commonly call Jus Naturale, is the Liberty each man hath, to use his own power, as he will himselfe, for the preservation of his own Nature; that is to say, of his own Life; and consequently, of doing any thing, which in his own Judgment, and Reason hee shall conceive to be the aptest means thereto.

A Law of Nature, (Lex Naturalis) is a Precept, or general rule, found out by Reason, by which a man is forbidden to do, that which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same; and to omit, that, by which he thinketh it may be best preserved. pg 66

Leviathan circa 1650
Thomas Hobbs 1588 - 1679
Dent: London 1914