HAMILTON, Montana - March 3, 2010 - If anybody was looking to take a constitutional right, or anything else, away from the well-armed folks standing along Hamilton's main drag Wednesday, they might well have been in for a nasty fight.

Never mind the impressive arsenal at hand - there was everything from assorted pistols to hunting rifles to a bayoneted 1816 muzzle-loading musket to a PTR 91 .308 caliber assault rifle - a message was on display, brought with intent by the roughly fourscore that lined U.S. Highway 93.

The rally placards waved at passing vehicles declared this was a group ready to do battle for the right to own and carry a gun.

"Our rights are granted to us by God, not by any human being," said Duane Sipe of Hamilton, owner of the PTR 91. "No one can take them away. They're called inalienable rights - the Declaration of Independence."

The day's rally, which was organized by the Celebrating Conservatism group, was intended as a keystone event for the group's "Celebration of Right to Bear Arms Week."

An ad the group ran on the Ravalli Republic's back page offered a host of names signed in support of a "Second Amendment Declaration," which warned the government against efforts to "further tax, restrict or register firearms or otherwise impose on the right that shall not be infringed."