“BTW, for those who may think they were referring to people’s right to hunt, the term “ARMS” is only used in a military sense (one does not bear arms against a deer in the woods!)”
Bingo. I’ve used that fact to stammer a few anti-gun folks. They then say it referred to something else, militias, etc.
When they do that, openly question their quickness to shift the meaning. “No, you JUST SAID it was about hunting, now it about militias. 10 seconds ago you were CONVINCED it was hunting. What’s it going to mean after lunch?”
A guy left my cube red-faced over that one. Ahh, a good day that was. ;)
Now if the anti-gun nuts say it’s about the militia, explain to them what the Founders meant by the term. They certainly did not mean the States’ armies (National Guards).
Unknown to many people today, “The Virginia Declaration of Rights” of 12 June 1776, is the immediate forerunner of the Constitution’s Bill of Rights over a decade later. In fact, it was the Virginia legislature’s refusal to ratify the Constitution unless these rights were incorporated that guaranteed that we have those first 10 amendments.
This is how that document referred to the Militia:
“That a well regulated Militia, COMPOSED OF THE BODY OF THE PEOPLE, trained to Arms, is the proper, natural, and safe Defense of a free State; that standing Armies, in Time of Peace, should be avoided as dangerous to Liberty; and that , in all Cases, that the Military should be under strict Subordination to, and governed by, the Civil Power.”
(my emphasis).
In other words, Universal Service of able-bodied males over age 16! How the Leftists would freak about that!