Posted on 03/13/2006 12:38:29 PM PST by neverdem
I'll have to avoid reading Ron Miller's books.
bump
The term "well regulated militia" means just what the Founders believed and meant it to mean.
"Regulated", back in the day, meant to "make regular", just as a watch or clock maker "regulates" their timepieces to not gain or lose time. A "regulator" was/is known as a very accurate pendulum wall clock that others set their clocks or watches to.
Therefore, it meant that communities should regularly stage defensive practice drills, hold turkey shoots, etc. to insure everyone had a plan and place should armed defense be necessary.
Rehearsed, if you will.
The anti-gun nutz are America's biggest ignoramous's or traitor's both.
How clueless of them to have forgotten the tactics of a Hitler or Stalin - or is it their REAL agenda? I think so.
The militia is us:
"That brings me to the second pillar of the “collective right”, the Militia clause. The argument is that this clause clearly means that the right to arms only applies to the states as the right applies to the Militia and the Militia is a state organization. I asked “Did those who advocated strict state control win the discussion?” The actual result was a compromise in which both the states and the federal governments had a measure of power over the Militia. In addition, this argument for a “collective right” also ignores the composition of the Militia.
Remember, the founders never defined the “Militia” at the Constitutional Convention. They knew what the militia was and were not in any way confused over the concept as are some modern jurists. When discussing ratification, however, the founders wrote extensively on exactly this issue.
Rhode Island proposed an amendment which read in part
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“That the people have a right to keep and bear arms, that a well regulated militia, including the body of the people capable of bearing arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state…”
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Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia wrote
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"A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves . . . and include all men capable of bearing arms. . . To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms... The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle." (Additional Letters From The Federal Farmer, 1788)
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Tenche Coxe, of Pennsylvania wrote
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"The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many troops quite unnecessary. They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them." (An American Citizen, Oct. 21, 1787) and “Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American . . . . The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." (The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788)
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The vast majority of actual written record from the period defines the Militia as a body of the people. Congress defined the Militia in the Militia Act of 1792 as consisting of
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“each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective states resident therein, who is or shall be of age of 18 years, and under the age of 45 years” In addition, it was the responsibility of “every citizen so enrolled (in the militia) and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket…”
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It is clear that to Congress, the Militia consisted of all the people capable of bearing arms.
What did the Militia mean to the various states?
Rhode Island wrote in their state Constitution
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“That the people have a right to keep and bear arms, that a well regulated militia, including the body of people capable of bearing arms…”
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New York’s Constitution read
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“That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well regulated militia, including the body of the people capable of bearing arms….”
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Virginias Constitution read
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“That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well regulated militia composed of the body of the people trained to arms is the natural and safe defense of a free state…”
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North Carolina’s is almost identical. It seems the writers of the various state constitutions had no confusion over who constituted the Militia, the People.
If, as I think I have proven, the Militia consisted of the broad body of all the people capable of bearing arms and as this Militia was expected to provide their own arms as was clearly the case, then the “Militia” of the Second Amendment was the self same “People” listed in the Second Amendment as having a right that “shall not be infringed”. When the founders spoke of controlling the Militia, they were speaking of controlling the entire armed body of the citizenry for the purpose of uniformity and effectiveness and they viewed this right to arms as fundamental. Simply stating that a purpose, or even the primary purpose of this Militia, was to protect the states from federal encroachments, does not in any way change the very nature of the institution being discussed, the body of the people with a fundamental right to be armed."
The author is wrong. The national guard is not the civilian militia talked about in the bill of rights. The NG constitutes an organized milita, the civilian population the unorganized militia. The NG is under the command of the Federal and state govts the civilian militia is not.
I could not believe what I was hearing.
uH...the first 'C' in CCW is for concealed.
LOL! Let me guess. You live in a decent sized city.
We live in Western NC in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mtns. The neighbors are mostly transplants from the NE.
Good heavens! Then why bother with the permit?
>>'Miller thus concedes, by his own statement, that a right to protect [defend] one's home & family exists. Like all of our rights, it is a natural right that exists independent of any document or law.'<<
Yup! Tripped himself up, he did. Glad to see even the gun-grabbers are starting to catch on to the truth of the matter. If not, maybe it's just a sneaky way of reminding everyone that they have the right to protect one's home and family, regardless of what the law says.
I would agree. The law of survival is the supreme law. Ask any animal.
I took the "just-in-case" approach and like to have the option of being able to legally carry concealed whenever I may want to.
That is the true reason for the 2nd amendment ( aside from defending one's self ).
The author of the op-ed sounds like a real piece of work. It would be interesting to know the guy's age. If op-ed author was born before 1970, he's being disingenuous. If after, ignorant.
Great link!
The stupidity of liberals(and she was one)always amazes me.
Sorry, you are wrong, the first C is for Carrying. Carrying Concealed Weapons, but concealed is the operative word when you are out in public. It is ok to tell people you know that you have one as long as you don't shout it out in public and let the general public know you have a weapon on you.
To put it in perspective though, we shouldn't have to have a permit to exercise our 2nd amendment rights. If we keep fighting we may make it back to that point eventually!
I've been looking for that article. Thanks. It's a great example of the 2nd Amendment at work.
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