[Constantine XI Palaeologus]

[Copperud:] "(5) The phrase means 'subject to regulations of a superior authority;' this accords with the desire of the writers for civilian control over the military."


Agree with most of it, but not this. Etymolgically speaking, "well-regulated" in the 18th century vernacular meant well-prepared by my understanding.
http://www.guncite.com/gc2ndmea.html
But,hey, the guy's a journalism teacher, not a historian. He was probably looking at it in terms of 20th century english.

[Constantine XI Palaeologus]

Whoops, I meant to post this in response to the article, not the comments made by groanup. Sorry, Groanup

[Eaker]

I started to post the same thing and fortunately read down and saw that you did a better job of it than I could.

Thanks for the post and thanks to thackman for the ping.

TW, thought you might be interested.

[El Gato]

18th century vernacular meant well-prepared by my understanding.

More like "properly functioning". A well-regulated clock keeps good time, a well-regulated firearm shoots to point of aim. (Also used in conjunction with multi-barrel firearms having each barrel shoot to the same aim point, or in the case of multiple arms, such as wing mounted machine guns converging at the desired range.)