"Signed up"? That's like saying you can't eat unless you're signed up as a member of the human race. Surber does not know what he's talking about here.
A "well-regulated militia" implies two things: 1) every armed male citizen of age is automatically considered part of the militia; and "well regulated" means well-disciplined, or skilled. If the people can't keep and bear arms for themselves, and thus become competent in using them, how will they be expected to come together as the militia and defend their town, state, or country? Liberals who think the militia is something you "sign up for" are just stupid.
Surber falls into two failed and faulty mindsets in this piece: "only government can fix problems" and "words in the Constitution mean what the Progressives have defined them to mean in the last 100 years."
Sorry, All, I guess I’m still waking up... I mistook Surber’s quotes of Klein for Surber’s own words. What I said about Surber applies to the Journolister himself, not Surber.
The only way that the Second Amendment can be difficult to interpret or understand is if the reader absolutely insists upon grotesquely placing the subordinate clause in a predominant position. Even then, nowhere does the PRE-EXISTENCE of “a well regulated militia” appear as a qualifying condition upon which the public’s right “to keep and bear arms” must depend. End of story. Case closed.
Only the most unscrupulous agenda-driven sophists would even attempt any contrary interpretation. Unfortunately, quite a lot of such creatures circulate among us.