If the second amendment stated, "A citizenry well trained in arms, being necessary to the security of a free State ....", then your comparison to a "well educated electorate" would be valid. It doesn't read that way.No it doesn't read that way, the point is: the well-armed citizenry is the Militia.
No. You've already stipulated that books are necessary to the security of a free state. And if the Founding Fathers thought that books alone would secure a free state, then there'd be no use for libraries and no need to mention libraries in an amendment.I did no such thing. I posited an analogy whereby it was equivocated that "a well educated electorate" being one example of something necessary for a free State, etc. bla bla bla.
In my analogy, I suppose its irrelevant, if not immaterial (but not necessarily so), how the electorate become "educated." I don't believe that's the point that is made in the second ammendment (and the analogy fails in that respect).
Some "big-shot" once said: "firearms in the hands of the hoi-polloi are a strong moral check to the powers that be."
And to parry any thrust from anybody who maint declair: "what needs are there for this fair Repbublic to entrust its security to the uneducatd, hoi-polloi rabble?
I posit the concept that perhaps the entire State militia is whiped out in a NBC event while on federal deployment. Who then, constitutionally, protects the interests of that single sovereign and seperate State (within the Union)?
Ho'ah, and en garde!
Do you understand the language of foils?
Yes you did. And the way you phrased it, it could be one example. But my point was that the second amendment wasn't similarly phrased.
The second amendment does NOT read, "a citizenry well trained in arms". Therefore you're not allowed to be so general in your analogy.
The second amendment specifically says, "A well regulated Militia" (with training and the appointment of officers provided by each state). Your analogy need to be just as specific to be analogous. I thought "a well stocked library" was a better fit.
The phrase was put there for a reason. I know we'd all wish to simply skip over it, but it's there and needs to be addressed. If, as you say, the Militia is but one example, where else in the U.S. Constitution do the Founding Fathers do us the favor of an example? (parry)
Why doesn't the first amendment read, "The dissemination of information via newspapers, being necessary to the security of a free State, the freedom of the press shall not be abridged"? (riposte)