I don’t believe the Second Amendment was added in order to force me to be a member of the Militia but rather that I could be a member of the Militia.
And the 2nd Amendment doesn’t “GIVE” the right to keep and bears. What it really does is meant to restrict the government. Too many forget that, and claim a 2nd Amendment right. That’s dangerous thinking.
Davy Crockett explains partly how the militia worked. When Andrew Jackson was fighting the Indian wars, he needed help, so he asked the men local men to volunteer for thee months. The ones that volunteered brought their muskets. They were not forced, of course, to join, nor was there jail time if they did not.
Crockett, when he was in Congress, had a major falling out with Jackson.
“I don’t believe the Second Amendment was added in order to force me to be a member of the Militia but rather that I could be a member of the Militia.”
Well, I hate to break the news to you, but you happen to be dead wrong about that. It just so happens if you happen to be an able bodied male, a U.S. citizen or alien intending to naturalize as a U.S. citizen, and you are at least 17 years of age and less than 45 years of age, you are or were before age 45 a member of the United States reserve militia in accordance with Title 10 U.S. Code, unless you are a former regular component veterans of the armed forces who have reached the age of 64 (32 USC 313). Volunteering is unnecessary, only the ability to draw a breath, walk, talk, and so forth are required to qualify you as a member of the U.S. militia. Better yet, each state also has made most of you males a member of the state militia as well. The State of Washington for example says:
The militia of the state of Washington shall consist of all able bodied citizens of the United States and all other able bodied persons who have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, residing within this state, who shall be more than eighteen years of age, and shall include all persons who are members of the national guard and the state guard, and said militia shall be divided into two classes, the organized militia and the unorganized militia.
So, not even being 45 years of age and older gets you out of their state militia.
Welcome to the militia, soldier!
My semi-educated take on that phrase is that it acknowledges the need for and the desirability of a citizen militia, not that it requires membership.