Posted on 04/05/2018 6:12:42 PM PDT by Kaslin
Let's begin with the simplest of observations. Our United States Constitution serves two distinct purposes.
The first is to explicitly enumerate the powers and procedures of our nation's central government, which was defined as the three distinct bodies (which, by the way, two thirds of the high school students currently lecturing us about the Second Amendment cannot name) – the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial, with levels of authority descending in that precise order.
The second is to explicitly enumerate the limitations of that central government's power, which is the sole reason why our Bill of Rights exists. The Constitution would not have been ratified in 1791 without the addition of these first ten amendments. Therefore, our Constitution would not exist without the limitations to our central government's authority described therein.
Some miss this simplest of understandings.
Take Brett Arends, who, in 2016 after the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, committed to a different argument at Market Watch. He argues that the Second Amendment does not describe a "limitation" of the federal government's authority, as is commonly understood of each of the other nine amendments in the Bill of Rights. Rather:
The Second Amendment is an instrument of government. It's not about hunting or gun collecting or carrying your pistol into a saloon. The Founding Fathers left it up to us to pass sensible laws about all these things. The Constitution is about government.
His argument as to the veracity of this statement is among the more laughable things you'll ever read. He cites Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 29, cherry-picking choice phrases from the essay, filling in the gaps with his own thoughts. For example, Arend writes:
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The Right of the People
“I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”
George Mason
I just posted this on another thread, but it is just as relevant here.
The Unabridged Second Amendment http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2967854/posts
The Heller Decision ruled that there is an INDIVIDUAL right to own firearms under the Second Amendment. The militia clause died as an excuse to disarm individuals with the Heller Decision.
We’ve been down this road ad-nauseum. A state where only the police/military have guns is by definition a police state. I don’t think the founders had that in mind.
Oh! Excuse me! We keep breeding these idiots and then let them have a voice even though their utterances are nonsensical.
No. Now stop writing stupid headlines.
We are the militia.
We The People are the militia.
The Constitution has two parts:
Part 1: The powers granted to the Federal government by the sovereign entities (the States and the People). This is the portion the Fed Gov MUST do.
Part 2: The Bill of Rights is the opposite. It is a statement of rights the Fed Gov may not touch. This is the portion over which the Fed Gov has no authority. Did we miss something? Read the 9th and 10th... anything we didn’t mention still belongs to us.
As I noted on another thread, Oregon’s gov’s insistence that she would refuse to send the Guard to the border would result in the Oregon Guard being federalized. Progs claim the Guard is the Militia. That is not possible if the Guard can be made an arm of the federal govt’s armed force. No. The Militia is the People.
a) We are the militia
b) The Second Amendment does not grant any rights. It merely guarantees that government will not infringe those rights.
It preserves Freedom.
The 2nd Amendment directly defines the militia as “the people.” Back in the day, when the army needed help, it would send out a call for citizen volunteers and the volunteers would bring their arms. The army would provide the powder and shot, volunteers would be separate as the militia under the command of the general — Jackson, for example.
The Bill of Rights is antecedent to the Constitution.
Our Founders had been fighting for freedom for nearly 700 years when they wrote the Bill of Rights. The 1215 Magna Carta was written from violations of the 1100 Charter of Liberties. Regarding the Second Amendment, it was about killing politicians when they became tyrants, their standing armies and their supporters.
Your rights are God-given FRiend. Everything is antecedent to that.
bump
Each citizen is the militia. Case closed.
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