3 ms·

I suggest you look up the definition of militia. Its not a military, police, national guard, or even reserve force that exists in the US today. Its not any orga

I suggest you look up the definition of militia. Its not a military, police, national guard, or even reserve force that exists in the US today. Its not any organization either, considering the one common attribute of militias is disorganization. Which is why after the justification you list, the enumeration is clear. "the right of the _people_ to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." It doesn't actually say "arm's considered safe by the government", "people considered safe by the government", "people trained by the government" or anything else. Might be convenient for some if it did, but it doesn't. And given the history of private cannon/schooner/etc ownership it might surprise you to know that the laws in effect today are quite restrictive with respect to the historical understanding of the amendment. Which is why many consider the NFA banning machine guns and related laws to be unconstitutional, and lacking a serious challenge. Partially because the NRA mostly supported it. Many of the cases the 1934 regulation stands upon are flimsy, obviously racist rulings against people without means. So, I would be really careful making augments against it. And just so I'm clear, I consider both political sides to be more than willing to twist the meaning of the constitution to justify their goals. Same as the "Christians" that used the bible to justify slavery or to treat women as second class citizens.

btilly 7y ago
I don't know why you think that I need to look up the definition of militia. But the link that I provided provides a rather lengthy explanation of what militias are and the different forms of militias that existed in the USA from colonial times until the passing of the 2nd amendment. It certainly is much more informative than "a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency". Incidentally I failed to look up the actual law of the time. But the 1792 militia law included every "free able-bodied white male citizen" between the ages of 18 and 45. Which, in a world that only paid attention to white men, basically was "the people".

btilly 7y ago

I don't know why you think that I need to look up the definition of militia. But the link that I provided provides a rather lengthy explanation of what militias are and the different forms of militias that existed in the USA from colonial times until the passing of the 2nd amendment. It certainly is much more informative than "a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency". Incidentally I failed to look up the actual law of the time. But the 1792 militia law included every "free able-bodied white male citizen" between the ages of 18 and 45. Which, in a world that only paid attention to white men, basically was "the people".