A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Saul Cornell, A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America, has better understanding than most; although I found some flaws in his book. He's certainly right when he says, my paraphrase, that it's a civic right (sic: should be duty. |
| He mistakenly says right instead of duty; rights are for the individual and acts that the state cannot take or require,example, free speech the state cannot require that an individual exercise it, or in religion, state cannot require she pray or not pray. It is a civic duty to bear arms. The founders committed that mistake also saying right instead of duty.
Believe. Note how many folk misuse fewer and less, even say less individuals, or less spells of fainting, when fewer is correct.
Rights, powers, and duties are often misused.
Take the idea of states rights. Read the Constitution, see every place when rights are mention it's for citizens. In fact citizens have rights and powers; the state, states and federal, only have powers according to the Constitution.
The militia in the period of the founders backed the army, much the way the National Guard does. In some cases they were basically the army. Before we split from England, colonial militias aided the British Army in slaughtering folk who were here before.
So
who regulates the militia; the state regulates the militia.
I have always read it this way, the state has the power to regulate the militia, thus the power to regulate who may possess a gun and how they behave with that gun. The state can require you to have a gun because it's your civic duty to back the National Guard, the military.
So you want to have a gun, you spend several weeks each summer trained by the national guard units in the several states, or Army, Naval, and Airforce Reserves for no pay. You do p t, learn how to clean, operate guns safely, and shoot accurately. It's your civic duty and the state has the power to regulate your behavior with that gun, even require you to have it, or not have it.
So both sides of the gun control argument are wrong as Mr Cornell states.
The state has the power to regulate the militia, require you to have a gun, regulate your possession and use of that gun. Think. Our citizens with guns required to do p t, run through the countryside led by a National Guard D I, taught to use weapon properly, safely, and acquire some discipline.
We'd be some lean, mean, in a concrete trope, mortar forkers. |
