2nd Amendment was about the militia

From iGeek
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...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed ~ 2nd Amendment, Bill of Rights
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 ~ 2nd Amendment, Bill of Rights. Well regulated means, "in working order". Militia means "all able body males". And the National guard wasn't created until 1903 - so was not vaguely what the founders were referring to.
ℹ️ Info          
~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 1987-04-19 
 
Left Right
For 200 years every legal scholar and ruling on the 2A was wrong, because gun-control activists in the 1960's figured out that the 2A was not an individual right, but only meant to protect people in the militia (National Guard). So the 2A doesn't protect people's right to bear arms at all, only the militias. The National Guard" wasn't created until 1903, and founding fathers (and Supreme Court) defined (a) militia as all able body males able to defend the country (b) that well regulated just meant "in working order" (c) "the People" always meant individual rights (not the collective) (d) they got dependency backwards: militia was dependent on the individuals, not the other way around. The lefts linguistic gymnastics shows how desperate they are to circumvent and distort the legal rights/liberties the Constitution recognized.
❝ 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. ❞
~ 2nd Amendment, Bill of Rights ℹ️
United States Constitution 

There are a few fallacies, invented by progressives in the 30’s and 60’s to try to enact gun control and pervert what the Constitution and 2nd Amendment means. When the left can't win the argument based on the logic and facts, they try to reframe it and change the meanings of words. So the constitution was part of a “living document” delusion, that you can change meanings by make-believe, without following the actual letter/intent of law. They prey on the ignorance of their base, and the lack of understanding in English, History, and the Constitution, to pretend that the 2nd doesn’t mean exactly what it meant for the first 200 years, and suddenly 150-200 years later, they found secrets that no other historians have ever found a scrap of evidence of :

  • Well Regulated: they re-define the original meaning (in working order) to mean government controlled — it doesn’t.
  • Militia: they try to re-interpret to mean National Guard/Reserves, which was created over 100 years later.
  • Dependent clause reversal: they misinterpret English to assume that your right/liberty is dependent on being in the militia, instead of the truth that you have the right, so that you can be part of a militia (and that it is an obligation to own a gun, and do your duty).
  • the People”, which means “individuals” everywhere else in the Bill of Rights, is reinvented to mean “collective / state”.
❝ How strangely will the tools of a tyrant pervert the plain meaning of words! ❞
~ Samuel Adams ℹ️
 

But all those were not only not recognized for the first 150+ years, but they’re been completely refuted by Linguists, Historians, Legal Scholars, and common sense. Gun control laws can be argued and debated, but there is no real doubt as to what the Second Amendment meant. And those who repeat a false claim they heard once, are just being foolish (not researching because it fits their confirmation bias). Anyone that’s looked knows how discredited those theories are. Those who repeat them after knowing that (or deny it), are just liars.

I've heard many people try to distort the 2nd Amendment so that, "guns should only apply to those who are in the militia” or that it’s a people (plural) right and not an individual right, or other linguistic gymnastics, to proclaim that the 2nd doesn’t mean what English Scholars, Legal and Constitutional scholars, and the authors (in their own writings) intended.

Gun Quotes : Militia Meaning[edit source]

           Main article: Gun Quotes : Militia Meaning
Militia.png
At the time of the writing, the definition of militia was, "The whole body of civilians, that are NOT part of the regular army”. Since the Guard/Reserves are part of the regular army (or reserves), they are the unorganized militia (which was everyone else). Basically, anyone old enough to defend their home, town or country (that was not in the army already) was the militia.

Some people mistakenly think it means reserves or National Guard (established 1903, and subject to federal control) — but since those didn’t exist at the time of authoring, there is no way it could have been the type of body envisioned by the framers. Today’s legal definition is, the "militia" consists of "all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age”, with a few exclusions for medical, mental or job deferments (by their choice) (10 U.S.C. 311 and 32 U.S.C. 313).

You don’t have to take my word for it, there are multiple Constitutional rulings and the words of the authors listed below — but they’re all variants of the following:

  • ...It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control...The Militia is composed of free Citizens. There is therefore no Danger of their making use of their power to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to invade them. ~ Samuel Adams
  • ...A well-regulated Milita, composed of the Gentlemen, Freeholders, and other Freemen was necessary to protect our ancient laws and liberty from the standing army... ~ George Mason
  • A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms . . . To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms… ~ Additional Letters From the Federal Farmer 53, 1788 Richard Henry Lee
  • 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.” ~ during Virginia's ratification convention, 1788 George Mason
  • I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.” ~ 3 Elliott, Debates at 425-426 George Mason
  • (a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age...
    (b) The classes of the militia are - (1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are NOT members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia. ~ Militia: composition and classes Federal Law: 10 U.S.C. § 311.
  • "The right of bearing arms for a lawful purpose is not a right granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence.” ~ (1876) U.S. vs Cruikshank
  • "The argument that today's National Guardsmen, members of a select militia, would constitute the only persons entitled to keep and bear arms has no historical foundation.” ~ Professor of History.
    Author, To Keep and Bear Arms (1994) Joyce Lee Malcolm
  • "The militia is comprised of all able-bodied males" ~ (1939) U.S. v. Miller
  • the 2nd Amendment does not protect “the right of militiamen to keep and bear arms,” but rather “the right of the people.” ~ (2007) U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
  • while agreeing with the 2007 D.C. Circuit ruling, they added, "[t]he adjective 'well-regulated' implies nothing more than the imposition of proper discipline and training.” ~ U.S. Supreme Court
  • The 2nd Amendment, "protects an individual's right to possess a firearm, unconnected to service in a militia” ~ D.C. versus Heller
  • "All citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserve militia, and the states cannot prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms so as to disable the people from performing the (militia) duty to the general government.” ~ (1865) Presser v. Illinois

Quotes[edit | edit source]

Supporting Opinions[edit | edit source]


Gun Quotes : Militia Dependent[edit source]

           Main article: Gun Quotes : Militia Dependent
❝ A well-schooled electorate, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and read Books shall not be infringed. ❞
~ 1st Amendment written as the 2nd Amendment ℹ️
 

Another common wrong-headed argument is that "you’d have to be in the militia to qualify for the 2nd’s protections".

But they’re failing at English and what many English scholars have said about that argument. The "well regulated militia" phrase is an "nominative absolute” phrase which can be ignored. It is merely explanatory (descriptive) and dependent on the rest of the sentence (not the rest of the sentence is a dependent clause on it). Since you ignore nominative/descriptive clauses, the 2nd can be read, "The right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Or another example I use, is rewrite the 1A in the phrasing of the 2A. No one would read THAT as you have to be a well-schooled electorate in order to keep and read books. The right to keep and read books must not be infringed, so we can all participate in a well schooled electorate. Duh! Those arguing this are either dishonest, ignorant or being intentionally abtuse.

"Shall not be infringed" is not the type of wording one puts in, when something is conditionally dependent on something else.

Historical Context[edit | edit source]

Remember the history: the colonists', war of independence was started when the British army marched on Lexington and Concord to try to enforce a recently-passed 'assault weapons' ban. Paul Revere's ride with "the British are coming”, doesn’t make sense out of context: the British Regulars had been in America all along. (We were British). The point of the cry was to warn everyone that, "the British military was coming to take away our guns!” The king had said we did not need our own arms, we must trust the king's army to protect us! (Which means the ability to defend ourselves, and self determine our own fates as free men). And that’s much of what started the revolutionary war (and the shot heard ‘round the world’).

This nation was founded on freedoms (including gun freedoms), and to guaranteed no more encroachments on individual liberties. The founders felt that government/politicians would be less likely to infringe on the rights of individuals knowing that they might be shot for doing so, or that corrupt laws could be resisted if politicians passed them anyways. That’s why they didn’t create standing armies (in times of peace), but only armies in times of need. We may have evolved to allow standing armies later, but that doesn’t change the intent for individual liberty of self-defense, nor eliminate the rights of the people to have their own guns. What are the odds the 2nd protection of liberty that these folks write into the constitution, is going to say, "we just fought a war over protecting our right to self defense and determination, but in the future, we want people to only be able to own guns if they are part of our army/militia". It's not only a wrong argument, it's historically non-sensical.

To remove any doubt of that, here's quotes that back up what they were thinking:

❝ “Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and the keystone under independence... The rifle and pistol are equally indispensable... The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that is good." ❞
~ George Washington ℹ️
 
❝ "Any society that would give up liberty to gain security, deserves neither, and will lose both.” ❞
~ Benjamin Franklin ℹ️
 
❝ "The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun.” ❞
~ Patrick Henry ℹ️
Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution 
❝ "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” ❞
~ Alexander Hamilton ℹ️
The Federalist Papers (No. 184-188) 
❝ "Arms in the hands of individual citizens may be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense.” ❞
~ John Adams ℹ️
A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787-88 
❝ "The peaceable part of mankind will be continually overrun by the vile and abandoned while they neglect the means of self-defense....Weakness allures the ruffian but arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world.... Horrid mischief would ensue were the good deprived of the use of them....and the weak will become a prey to the strong.” ❞
~ Thomas Paine ℹ️
 
❝ "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them…" ❞
~ Richard Henry Lee ℹ️
1788, Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights. 
❝ "A government resting on the minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic, and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it, without a standing army, an enslaved press and a disarmed populace.” ❞
~ James Madison ℹ️
The Federalist Papers (No. 46) 
❝ "Arms in the hands of individual citizens may be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense.” ❞
~ John Adams ℹ️
A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787-88 
❝ "The Second Amendment is not the right to shoot deer, it is to defend your liberties if we're taken over by tyrants” (or the collective) ❞
~ Judge Andrew Napolitano ℹ️
(New Jersey Superior Court Judge, Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law at Brooklyn Law School) 
❝ " "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” ❞
~ Thomas Jefferson ℹ️
quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in On Crimes and Punishment, 1764 
❝ "On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” ❞
~ Thomas Jefferson ℹ️
letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, found in The Complete Jefferson, p. 322 
❝ Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people. ❞
~ Tench Coxe ℹ️
Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788 
❝ "The Constitution of the United States shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” ❞
~ Samuel Adams ℹ️
Massachusetts U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788
Also Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, Aug. 20, 1789 

Those don't sound like quotes from people likely to say "only those beholden to the State Military should be able to own guns". Separatists that had been driven out of England, then driven into war with England (the largest power in the world), were damn well not going to make the mistakes of becoming slaves/wards of their new government by saying only government drones could have guns.


Gun Quotes : Individual Right[edit source]

           Main article: Gun Quotes : Individual Right
The problem is pesky history: the reason the bill of rights was created is because in the ratification of the Constitution there was fighting over the wording of the enumerated rights of individuals. So they agreed to ratify the constitution AND get the bill of rights to enumerate what the individual rights were. So the whole reason why the Bill of Rights (including the 2nd) was written was to protect the individuals rights from the government. The Framers understood the concept of a "right" to apply ONLY to individuals.

There was never any discussion about collective rights, there has never been any historical, legal or linguistically evidence that they were written to mean: “all these are individuals rights, except for the 2nd”. And if you claim that the Bill of Rights are not individual rights, then your right to free speech, protections from illegal search and seizure, are also dependent on the public whims of the collective. So while it’s popular to try to teach the "collective rights” fallacy in Colleges and places of lower learning, no Supreme Court decision has ever held a right to be “a collective right”. And you don’t have to take my word for it, there are multiple quotes, legal (Supreme Court) rulings, and the words of the authors and experts:

💭 Ratification
The wording in the state ratification conventions (for the Constitution) fought to declare the 2nd Amendment even more explicitly:
  • New Hampshire wanted it to read, "Congress shall never disarm any Citizen unless such as are or have been in Actual Rebellion."
  • Massachusetts wanted to read, "be never construed...to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable, from keeping their own arms.”
  • Pennsylvania wanted the Constitution to state, "that the people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves and their own State, or the United States, or for the purpose of killing game; and no law shall be passed for disarming the people or any of them, unless for crimes committed, or real danger of public injury from individuals."

None of the states were looking to water it down, or clarify that it only applied to Militia's. (In fact, adding Militia clause was meant to strengthen it, in stated that it applied to more than just hunting and explicitly to defense against governments).

Quotes[edit | edit source]

❝ "In recent years it has been suggested that the Second Amendment protects the ‘collective' right of states to maintain militias, while it does not protect the right of ‘the people’ to keep and bear arms. If anyone entertained this notion in the period during which the Constitution and Bill of Rights were debated and ratified, it remains one of the most closely guarded secrets of the 18th century, for no known writing surviving from the period between 1787 and 1791 states such a thesis" ❞
~ Stephen P. Halbrook ℹ️
That Every Man Be Armed (1984) 
❝ "...It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control...The Militia is composed of free Citizens. There is therefore no Danger of their making use of their power to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to invade them.” ❞
~ Samuel Adams ℹ️
 
❝ "The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.” ❞
~ Albert Gallatin ℹ️
NY Historical Society, October 7, 1789 

Supporting Opinions[edit | edit source]

❝ The [2nd Amendment] may be considered as the true palladium of liberty… The right of self defense is the first law of nature.... Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color of pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction." ❞
~ St. George Tucker ℹ️
One of the first Judges and Law Professors to ever write a study of the U.S. Constitution believed the 2nd had everything to do with self-defense and not militias (1803) in "View of the Constitution of the United States
❝ "The term 'the people' as explicitly used in the Second Amendment and elsewhere in the Constitution and Bill of Rights is a term chosen by the Founding Fathers to mean all individuals who make up our national community." ❞
~ U.S. v. Verdugo-Urquidez ℹ️
(1990) 
❝ "The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the high powers delegated directly to the citizen, and is excepted out of the general powers of government. A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power.” ❞
~ John Cockrum v. State ℹ️
(1859) 
❝ the right to keep and bear arms, like rights protected by the First, Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments, is an individual right held by "the people," ❞
~ Supreme Court: U.S. v. Verdugo-Urquidez ℹ️
(1990) 
❝ "All citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserve militia, and the states cannot prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms so as to disable the people from performing the (militia) duty to the general government.” ❞
~ Supreme Court: Presser v. Illinois ℹ️
(1865) 
❝ "The right of bearing arms for a lawful purpose is not a right granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence.” ❞
~ Supreme Court: U.S. vs Cruikshank ℹ️
(1876) 
❝ The 2nd Amendment, "protects an individual's right to possess a firearm, unconnected to service in a militia". ❞
~ Supreme Court: D.C. versus Heller ℹ️
(2008) 
❝ Of thirty-nine law review articles addressed the Supreme Court case law, thirty-five supported the individual right view and only four support the "collective right only” view. Three of these four are co/authored by employees of the antigun lobby. ❞
~ Law Reviews ℹ️
(1980-) 
❝ "The states' rights reading puts great weight on the word ‘militia', but this word appears only in the Amendment's subordinate clause. The ultimate right to keep and bear arms belongs to 'the people' not 'the states.' As the language of the Tenth Amendment shows, these two are of course not identical when the constitution means ‘states', it says so. Thus as noted above, 'the people' at the core of the Second Amendment are the same ‘people' at the heart of the Preamble and the First Amendment, namely citizens.” ❞
~ Akil Amar, Professor of Law, Yale ℹ️
The Bill of Rights as a Constitution (1990) 
❝ The militia is comprised of all able-bodied males, adding that "ordinarily when called these men were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of a kind in common (military) use at the time.” Thus all military style weapons (assault weapons) were especially protected under the 2nd Amendment, but it allowed government to regulate Short Barreled Rifles (SBR’s) and sawed-off shotgun because they didn’t have application to the militia.. ❞
~ Supreme Court: U.S. v. Miller ℹ️
(1939) Ironically, a few years later, the military order thousands of short-barrelled rifles, sawed off shotguns and carbines, specifically restricted under Miller, proving that even those restrictions were wrong 


Gun Quotes : Well Regulated[edit source]

           Main article: Gun Quotes : Well Regulated
Well regulated means, "something being in proper working order”, well calibrated or functioning as expected. Even if we pretend that it means “government regulated”, it would still be irrelevant because it is part of a nominative/descriptive clause, and wouldn't change their right to bear arms ("shall not be infringed").
💭 Civic Responsibility
There’s an even more expansive view, that “well regulated” points to the 2nd being more than just a 19th century usage of the term, "an individual right", but instead is the 18th century usage which means "civic right". This is even worse for gun controllers, because that view means that you not only had a right to bear arms to belong to a militia, but you also have a civic duty (civic responsibility) as a citizen to do so (almost mandatory service). Which implies that anyone is failing in their responsibilities as Americans to NOT buy guns and become part of a well functioning militia. So the gun-controllers are better off with it being an individual right than it being a civic one.

However the invention that "well regulated" might be a back door to inventing new restrictions on the 2nd, wasn’t first heard until the 1960’s. (This was after the first wave of gun control in the 20’s and 30’s had only increased our crimes and shootings).

So what this argument is arrogantly proclaiming is that in the 1960's they discovered a word ambiguity that the Founding Fathers, and their progeny, never knew of. Thus for the first 200+ years of the country, every Historian, Linguist, Legal and Constitutional scholar or mind that had read these things, was too stupid to realize what the 2nd really meant, and thus we should ignore all that common sense and stare decisis (legal precedence, and history), because a few hippie progressives knew more than everyone else before them, combined.

Does anyone really buy that?


Militia and United Airlines Flight 93[edit source]

           Main article: Militia and United Airlines Flight 93
Flight 93 Memorial entrance sign.jpg
Police, Army, and National Guard can't be everywhere. But "the general militia" (the able bodied public) can be. And in this case, they took action that prevented Flight 93 from crashing into Congress/WhiteHouse. The flight was taken over by people with box cutters, it was stopped by civilians with improvised arms. And that's why we have a 2A.

Conclusion[edit | edit source]

❝ On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed. ❞
~ Thomas Jefferson ℹ️
June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p. 322 

Gun controllers may want to revise the Constitution, and fortunately for them, there are ways to do that (like Constitution Referendum, or an Amendment). They’re welcome to try. I’ll resist, and if they succeeded there would be civil war, but at least be honest about it.

If we value the Constitution and rule of law, then we have to respect and defend their intent, not distort them because some wished they meant something else. You can’t be for perverting the law, and then claim they support the rule of law when it suits you. So men of integrity must fight these vapid arguments, because if we allow the perversion of our laws for convenience, then our Constitution and Laws mean nothing (and the liars and bullies win).

Gun control laws can be argued and debated, but there is little doubt as to what the Second Amendment meant at the time. The folks that used a poisonous snake as their flag, saying “don’t tread on me”, in the context of fighting a war which was partly about their gun rights, put in a guarantee to that liberty. And no rational person believes their original intent (in that context) was to write something so vague, that a future bureaucrat could lawyer their rights away, or that you could only own guns if you were in the governments militia. This isn’t just my opinion. This has been ruled on by Linguists, Historians, Constitutional Scholars, the Supreme Court (6 times), and by the authors themselves. Thus there’s no intelligent ambiguity on these topics: any fuzziness was only invented in the 1960’s (≈200 years later), by the disingenuous hippies, and only repeated by uninformed gullible rubes. Repeating it once, makes them a fool. Repeating it after being schooled on it, makes them a fraud.

Show Video[edit | edit source]

Penn and Teller
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On meaning of 2A...

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