Bombadil wrote:Narland wrote:Compare the Virginia Declaration of Rights which the Federal Bill of Rights is largely based:
"That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power." Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776 - Section 13
It looks like they started to quote Section 13 word for word, and then went succinct.
Notice that they used commas and semi-colons that would be grammatically incorrect today. Also, that a citizen militia is considered safe, while a standing army is considered dangerous.
Federal law throughout our history has defined the Militia as all (draft) capable men between the years of age 18 to 35-45. An organization can be regular (meeting on a regular basis) like many counties used to do or irregular (no set meeting times if any), regulated (like the ones that used to meet at the county armories (and some still do, and largely usurped by the National Guard Act). The Federal law defining these change often as America changes from a limited government federal republic to an ever expanding bureaucratic administrative state.
When I was a teenager my county still required me to join the bucket list as part of an organize militia -- report to the sheriff for deputation training, join the volunteer fire department, become an EMT (paid for by the county), join the National Guard, and there were some other options like clerking for the courthouse. If someone owned a weapon of war like a tank or bazooka they were required to keep it at the Country Armory and only use it when authorized (like for training with the National Guard). Those that stopped doing so can be considered unorganized. As the US drifts further from its roots, few jurisdictions even have memory of what it means to fulfill the 2nd Amendment.
Thanks, yeah I had noticed that various states have slightly clearer interpretations. Seems to me the US was supposed to be more like the Swiss canton system but the federal government has way over reached its power. I can certainly understand why in terms of civil rights but this has clearly seeped into all areas.
Seems to me that gun rights could act as a framing point to simply review the US as a whole if there was a candidate brave enough and able to cut through the noise of partisan rhetoric.
For myself I don't mind guns, I hunted when young and had shotguns but they were licensed, had to be locked separate from the key and I certainly couldn't just walk around town with them.
It was, yes. Our founders looked at all Republics of their time and through history including the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The Nationalists through a marketing coup took the name Federalists, while who were the Federalists suddenly found themselves called "Anti-Federalist" shifting us from a "These United States" to a "This United States." The Un-republican faction of the GOP during the Civil War and Reconstruction cemented the latter ("This United States) against the protests of the more republican minded in the GOP. (The GOP has always been a loose coalition of disparate groups). The Progressive movement in both parties at the turn of the last century, participated in creating the need for and expectation of a "rational professional administration" of the civil service at all levels of an eventually centralized bureaucratic authority. This has further tended to eroded our Federal form less like Switzerland and more toward the Federal Republic of Germany up to today. It seems one party wants a bureaucratic socialist state that is part of a administrative global hegemon, and the other wants a corporatist moderately socialist state as part of an commercial global hegemony. Neither looks like Federalism as envision by the Founders, or the sources that our Founders drew from.
addenda:
One of my step-fathers was a mercenary. He had a HK-71 "Sporting Rifle." Limiting it to semi-automatic fire, is sporting I suppose, but I didn't think the attachable grenade launcher was. But it was great for hunting jack-rabbits (the rifle, not the grenade launcher). One summer one of the southern counties was offering $5 per pelt. There were so many that I quit my summer job and spent last month of summer before school collecting pelts. I used the money to splurge on snow-skis, good ski gear, a season pass, etc.
