If the Second Amendment were to only apply to the state militias, why was it written? Since all rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution were the province of the individual or the states, there was no reason to specify the right to keep and bear arms in the amendments, except for the importance the framers felt that this right should never be able to be usurped by the federal government.
If the framers actually meant the Second Amendment to only apply to the organized state militias, then the federal government has been guilty of violating the Constitution innumerable times. The federal government has “federalized” state National Guard units many times over the years, like in its actions during school desegregation in Arkansas or more recently integrating many specialized reserve and guard units directly into U.S. Army field operations and mobilizing those units as we saw in Desert Storm. This is a more serious situation than disarming the militias; it involves taking control of them and their arms to use as they see fit, in some cases against the state government.
So where are the militias that were the object of the debate? All the people. That is the true meaning of a democracy – a reliance on the self-sufficiency of the people that the founders felt strongly about. Only kings and dictators need fear an armed citizenry.
Woodinville
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