A Well Regulated Militia?
Lost in the gun rights debate, much to the detriment of American freedom, is the fact that the Second Amendment is in fact an AMENDMENT. No Articles in Amendment to the Constitution, more commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights, stand alone and each can only be properly understood with reference to what it is that each Article in Amendment amended in the body of the original Constitution. It should not be new knowledge to any American the Constitution was first submitted to Congress on September 17, 1787 WITHOUT ANY AMENDMENTS. After much debate, it was determined that the States would not adopt the Constitution as originally submitted until further declamatory and restrictive clauses should be added in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its (the Constitutions) powers. (This quote is from the Preamble to the Amendments, which was adopted along with the Amendments but is mysteriously missing from nearly all modern copies.) The first ten Amendments were not ratified and added to the Constitution until December 15, 1791.
In this Light: 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. What provisions of the original Constitution is it that the Second Amendment is designed to amended? THE SECOND AMENDMENT IS AMENDING THE PROVISIONS IN THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION APPLYING TO THE MILITIA. The States were not satisfied with the powers granted to the militia as defined in the original Constitution and required an amendment to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers. (Again quoting from the Preamble to the Amendments.)
What was it about the original Constitutional provisions concerning the Militia that was so offensive to the States?
First understand that the word militia was used with more than one meaning at the time of the penning of the Constitution. One popular definition used then was one often quoted today, that the Militia was every able bodied man owning a gun. As true as this definition is, it only confuses the meaning of the word militia as used in the original Constitution that required the Second Amendment to correct. The only definition of Militia that had any meaning to the States demanding Amendments is the definition used in the original Constitution. What offended the States then should offend People today: Militia in the original Constitution as amended by the Second Amendment is first found in Article 1, Section 8, clause 15, where Congress is granted the power: To provide for the calling forth the MILITIA to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrection and repel Invasions. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 16 further empowers Congress: To provide for the organizing, arming, and disciplining, the MILITIA, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; Any patriot out there still want to be called a member of the MILITIA as defined by the original Constitution? Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 empowers: The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the MILITIA of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; The only way the States would accept the MILITIA as defined in the original Constitution was that the Federal MILITIA be WELL REGULATED.
The States realized that THE SECURITY OF A FREE STATE required that the MILITIA as originally created in the Constitution be WELL REGULATED by a restrictive clause. How did the States decide to insure that the Constitutional MILITIA be WELL REGULATED? By demanding that restrictive clause two better know as the Second Amendment be added to the original Constitution providing: THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED. The States knew that PEOPLE with ARMS would WELL REGULATE the Federal MILITIA! Now read for the first time with the full brightness of the Light of truth: 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. For those still overcome by propaganda: The Second Amendment declares by implication that if the MILITIA is not WELL REGULATED by PEOPLE keeping and bearing arms, the MILITIA becomes a threat to the SECURITY OF A FREE STATE. The MILITIA has no RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS in the Second Amendment, rather it is only THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS (that) SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.
Close. Well-regulated has nothing to do with regulation in any modern sense. Well-regulated, when written in the amendment, meant properly trained and equipped. The training and equipment is only possible when people keep and bear arms. That's why we keep and bear arms: so we can be properly equipped and trained to be an effective militia.