Subject:
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Re: Iraq (was Re: Holy crap! (was Re: The partisian trap)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 22 Oct 2003 15:31:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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1072 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler wrote:
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Is that true? I don’t dispute it, but I wasn’t aware of it. If it’s true,
then what level of gov’t official is included?
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In the main, the militia merely means an armed group of freepersons that are not
otherwise playing some kind of official role or duty. I mean, a sheriff might
call together a posse comitatus and work closely with one -- but he remains the
sheriff and not actually a member of the posse comitatus.
Here’s my bookshelf dictionary definition:
mi·li·tia, noun, Abbr. mil.
1. An army composed of ordinary citizens rather than professional soldiers.
2. A military force that is not part of a regular army and is subject to call
for service in an emergency. 3. The whole body of physically fit civilians
eligible by law for military service.
Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third
Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Etc, etc, etc...
Gee, look how closely that fits most of my previous statements on the subject!
Can it be I never looked it up and presented it before?! I honestly do not
understand how the 2nd Amendment is claimed to be misunderstood. I can see
where people object to its obvious meaning, but to me that’s a separate issue.
Let’s look at the 2nd Amendment again, shall we:
“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.”
Allow me to reword it slightly according to this ordinary dictionary definition:
A well regulated army composed of ordinary citizens rather than professional
soldiers, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the
people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
The slippage I see here is the use of the word “army” to mean something other
than what army usually means. Here’s my dictionary definition of army:
ar·my, noun, plural ar·mies
1.a. A large body of people organized and trained for land warfare. b. Often
Army The entire military land forces of a country. c. A tactical and
administrative military unit consisting of a headquarters, two or more corps,
and auxiliary forces. 2.A large group of people organized for a specific cause:
the construction army that built the Panama Canal. 3.A multitude; a host: An
army of waiters served at the banquet. See synonyms at multitude.
Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third
Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Etc, etc, etc...
Is it plain enough that the distinction between militia and army is simply that
of ordinary citizens versus professional soldiers? That’s what I see! The
Founding Fathers used the term army all the time -- they could have used it
here. But they didn’t -- they used the word militia instead. Why? Because
despite the “picky-picky” game, words do have meanings.
So, even in modern parlance, the use of the distinguishing term “militia” points
up that fact that the 2nd Amendment is specifially referencing a right
recognized and protected for ordinary citizens rather than professional
soldiers.
I suppose Kooties is going to emphasize the nagging phrase “well regulated”
whereas I could point out the equivalent weight of the nullifying phrase “shall
not be infringed.”
So is the right to bear arms to be so well regulated as to make it disappear; or
is it sacrosanct and immune to defeat or invalidation?
But actually it is not the right to bear arms that is to be well regulated, but
the militia itself. Isn’t that precisely how a posse is organized -- a group of
citizens under the direction of a Sheriff or other recognized leader?
The second part states plainly that the right of the people to keep and bear
arms shall not be defeated or invalidated.
That means to regulate and organize the people, but that the people themselves
have an inviolable right to bear arms.
And I didn’t have to resort to any particular in-depth research. I am using an
OEM version of Microsoft’s Bookshelf 2000 if anyone wants to double-check me.
-- Hop-Frog
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