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"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."
As written, the right to bear arms only applies to people who are in a well regulated militia.
To me it seems like that statement is broken down into two parts, divided by the second comma.
What it's premise is is that a militia could be formed at any time when the need arises (the Minutemen, etc.), so all the citizenry can have guns so that they are armed when the militia is formed.
~~Now if back then militias always existed, and they were not formed/disbanded as needed, then ignore what I just said, as it's incorrect.~~ Edit: just realized if they're always formed or not wasn't the issue, its if they were given guns to fight or if they had to bring their own guns to the fight.
Interesting, I'd never read it that way before. A lot of interpretation sure does seem to hinge on those little commas.
This is how I've always read it, especially given the historical context of the minute men being ready to go within a minute should the continental army/US call them to service.
The US wasn't intended to have a standing army when we were founded, it was supposed to be militias.
The current constitution was created in part to allow a standing army to exist. It turns out not having a standing army and relying in 13+ militias to become an army doesn't actually work.
The difference between an army and a milita being premeditation.
But if you follow this logic, how does it apply to the modern world? At the time, there was no standing army, but people could be called up to serve at anytime. There was no all-powerful military industrial complex, so people may need to supply their own gear. Hunting was common and war technology was primitive, so the gear you might keep anyway was directly applicable to war. The goals of this amendment really don’t apply anymore, so how can this topic best serve the people?
This provision is completely irrelevant because we now have literal national guard in every state. The 2nd needs to be removed entirely. There is no need for militias anymore to defend the US against Britain or any other country.
Well, that's a whole other different conversation to be had. I just replied with an interpretation of the actual amendment.
Our forefathers expected us to modify and enhance the Constitution over the centuries, and not that it would be static forever, mired in the time frame of when it was written.
Modify through amendments, not malicious interpretation
I wasn't suggesting anything malicious. /shrug
Having said that, the amendments themselves are interpreted, which gets us to where we are today, since they were written so long ago. Time has a way of distorting both language and meaning.
I wasn't saying you are, just what I hear argued from most people in support of a living constitution. Basically that the text of the law doesn't matter, if it's considered outdated. But IMO thats the place of the elected legislature to change, not judges, who's job is to best apply what was written.
That's definitely true, but there are more genuine honest interpretations, and more dishonest ones. IMO, looking at what the intent was at the time of writing is best, but I can understand the argument of only wanting to follow what is explicitly written.
Not disagreeing with anything that you wrote, but as far as what I quoted above, I just wanted to say that 'dishonesty' tends to be in the eye of the beholder, and people tend to distort their reality based on their own personal worldview/bias', so it's hard to get a 'pure' interpretation.
But I do agree that we should all strive for honest interpretations, the best we can.
The monkey paw curls. Gun control laws that do not exempt people who are in a well regulated militia are unconstitutional.
This would...be good actually? The scary thing about guns isn't revolutions, it's random sad men poisoned with conservatism doing a mass shooting.
It would invalidate every firearm regulation at the federal level. None of them include carve outs for militia.
Do you need to explicitly include carve-outs or are those implicit? Don’t laws just get interpreted with the constitution in mind, without having to be completely thrown out? Genuinely asking!
I try to be nice to people asking questions.
edit: I mean, if you don't understand, and I didn't answer your question, please feel comfortable to ask more questions.
If you have a law that says "a person cannot carry a gun in a courthouse", that would mean everyone, including police, cannot carry a gun in a courthouse. You can say, "felons cannot possess firearms." I guess that "exempts" people who are not felons implicitly.
I'm not sure if I understand your question correctly. A portion of a law can be struck down without the whole law being struck down as unconstitutional.
Thanks, I think you answered with your last sentence. They could conceivably just make the part of the law that affects militia members invalid, and keep the rest. Or do they have to literally strike out clauses in the language of the law? If it’s worded too generally it would be impossible to do so without gutting it.
Monkey's toe curls: well regulated means heavy government oversight and oh, so many sensitivity and diversity equity trainings
I would support an affirmative action firearm ownership program.
In this context "well regulated" meant "in proper working order" not heavily overseen.
I'd argue our militias don't seem to be in proper working order.
The modern use of "regulated" isn't the same as it was then.
Regulation had to do with training and equipment. The idea was that militias, as opposed to a standing ("Regular") army, weren't always trained and armed when they were called to arms. The idea of a "well-regulated militia" was for civilians to already have weapons and understand their use if they were needed.
So a requirement for a well-regulated militia is for civilians to have the right to own and use weapons.
Is it antiquated? Maybe. But saying that "well-regulated" militia was meant to limit access to firearms is an argument based on either ignorance or dishonesty.
Well not quite. Well regulated did also include training and they did not consider the average person to be well trained enough to qualify for the phrase.
It's both. Without weapons with which to train, a well-regulated militia made up of ordinary civilians isn't possible.
It's saying, with a weird comma out of place, that civilians can be armed so that a militia is possible.
Aren't there already limits on what firearms people can have? Also, if understanding their use is a requirement then why isn't training necessary to purchase one?
Aside from the fact that "training" takes many forms, what the law is saying is that, at a bare minimum, people need the right to keep weapons so that it's possible to form a militia. If you take a random person who has never owned a weapon and throw one in their hands they won't even know how to hold the damn thing.
If you spend any time at a gun range, the absolute scariest people are adults who have never handled a gun before. Without the right to own private weapons, if a civil defense situation were to arise and weapons were handed out, that would be everyone. As a national defense strategy, it's pretty awful.
So they made a law guaranteeing the rights for civilians to own and train on weapons.
As I said, we're not in any real threat If the British invading these days, but if we're talking about the original language there it is.
Training would not take many forms if they federally mandated a set of training guidelines.