Larry,
The only thing I would ask is this:
How is the 1st amendment an individual right, but the second is not?
That's all I want to know. Because as far as I am concerned without the 2nd,
you have no guarantee for the first.
Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: Larry C. Lyons [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Saturday, December 07, 2002 1:39 PM
To: CF-Community
Subject: RE: Poll was(RE: Court Upholds Calif. Assault Weapons Ban)
> Thanks for the link. But I have 6 copies of the Constitution in various
>forms.
>
> States do not have rights. Governments do not have rights. You can't
>enumerate a right to something that, by definition, is incapable of
>possessing such a thing.
>
> Why in the heck would our forefathers feel it necessary to enumerate the
>right of the organized militia to possess arms? The militia as a whole has
>no rights. Our national guard has no rights. Our military has no rights.
>
> And why do you think that the phrase "well regulated" means the national
>guards? No national guard existed then. Their concept of milita was a
>collection of citizens.
Wrong. The equivalent of the national guard existed long before this
nation. Look up the Ancient and Honorable Company of Artillery for
instance, or the Colonial Navy of Massachusetts for instance. The
original colonies had organized and well regulated militias since the
1600's. I'd also suggest that you look up a history of the Royal
American Regiment of Foot. Its formation in the 1750's and how it
recruited its And more importantly the relation between the line
regiments and the colonial militias.
Most of the New England colonies at the time of the French and Indian
Wars had very strict regulations regarding militia companies, types
of weapons they were to have, uniforms, when, where, and how often
they were to drill etc. In other words well regulated militia was
very well defined at the time.
>
> "Well regulated" does not mean government controlled. I know you yearn for
>total governmental domination. I realize that "1984" may be a fantasy of the
>left, but if you look at the word, you would see other definitions.
Cheap shot that. I could have said that Mein Kampf may be a fantasy
of the right wing.
>
> From dictionary.com [regulated]: 3. To adjust (a mechanism) for accurate
>and proper functioning 4. To put or maintain in order
>
> So, read that phrase as "A[n accurate and properly functioning] militia,
>being necessary to the security of a free state..." Or, "A[n orderly]
>militia, being necessary to the security of a free state..." So, our
>forefathers realized that in order to have a proper functioning militia, a
>militia of the citizens, they would need guns, in their PRIVATE possession.
>Why in private possession? Because the milita is us, the individual.
>
> Here is my state's Constitution on the definition of militia:
Irrelevant. The Constitution supercedes any state's constitution.
that has been well established since the whiskey rebellion of 1790,
and further reinforced by that minor fracas known as the American
Civil War.
>
>SECTION 2. Militia.--
>
>(a) The militia shall be composed of all able bodied inhabitants of the
>state who are or have declared their intention to become citizens of the
>United States; and no person because of religious creed or opinion shall be
>exempted from military duty except upon conditions provided by law.
> I'm going to borrow a couple of Timothy's posted quotes about the militia:
>
> * "A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves ...
>and include all men capable of bearing arms."
>Richard Henry Lee- Senator, First Congress
>
> "Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves?"
>---Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
>
I would also look up the phrase Argument by Authority so you can see
the paucity of your statements. Moreover I think that more recent
legal documents are far more relevant to our times.
As for the Richard Henry Lee quote, remember this is a man who only
escaped bankruptcy by marriage, and later by selling off most of the
family assets. Light-Horse Lee was also not a very good soldier, his
son Robert E. Lee was somewhat better.
larry
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