View Single Post
Old 07-04-2008, 06:23 AM   #6 (permalink)
girldetective
sufferable
 
girldetective's Avatar
 
Definitions on the Web of militia as relates to the above:

☆ in the U.S., all able-bodied male citizens between 18 and 45 years old who are not already members of the regular armed forces: members of the National Guard and of the Reserves (of the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Navy, and Marine Corps) constitute the organized militia

Civilians trained as soldiers but not part of the regular army

The entire body of physically fit civilians eligible by law for military service


Edit: There are many defs of militia to mean any group of armed citizens, sometimes groups that oppose the govt. I dont think that is what our forefathers had in mind. They were operating under very different circumstances, technologies, time factors when they penned our Constitution. I believe the above defs in order of importance might have been more to their way of their thinking today. Note that the Consitution also states "Congress shall have power to provide for calling forth the militia". Not just a or any or an all citizens militia, but the militia. We normally operate under the first def.

Second edit: I have to say I dont want normal citizens to have the right to bear arms unless there would be a true emergency where we were being actively invaded as a country, where enemy soldiers might be walking our streets killing our citizens randomly. Maybe then. I believe this is what those old dudes might have been thinkin. Note the words "well regulated" in the OP. Having millions running around with guns in their pockets really cant ever be well regulated can it?
__________________
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons...be cheerful; strive for happiness - Desiderata

Last edited by girldetective; 07-04-2008 at 06:53 AM..
girldetective is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360