Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 03:23:46 -0500 From: "Thomas M. Sommers" <tms2@mail.ptd.net> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Guns and freedom [Was: Re: On "intelligent people" and "dangers to BSD"] Message-ID: <38E06C12.26BEA706@mail.ptd.net> References: <20000326015310.A846@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com> <200003280035.RAA06519@usr06.primenet.com> <20000327221634.A11538@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com>
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"Crist J. Clark" wrote:
>
> Not so fast, you say it yourself. It says that the right to bear arms
> in order to sustain a well regulated malitia will not be infringed. To
> a certain extent, the militias of that era are what we would consider
> the National Guard now-a-days.
The militia is defined in Title 10 of the USC:
Sec. 311. Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males
at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of
title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration
of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female
citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are -
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard
and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of
the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the
Naval Militia.
Some, perhaps all, states have similar statutes.
> Even if you won't read it in that sense, it by no means says, "the
> right of anyone to keep and bear any darn weapon they could ever
> want." Personally, if you have not picked it up yet, I'm all for
> people bearing rifles, shotguns, and "sport" weapons, but handguns,
> assault weapons, etc. really serve no legitimate purpose in society
> at large and there is no reason that they cannot be tightly
> regulated.
The First Congress did not go to the trouble of adopting the 2nd
amendment just to guarantee that good ol' boys would always be able to
hunt varmints. Just like every other provision in the constitution, it
has a political purpose. The framers believed, with good reason, that an
armed populace provided a check on the power of government.
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