Rob Rogers for March 29, 2023

The Second Amendment is only one single sentence containing a mere 27 words: “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.” (Punctuation and capitalization shown as originally adopted.)

A “well regulated militia” is not an individual — it is an organized and disciplined public force. Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist #29 that it was to secure the sovereignty of free “States”; like our National Guard today which fills that role.

A “free State” does not enjoy “security” if it is under constant threat of be shot up in schools, churches, retail stores, concerts or nightclubs.

This is how the Amendment was always interpreted and understood from the time it was adopted in 1791 until a corrupt Supreme Court turned it on its head with a 2008 ruling 217 years later.

The Second Amendment was the right of a free State [capitalization of a word not usually capitalized] to raise its own militia apart from the Federal government. Alexander Hamilton (another of the Founders) explained explicitly in Federalist #29 mean that, while Article I Section 8 reserved the right to raise armies to the Federal government, the Second Amendment would preserve the rights of States, as differentiated from the federal government, to raise their own forces to handle emergencies. And due to the Supremacy Clause (Article VI Section 2), the federal government would also have the power to call up or activate such a force for federal emergencies.

That is ridiculous. As is SCOTUS’s ruling that the right to bear arms isn’t constrained by the reason.

What if we end up forming a standing, professional army, and our “well regulated militia” uses the army’s weapons to perpetually commit mass murder on an unprecedented scale?!

If we actually followed the amendment – but we don’t, and have totally ignored the “well-regulated” part for decades, now.

The inmates have been in charge of the asylum for at least a generation, and, if you question some gun owners as to why they “need” weaponry, they’ll tell you it’s so that when the “government” fails and “someone” tries to take “control”, they’ll be able to protect what’s theirs…

In other words, they’re planning rebellion.

Law need to change as society evolves

The Founding Fathers applaud each mass killing as showing U.S. protection of the 2nd Amendment … /s.

Off subject sort of , I went to my first ( and last ! ) Gun show this pass weekend , not impressed at all , talk about a lot of Sketchy vendors !

A well regulated militia means we need to keep guns away from the criminals and insane people.

It’s not the innocent law abiding citizen that is killing the kids.

If they could only have foreseen. They could never have anticipated our situation. The QOP has much for which to answer.

Do we think the founding fathers foresaw high powered fully automatic rifles with 30-40 round magazines when they wrote that?

There were no public schools back then. And a mass shooter would be able to get off at best 3 or 4 shots a minute. But we must remember that the Founding Fathers were all-wise and fully anticipated all future developments.

So now it has been interpreted as the right to murder children randomly, in large numbers.

Sorry to pick nits but is that supposed to be James Madison holding the pen? I sure hope so, since Jefferson was in France when they drafted the Constitution. But the guy in the picture sure does LOOK like Jefferson, so it makes me wonder.

America, land of gun care and health control.

If it actually were “well regulated”, that’d be a start.

Be a non issue if they only used the same armament that was available at the time. Those flintlock muskets took some time to reload, give lots of time for children to run

The GQP says “We’re not going to change that” Does that mean their usual and insincere T&P’s are all they have yet again or that they really admit that no, they are not ever even going to try? Keep those checks coming in and thanks NRA/ILA! Kids never ever come before those checks

Not quite right, Rob. No militia has been involved in these mass shootings, much less a well regulated one among the fascists and Q-quackers.

When it comes to the really important things, Republican lawmakers are failing us and cannot be trusted.

Even during the 18th century mass murder was frowned upon unless it involved colonizing somewhere or other.

People are the problem, guns are not the problem.

The “founding fathers” missed a lot in writing the Constitution… trump, magas, tea baggers, social media, billionaires, rampant capitalism, abject poverty… surprising? not really… white slave owning land owning wealthy men = epitome of patriarchy and hierarchy.

mmmm……you don’t see those “Army Of One” recruitment commercials anymore.

What all the supposed 2nd Amendment supporters forget . . . The debate was about whether States could maintain their own militias, not about whether there was an individual right own firearms.

Use the 2nd Amendment as written and intended. If you want a firearm, you need to join your State’s national guard. While doing your duty, the Guard can monitor for changes in personality

So much bull so little brains

If only we could have armed guards protecting the school utilizing the Second Amendment to protect the kids.

How would an ‘originalist’ jurist reply to the question of could the Founders envision modern weaponry shooting up schools? Warm up the Time Machine!

Actually, to further nitpick, the “well-regulated militia” of Ohio did, in fact, massacre children on May 4th, 1970 because of policies of republican president, Richard Nixon. So even that’s been done.