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Authored by: Charles888 on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 10:04 AM EST |
In your analogy, "dead deer" can in no way be related to
"the people". In the 2nd, a well regulated militia ARE part
of the People. The REASON for "the right of the people to
keep and bear arms" is because "A well regulated militia,
being necessary to the security of a free state", but the
well regulated militia is part of the people getting that
right (or putting a limit on government power like you
argued before - effectively the same thing).
As to your argument about "well-regulated" being hyphenated.
I don't know where you get that myth (it is not the first
time I hear it, so it must be some gun right campaign red
herring). It makes no difference, but more importantly,
there is no such thing in the text of the amendment, they
are TWO WORDS (whether you read the official transcript or
go to the original document):
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_tra
nscript.html
One last thing: a militia is not just an armed populace. In
the context of the time, these states were a lot more
independent than they are today after multiple amendments.
They were trying to protect their means to field a military
force. A militia, in the vernacular of the time, were the
states military, as opposed to the Continental Army (the
federal military) which became a few years later the US
Army. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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