The whole issue of gun control is a really, really simple issue. To start off all you have to do is read the second amendment:
“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.”
After reading this you have to define a few terms, your first question should be, “who the heck is in the militia?”.
The answer as follows from the 10 U.S.C. § 311 – Militia: composition and classes, which reads as follows:
“(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.”
The above reference from the law clearly shows that everyone age 17-45 who is “able-bodied” is considered part of the militia, as long as they are citizens or intend to become citizens. Now there are exceptions to the age 17-45 rule, which is listed in this excerpt:
(b) To be eligible for appointment as an officer of the National Guard, a person must—
(1) be a citizen of the United States; and
(2) be at least 18 years of age and under 64.”
So if you are a man, who is able bodied and between age 17-45 you are either part of the national guard (organized militia) or you are part of the “unorganized milita”. If you are a veteran of the US Armed Forces than you are considered in the militia until you are age 64.
The second amendment clearly states the need for a “well regulated” militia, I admit that finding the exact definition of those words is a little more tricky, recently though the U.S. Supreme Court shed some light on it in
“
a. “Well-Regulated Militia.” In United States v. Miller, 307 U. S. 174, 179 (1939), we explained that “the Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense.” That definition comports with founding-era sources. See, e.g., Webster (“The militia of a country are the able bodied men organized into companies, regiments and brigades . . . and required by law to attend military exercises on certain days only, but at other times left to pursue their usual occupations”); The Federalist No. 46, pp. 329, 334 (B. Wright ed. 1961) (J. Madison)(“near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands”); Letter to Destutt de Tracy (Jan. 26, 1811), in The Portable Thomas Jefferson 520, 524 (M. Peterson ed. 1975) (“[T]he militia of the State, that is to say, of every man in it able to bear arms”).
Petitioners take a seemingly narrower view of the militia, stating that “[m]ilitias are the state- and congressionally-regulated military forces described in the Militia Clauses (art. I, §8, cls. 15–16).” Brief for Petitioners 12. Although we agree with petitioners’ interpretive assumption that “militia” means the same thing in Article I and the Second Amendment, we believe that petitioners identify the wrong thing, namely, the organized militia. Unlike armies and navies, which Congress is given the power to create (“to raise . . . Armies”; “to provide . . . a Navy,” Art. I, §8, cls. 12–13), the militia is assumed by Article I already to be in existence. Congress is given the power to “provide for calling forth the militia,” §8, cl. 15; and the power not to create, but to “organiz[e]” it—and not to organize “a” militia, which is what one would expect if the militia were to be a federal creation, but to organize “the” militia, connoting a body already in existence, ibid.,
cl. 16. This is fully consistent with the ordinary definition of the militia as all able-bodied men. From that pool, Congress has plenary power to organize the units that will make up an effective fighting force. That is what Congress did in the first militia Act, which specified that “each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective states, resident therein, who is or shall be of the age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (except as is herein after excepted) shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia.” Act of May 8, 1792, 1 Stat. 271. To be sure, Congress need not conscript every able-bodied man into the militia, because nothing in Article I suggests that in exercising its power to organize, discipline, and arm the militia, Congress must focus upon the entire body. Although the militia consists of all able-bodied men, the federally organized militia may consist of a subset of them.
Finally, the adjective “well-regulated” implies nothing more than the imposition of proper discipline and training. See Johnson 1619 (“Regulate”: “To adjust by rule or method”); Rawle 121–122; cf. Va. Declaration of Rights§13 (1776), in 7 Thorpe 3812, 3814 (referring to “a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms”). 24 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER”
In Federalist paper number 29 Hamilton discusses the importance of a standing militia, having a small one that the state can use on a semi-regular basis, he states that the general population’s productivity would be hurt if they were constantly being called up for military exercises. He then goes on to state:
“Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped; and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.”
Of course these yearly checkups have fallen by the wayside, but from reading the above quotes it is my belief that our founding fathers intended for all males between 17-45 and prior military between 17-64 to have their own weapons and equipment so that in extreme circumstances they could band together and defend their nation. I will be the first to say that our founding fathers were very militant although it is my belief that this is a good thing. Based off the above quotes and my reading of them, I believe that is not only your right to own guns but you should be expected to own them, not just handguns or some bolt-action hunting rifle, if you are in either category of the militia it is your responsibility to own a semi-automatic rifle, such as the popular 5.56 or 7.62 rifles that our nation’s regular military uses as well as the necessary equipment, such as magazines, vests, fatigues, and proper boots. I further believe that the second amendment intended for the citizens of the United States to own any weapons that the infantry in the regular infantry used. At this time I cannot show any law to support this, rather it stems from my reading of the founding father’s documents.
The second amendment states that the “people’s right to bear arms” shall not be infringed. This of course means that not only do the militia have an obligation to buy guns, but the rest of the people’s right to buy guns is not to curtailed in any manner.
In conclusion, the government already started disarming the people by using the unconstitutional Gun Control Act of 1968, which was a knee-jerk reaction to the assassination of J.F.K. and not out of any concern for the people. That Act already overstepped congress’s authority and any further Acts by congress should be fought by any means necessary.
P.S. Some links and quotes for your further reading:
“Unfortunately, it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm sometimes involves taking his life. In this case, the fatal outcome is attributable to the aggressor whose actions brought it about, even though he may not be morally responsible because of a lack of the use of reason.” — Pope John Paul II
Thomas Jefferson: “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” (T. Jefferson papers, 334, C.J. Boyd, Ed. 1950)
James Madison: “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose people are afraid to trust them with arms.” (Federalist Paper #46)
George Mason: “To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them.” (3 Elliot, Debates at 380)
Noah Webster: “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.” (1787, Pamphlets on the Constitution of the US)
George Washington: “A free people ought to be armed.” (Jan 14 1790, Boston Independent Chronicle.)
George Mason: “I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.” (Elliott, Debates, 425-426)
Richard Henry Lee: “A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves…and include all men capable of bearing arms.” (Additional letters from the Federal Farmer, at 169, 1788)
Thomas Jefferson: “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither
inclined or determined to commit crimes. Such laws only make things worse for the assaulted and
better for the assassins; they serve more to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man
may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
John Adams: “Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self
defense.”
George Washington: “Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the
people’s liberty teeth (and) keystone… the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable… more than
99% of them [guns] by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very
atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference [crime]. When firearms go, all goes,
we need them every hour.” (Address to 1st session of Congress)
George Mason: “To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them.” (3 Elliot,
Debates at 380)
James Madison: “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of
other countries, whose people are afraid to trust them with arms.” (Federalist Paper #46)
More Recent quotes:
Adolf Hitler: “This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead.” (Chancelor’s Speech, 1935)
Charles Shumer: (US Congressman, D-NY, has sworn an oath to defend the US Constitution) “All we ask for is registration, just like we do for cars.”
Adolf Hitler: “The most foolish mistake we could make would be to allow the subject peoples to possess arms. So let’s not have any talk about native militias.” (Hitler’s Secret Conversations, 1941-44, Farrar, Strauss and Young, 1953)
Mao Tse Tung: “All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party.” (Problems of War and Strategy, Nov 6 1938, published in “Selected Works of Mao Zedong,” 1965)
Diane Feinstein: (US Senator, D-CA) “If I could have banned them all- ‘Mr. and Mrs. America turn in your guns’ -I would have!” (Statement on TV program 60 Minutes, Feb 5 1995)
Mahatma Gandhi: “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” (“Gandhi, an Autobiography,” M.K. Gandhi, 446)
Sigmund Freud: “A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.” (“General Introduction to Psychoanalysis,” S. Freud)
Bill Clinton: (US President) “When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly…When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.” (April 19 1994, on MTV)
“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.”
After reading this you have to define a few terms, your first question should be, “who the heck is in the militia?”.
The answer as follows from the 10 U.S.C. § 311 – Militia: composition and classes, which reads as follows:
“(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.”
The above reference from the law clearly shows that everyone age 17-45 who is “able-bodied” is considered part of the militia, as long as they are citizens or intend to become citizens. Now there are exceptions to the age 17-45 rule, which is listed in this excerpt:
32 USC § 313 – Appointments and enlistments: age limitations
“(a) To be eligible for original enlistment in the National Guard, a person must be at least 17 years of age and under 45, or under 64 years of age and a former member of the Regular Army, Regular Navy, Regular Air Force, or Regular Marine Corps. To be eligible for reenlistment, a person must be under 64 years of age.(b) To be eligible for appointment as an officer of the National Guard, a person must—
(1) be a citizen of the United States; and
(2) be at least 18 years of age and under 64.”
So if you are a man, who is able bodied and between age 17-45 you are either part of the national guard (organized militia) or you are part of the “unorganized milita”. If you are a veteran of the US Armed Forces than you are considered in the militia until you are age 64.
The second amendment clearly states the need for a “well regulated” militia, I admit that finding the exact definition of those words is a little more tricky, recently though the U.S. Supreme Court shed some light on it in
“
a. “Well-Regulated Militia.” In United States v. Miller, 307 U. S. 174, 179 (1939), we explained that “the Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense.” That definition comports with founding-era sources. See, e.g., Webster (“The militia of a country are the able bodied men organized into companies, regiments and brigades . . . and required by law to attend military exercises on certain days only, but at other times left to pursue their usual occupations”); The Federalist No. 46, pp. 329, 334 (B. Wright ed. 1961) (J. Madison)(“near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands”); Letter to Destutt de Tracy (Jan. 26, 1811), in The Portable Thomas Jefferson 520, 524 (M. Peterson ed. 1975) (“[T]he militia of the State, that is to say, of every man in it able to bear arms”).
Petitioners take a seemingly narrower view of the militia, stating that “[m]ilitias are the state- and congressionally-regulated military forces described in the Militia Clauses (art. I, §8, cls. 15–16).” Brief for Petitioners 12. Although we agree with petitioners’ interpretive assumption that “militia” means the same thing in Article I and the Second Amendment, we believe that petitioners identify the wrong thing, namely, the organized militia. Unlike armies and navies, which Congress is given the power to create (“to raise . . . Armies”; “to provide . . . a Navy,” Art. I, §8, cls. 12–13), the militia is assumed by Article I already to be in existence. Congress is given the power to “provide for calling forth the militia,” §8, cl. 15; and the power not to create, but to “organiz[e]” it—and not to organize “a” militia, which is what one would expect if the militia were to be a federal creation, but to organize “the” militia, connoting a body already in existence, ibid.,
cl. 16. This is fully consistent with the ordinary definition of the militia as all able-bodied men. From that pool, Congress has plenary power to organize the units that will make up an effective fighting force. That is what Congress did in the first militia Act, which specified that “each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective states, resident therein, who is or shall be of the age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (except as is herein after excepted) shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia.” Act of May 8, 1792, 1 Stat. 271. To be sure, Congress need not conscript every able-bodied man into the militia, because nothing in Article I suggests that in exercising its power to organize, discipline, and arm the militia, Congress must focus upon the entire body. Although the militia consists of all able-bodied men, the federally organized militia may consist of a subset of them.
Finally, the adjective “well-regulated” implies nothing more than the imposition of proper discipline and training. See Johnson 1619 (“Regulate”: “To adjust by rule or method”); Rawle 121–122; cf. Va. Declaration of Rights§13 (1776), in 7 Thorpe 3812, 3814 (referring to “a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms”). 24 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER”
In Federalist paper number 29 Hamilton discusses the importance of a standing militia, having a small one that the state can use on a semi-regular basis, he states that the general population’s productivity would be hurt if they were constantly being called up for military exercises. He then goes on to state:
“Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped; and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.”
Of course these yearly checkups have fallen by the wayside, but from reading the above quotes it is my belief that our founding fathers intended for all males between 17-45 and prior military between 17-64 to have their own weapons and equipment so that in extreme circumstances they could band together and defend their nation. I will be the first to say that our founding fathers were very militant although it is my belief that this is a good thing. Based off the above quotes and my reading of them, I believe that is not only your right to own guns but you should be expected to own them, not just handguns or some bolt-action hunting rifle, if you are in either category of the militia it is your responsibility to own a semi-automatic rifle, such as the popular 5.56 or 7.62 rifles that our nation’s regular military uses as well as the necessary equipment, such as magazines, vests, fatigues, and proper boots. I further believe that the second amendment intended for the citizens of the United States to own any weapons that the infantry in the regular infantry used. At this time I cannot show any law to support this, rather it stems from my reading of the founding father’s documents.
The second amendment states that the “people’s right to bear arms” shall not be infringed. This of course means that not only do the militia have an obligation to buy guns, but the rest of the people’s right to buy guns is not to curtailed in any manner.
In conclusion, the government already started disarming the people by using the unconstitutional Gun Control Act of 1968, which was a knee-jerk reaction to the assassination of J.F.K. and not out of any concern for the people. That Act already overstepped congress’s authority and any further Acts by congress should be fought by any means necessary.
P.S. Some links and quotes for your further reading:
“Unfortunately, it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm sometimes involves taking his life. In this case, the fatal outcome is attributable to the aggressor whose actions brought it about, even though he may not be morally responsible because of a lack of the use of reason.” — Pope John Paul II
Thomas Jefferson: “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” (T. Jefferson papers, 334, C.J. Boyd, Ed. 1950)
James Madison: “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose people are afraid to trust them with arms.” (Federalist Paper #46)
George Mason: “To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them.” (3 Elliot, Debates at 380)
Noah Webster: “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.” (1787, Pamphlets on the Constitution of the US)
George Washington: “A free people ought to be armed.” (Jan 14 1790, Boston Independent Chronicle.)
George Mason: “I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.” (Elliott, Debates, 425-426)
Richard Henry Lee: “A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves…and include all men capable of bearing arms.” (Additional letters from the Federal Farmer, at 169, 1788)
Thomas Jefferson: “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither
inclined or determined to commit crimes. Such laws only make things worse for the assaulted and
better for the assassins; they serve more to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man
may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
John Adams: “Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self
defense.”
George Washington: “Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the
people’s liberty teeth (and) keystone… the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable… more than
99% of them [guns] by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very
atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference [crime]. When firearms go, all goes,
we need them every hour.” (Address to 1st session of Congress)
George Mason: “To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them.” (3 Elliot,
Debates at 380)
James Madison: “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of
other countries, whose people are afraid to trust them with arms.” (Federalist Paper #46)
More Recent quotes:
Adolf Hitler: “This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead.” (Chancelor’s Speech, 1935)
Charles Shumer: (US Congressman, D-NY, has sworn an oath to defend the US Constitution) “All we ask for is registration, just like we do for cars.”
Adolf Hitler: “The most foolish mistake we could make would be to allow the subject peoples to possess arms. So let’s not have any talk about native militias.” (Hitler’s Secret Conversations, 1941-44, Farrar, Strauss and Young, 1953)
Mao Tse Tung: “All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party.” (Problems of War and Strategy, Nov 6 1938, published in “Selected Works of Mao Zedong,” 1965)
Diane Feinstein: (US Senator, D-CA) “If I could have banned them all- ‘Mr. and Mrs. America turn in your guns’ -I would have!” (Statement on TV program 60 Minutes, Feb 5 1995)
Mahatma Gandhi: “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” (“Gandhi, an Autobiography,” M.K. Gandhi, 446)
Sigmund Freud: “A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.” (“General Introduction to Psychoanalysis,” S. Freud)
Bill Clinton: (US President) “When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly…When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.” (April 19 1994, on MTV)
