" Yes Ron, they CAN claim this. That's the way the Founders' intended it.

The Supreme Court just confirmed it. "

" Militia: An army composed of ordinary citizens rather than professional soldiers.

US Constitution reads: ‘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.’

Yea, I understand my rights. Im an ordinary Citizen, and I have the right to arm myself. period. "

" Ron….everybody is entitled to an opinion, even a wrong opinion.

Has it ever occurred to the anti gun crowd…the far left…that for over a century after the Amendments were ratified there were no regulations or restrictions on any type fire arm, cannon, gattlin gun etc. There were no regulation or restrictions of concealment and many congressional representatives carried concealed weapons where ever they went. There were vast areas of the country were gun ownership was the only insurance policy available….and like today very effective. Few of these gun owners were militia members…or required to be militia members…

There certainly wasn’t ever any regulation of gun ownership or ever any restrictions placed on use or carrying…I don’t think there is a single example of a militia registering a private owners gun….so much for well regulated.


By no means a composition expert….but just by reading the consistency of the punctuation throughout the Amendments, I’d Ron is wrong. "

" while the court reaffirmed the right to keep a firearm, it also agreed that the possession could be regulated, so I would look to see new gun control regulations coming down the pike as D.C. regroups after losing the case. "

" actually there were a number of town throughout the west that regulated the use of firearms....such has having to check your handgun when entering town...

and tying its use to being a part of the militia, in the early new england colonies...and requiring it to be well maintained and its owner to be trained in its use. "

" "I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials."
— George Mason, in Debates in Virginia Convention on
Ratification of the Constitution, Elliot, Vol. 3, June 16, 1788
The U.S. Code states the following;
§ 311. Militia: composition and classes
How Current is This? (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.

item two refers to citizens of the U.S. "

" are the members of the national guard expected to provide their own weapons...no....?...even during the greatest call up of militia's...the civil war,.....the US govt provided both the weapons and the training so their is not reason to even tie the need for a militia to having a firearm...in a modern technological armed force, you need to make sure everyone is playing with the same equipment. "

" It is good to read carefully, but it is more important to understand the context under which something was written. It clearly was never the Founding Fathers' intent to limit gun ownership to members of a militia. Given the historical circumstances, it makes more sense that the Second Amendment writers wanted to encourage gun ownership so that whenever a militia had to be called up, there was a ready pool of responsible and knowledgeable marksmen to draw from. "

" The Constitution is clearly interpreted by the Supreme Court, which is the final word.

There is no room to re-interpret the decision just made. "

" Raven…the point is that restrictions on carrying a firearm occurred a century after the Amendments were ratified, and during this period there wasn’t a linkage between firearm ownership and militia membership…none.

None of the restrictions placed on carrying a firearm a hundred years later had anything to do with the right to own nor were they even remotely linked in any manor to the local militia, regulated or not… militias west of the Mississippi were far and few in-between and gun ownership was a common as owning a horse…the simple premise that ownership is tied to a well regulated militia has no historical foundation what so ever at any period in our nations history.

As posted earlier….the Supreme Court finally got something right. "

" The national Guard is part of the ORGANIZED state militia. It is a seperate entity from the Unorganized militia as described in my post above.

Google it.

I guess all the frightening images on the evening news has accomplished it's goal of scaring you to death of guns. "

" Interesting that there are a few studies that indicate most of the deaths from firearms, before 1900 and excluding wars, were self-inflicted, namely accidental...early records of the pioneers are few of accounts travelers accidently shooting themselves with their trusty rifle or pistol.

And of course, the best know lawmen made their names running towns were a common ordinance was checking your firearms when you came into town...sounds like gun-control to me "