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THE HERITAGE OF OUR RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

REPRESENTATIVE CLIFF STEARNS *

There is an old adage that says you need to look where you have been to learn where you are going. I believe that it is helpful, and sometimes necessary, to review the issues of the day through a political and historical perspective ¾ looking where we have been. Such a linear approach adds context to a discussion, providing an understanding as to why a sound policy in the past may or may not remain so today. This is especially applicable to the topic of this paper.

Full comprehension of the gun control debate depends on seeing the origin of the right to bear arms and considering its relevance today. The Founding Fathers did not create the concept sustaining a right to bear arms, they merely incorporated that right into the Constitution of the United States.[1] This right, as with many other rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, pre-dated colonial America.[2] Of all the rights held or rejected by man and woman, this right, essential to self defense, may reach back to the dawn of humanity.

There are three points critical to this discussion ¾ that our legitimate right to own firearms are based on the need for self defense, the need for self support such as hunting, and the need for communal defense (militia). Opponents of the private ownership of firearms seize on the last point as the sole reason for the existence of the Second Amendment.[3] They argue that the United States of America no longer has a militia system, thus negating the [Page 14] right of individuals to own arms. They refuse to see this fundamental right in light of the other needs previously mentioned. In doing so, they ignore the body of historic events that led to the inclusion of the right to bear arms initially in the English Bill of Rights and then the American Bill of Rights a century later.[4]

This and other rights must be openly acknowledged in order to prevent their suppression. These basic rights are not pulled out of thin air. There are specific reasons why such rights are guaranteed to all citizens. Generally, rights are enumerated as inviolable because they have either been denied or they are threatened.

Our Second Amendment right to bear arms has its direct antecedent in the English Bill of Rights which compressed the various reasons for owning a firearm into a right as a result of the government's efforts to disarm its citizens.[5] Events in English history provided many of the seeds that would become the fruit that we know as our Constitutional rights, among them the right to bear arms.

"The right of citizens to be armed not only is unusual, but evolved in England in an unusual manner: it began as a duty."[6] Life in Europe of the middle ages revolved around a series of obligations. Military service was a common requirement to a superior, and usually, it was bring your own weapon.[7] To prevent their troops from skimping on weaponry, laws evolved which described the types of weapons that the underlings would maintain.[8] Henry II of England did just that through the Assize of Arms of 1181:

Let every holder of a knight's fee have a hauberk, a helmet, a shield and a lance. And let every knight have as many hauberks, helmets, shields and lances, as he has knight's fees in his demesne. Also, let every free layman, who holds chattels of rent to the value of 16 marks, have a hauberk, a helmet, a shield and a lance. Also, let every free layman who holds chattels or rent worth 10 marks have an 'aubergel' and a headpiece of iron, and a lance.[9]

Not only were knights and free laymen required to keep and bear arms, their heirs were entitled to these weapons upon their death.[10] What we have [Page 15] here are citizen soldiers, the medieval precursor of the militia. This military system was dictated by the fact that lords and monarchs lacked the financial resources to maintain standing armies and by the nature of obligated service common to the era.[11] The value of citizen soldiers who viewed their service as a civic duty was recognized by the ancient Greeks and other civilizations.[12] This value would take hold in 16th and 17th century England and later would sink deep roots in America.[13]

THE HERITAGE OF OUR RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

I don't think our left wing buddies are interested in anything other than a bitchfest about the dreaded TEA Party.

I think they're scared. :lol: Whatever you do, do NOT sneak up on a Democrat.... they're very, very jumpy at the moment.:lol:

Nope. Since the history of gun control laws was to deny free blacks the right to bear arms, I don't believe in gun control. My family has been gun owners for generations and I will teach my grandkids to shoot. Please sneak up on me.
 
I'm a liberal and I love guns. I have no problem with the second amendment. Feel free to sneak up on me in good jest; I wouldn't suggest trying to break into my house.
 
I'm also a Libral and a gun owner. I don't buy the NRA's alarmist rhetoric that the 2nd Amendment is constantly under attack & the only way to save it is to continually send them $ LOL :rolleyes: the 2nd amendment aint goin nowhere.
 
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