OK, please cite the specific Article and Section of the US Constitution that states: "all able bodied men between the ages of 18 and 45 constitute the militia"?
I will be waiting. It is not an opening to give people's opinions. You right wing turds always like to use the Constitution as a weapon against liberals. Now is your chance. If it is in the Constitution, it should be easy for you experts to provide where it is written in the Constitution.
1-2-3-GO!
OK, please go to your local school board and ask for a refund for the tax payers for what was spent on your education, it was obviously a waste of their money. First off I never said anything about 18-45, I stated a militia is ALL citizens according to the men who wrote the Constitution including the Bill of Rights, debated about it and finally voted to ratify it. Secondly, the poster never said anyone who READ the Constitution, the poster stated anyone who ever STUDIED the Constitution, and to study the Constitution would include reading the writings of those who wrote it and the co-author and one of the Founders considered to be the Father of the Bill of Rights, CLEARLY stated that a militia is ALL citizens except a few govt officials.
Interesting concept you are cornering yourself in. So the Constitution is not
really a legal document ratified by the men who signed it. It is open to whatever opinions, arguments and debate that went on before they signed their names to it.
And here I always thought that the opinions, arguments and debate were only opinions, arguments and debate. And what they agreed on was written and ratified. I was wrong
I truly IS a living document...Thanks for that...
The Constitution is not open to debate and this is not an opinion, that's the problem we currently have today, too many slick mouthed lawyers debating what the Founders intent was. This is a statement of fact concerning what the co-author thought the militia was. The question is what is a militia? Since there are numerous meanings being thrown around, and seeing that word's meanings and usage sometimes change over time, the ONLY way to decipher what the authors meant by usuing the word militia is to look what they considered the word to mean at the time. Now when we do that, we see the co-author, one of the two men thought of as The Father's of the Bill of Rights, from his own words, we can clearly see what he thought the word he used meant. When the amendment was being debated, George Mason, was quite specific about what he meant by that word, "I ask, sir, what is the miilitia, It is the whole people, except for few public officials." (George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 425-426). So no, it's not a living document that can be changed as different justices offer their own political/social slant to the "intent". The Founders where pretty freaking clear on their intent and to find that intent, you go to other sources where the Founders wrote EXACTLY what their intent was. This "intent" was common knowledge among those who debated the issues regarding the Constitution and then later voted in favor of ratifying said document. Meaning EVERY man that voted to ratify the Constitution understood the word militia to mean EVERY citizen except a few politicians. We look further into the writings of the other men who debated the issue and then voted to ratify it to find what their "intent" was in including the 2nd Amendment in the document. We can clearly see from their writings that their intent wasn't to give us the right to hunt. Or the right to protect ourselves from predatory criminals, they had no reason to debate on that because in their minds, thoughts, opinions and beliefs, those two things went without saying, men had a right to procure food for their families and men had a right to use whatever means neccessary to protect their families from predatory scumbags. Their intent on including the 2nd Amendment was soley as a
final check and balance in our system of Govt. As a means to keep the govt from assuming total control over a free people. This is clearly evidenced by the writings of those who spoke in defense of the Amendment and those who voted for it's ratification.
"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms." (Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer (1788) at 169)
What, Sir, is the use of a militia?
(remember, this man was talking about Mason's, Lee's, Madison's idea of a militia being ALL Americans) It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins." (Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment [ I Annals of Congress at 750 {August 17, 1789}])
"Congress have no power to disarm the militia.
(Remeber, this man considered the Militia to be EVERY citizen, EVERY ONE, not a National Guard, but EVERY citizen)[/B]Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people" (Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788)
"The Constitution shall never be construed....to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms" (Samuel Adams, Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87)
"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." (Tench Coxe in `Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution' under the Pseudonym `A Pennsylvanian' in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1)
"No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." (Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334,[C.J.Boyd, Ed., 1950])
I could go on and on and on. The point is, we don't need the 9 whores in DC to "interpret" the meaning or intent of what the Founders wrote. They very clearly defined their meanings and intent for themselves.
