Michael Wilbur writes that the "militia" referenced means all citizens, not organized miltiary units.
To the Editor:
The Los Angeles Times guest editorial in the Dec. 4 print edition ("America's infatuation with guns is bordering on a suicidal impulse") relies heavily on a popular liberal myth about the "true intent" of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
The editorial states "The Supreme Court...in its 2008 Heller decision...held that the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual's right to bear arms for traditionally lawful purposes... (The ruling was) a wrongheaded interpretation of wording that for decades was rightly understood to mean that organized military units...have a right to keep and bear arms."
Anyone knowledgeable of time in which the Bill of Rights was written knows that the Heller decision absolutely got it right, and the editorial writers are the ones with the "wrongheaded interpretation."
When delegates from the 13 colonies convened to ratify the Constitution, there were concerns that there was no language to prevent the U.S. government from growing just as tyrannical as British colonial rule had been.
The delegates then composed the Bill of Rights, earmarking those rights for protection from the new government. Contrary to popular belief, the Second Amendment has little to do with so-called "sporting purposes," and everything to do with ensuring that the government never again held such unchallenged power over its citizens.
The "militia" in the amendment is not the National Guard or similar military units. The Militia Act of 1792 defined it as "... each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States ... who is or shall be of age of eighteen years... shall... be enrolled in the militia... That every citizen, so enrolled and notified, shall...provide himself with a good musket or firelock...or with a good rifle... ."
In other words, if you were a white male 18 to 45, you were automatically a member of the militia and expected to supply your own weapon. The Second Amendment ensured that such citizens were able to do so. The racial restriction, a reflection of the times, was eliminated during the Civil War.
Michael S. Wilbur
Mickleton
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