Reply #331: Exactly right! [View All]

[gorfle]

That 'very restricted' or 'non-existent federal army' didn't exactly work out under existing Constitutional law .... did it?

You are exactly right! As I said before, in 1903, and later in 1908, the Dick Act federalized state militias, creating the National Guard, which was, in essence, reserve federal troops. This eliminated the restricted federal army, or rather, it eliminated the state-controlled counterbalance to it.

See:

http://www.history.army.mil/documents/1901/Root-NG.htm

Ostensibly, this was done because the states did not uniformly provide for their militia obligations, and many were mere social clubs in an attempt to get those enrolled to actually show up to "drills". The Dick Act provided federal guidelines and money and resources so that there was a standard measure for the state-provided military forces.

But before we move on to discussing the ramification of this event as it relates to the second amendment, we first have to agree on what the founding fathers intended for militias in the first place, because we can't move on to the ramifications of the Dick Act and federalization of the militias with respect to the 2nd Amendment until we agree on what role the militias were intended to serve.

So...are you convinced yet what role the founding fathers intended for the militias to play?