Reply #229: No rewriting at all... [View All]

[MrBenchley]

Writers taking this approach ignore, or are not familiar with, the authoritative conclusions of the Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, which declares that "to bear arms" is a figurative usage meaning "to serve as a soldier, do military service, fight"

http://www.potomac-inc.org/emerappa.html

"The Constitution does not specify a *state* militia."

TOO fucking funny for words.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State..."

http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

The Federal Paper discussing the militia is addressed "To the People of the State of New York: "
That wasn't because Alexander Hamilton didn't want to discuss state militias.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/fed/fed_29.html

"At one moment there is to be a large army to lay prostrate the liberties of the people; at another moment the militia of Virginia are to be dragged from their homes five or six hundred miles, to tame the republican contumacy of Massachusetts; and that of Massachusetts is to be transported an equal distance to subdue the refractory haughtiness of the aristocratic Virginians. Do the persons who rave at this rate imagine that their art or their eloquence can impose any conceits or absurdities upon the people of America for infallible truths? "