03/06/2016
The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Some would lead you to believe that what this means is a well armed militia is necessary to our freedom. They will say when this was written the militias were made up of mostly ordinary citizens. They continue to argue that the right to bear arms no longer is necessary because we now have a strong independent military that is not supplemented with citizens. Therefore ordinary citizens no longer need to own or bear arms.
The Constitution along with the Bill of Rights, was written at a time when British rule was still fresh in the minds of our framers. The citizens had no control of the British government and had very little means to oppose any ruling handed down. With this in mind, the 2nd Amendment was written...with very specific language. A well "regulated" Militia...
To regulate you must have opposing force. To have anything well regulated you must have a method of controlling the applied force. To have a well regulated militia you must have a means of opposing force to prevent an all powerful government. So to rephrase the wording, "a well controlled militia, which is necessary to a free state, the right of the people to bear arms (provide a resisting force) shall not be infringed."
Protecting hunting and sporting rights was never the purpose of the 2nd Amendment, if it was, it would have been stated. Hunting and sporting was not taken into consideration because it was not an issue at the time the 2nd Amendment was written, and isn’t today. Hunting was expected, sporting was covered in another area of the Constitution, something most likely in the order of the “pursuit of happiness”. The authors did not take into consideration that someone would want to take our right to hunt, to gather food, or our ability to enjoy a sporting event. The single purpose of the 2nd Amendment is to protect the people from the power of the government.
Even though it still several months away, vote wisely in the up coming elections.
Bill Therriault
