Gun Control & RKBA

guillaumeb wrote: Then what was the point of specifically referring to a "well-regulated militia", and directly linking it to the right to keep and bear arms?

The first half of the 2ndA -- the declaratory clause -- is an inactive, dependent statement of principle, a maxim of our republic. The wording of the amendment conforms with the varying proposals from the states which mirrored the provisions in their own constitutions. In their constitutions the states lumped themes with similar objects (intents) together in their bills of rights. Most of the states had a provision that had the intent of binding government powers of force. These provisions had three prongs:

a) The citizens retained the right to arms
b) standing armies in time of peace were dangerous to a free state and not to be maintained
c) the military should always be subordinate to the civil authority.

Here are some examples of state provisions that were in force through the Revolutionary War and the enactment of the federal Constitution and the Bill of Rights:

1776 North Carolina: That the people have a right to bear arms, for the defence of the State; and as standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by the civil power. . . .


1777 Vermont: That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the State—and as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to and governed by the civil power.

1780 Massachusetts: The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence. And as, in time of peace, armies are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be maintained without the consent of the legislature; and the military power shall always be held in an exact subordination to the civil authority, and be governed by it.

1790 Pennsylvania: That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the state; and as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; And that the military should be kept under strict subordination, to, and governed by, the civil power.

The separate prongs of these directives were never considered interdependent (that all must exist for any to be actionable, i.e., that if a national standing army does exist, the right to arms of the citizens of that state can be extinguished.

Actually, it is clear that the standing army declarative clauses can never actually be brought to fruition. They are merely declarations of inactive / legally inert principle. It can't possibly refer to state action because the states are forbidden to keep troops by the federal Constitution and it certainly can not be interpreted to prevent the federal government from exercising its supreme and preemptive Art I, § 8, cl's 11, 12, 13 & 14 powers to organize and direct national armed forces.

The declaration in the federal 2nd Amendment, "[a] well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State" is inextricably meshed (philosophically) with, "as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up." To the framers each represented the same sentiment . . .

The declaratory clause of the 2nd Amendment only re-affirms what once was a universally understood and accepted maxim; that the armed citizenry dispenses with the need for a standing army (in times of peace) and those armed citizens stand as a barrier to foreign invasion and domestic tyranny (thus ensuring the free state).

If you really need the dependent declaratory clause to say something (or do something) it can only be read to be a declaration of why the AMENDMENT exists and as such it does not create, qualify, condition, modify or constrain the pre-existing right; it only states one particular political reason why the fully retained right is being forever shielded from government interference . . . To allow an organized militia to be formed calling the citizens to action.

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