Gun Control Reform Activism

A militia does require weapons, and all the way back to feudal levies militiamen were expected to provide their own equipment. This might be by private possession, or by community ownership, served out to militia answering the call.

A point that always interests me is 'bear arms' rather than 'possess arms'. The usage 'bear arms' meant at the time, and for many years after, employment of arms in a military role. A man who had hunted all his life with a rifle but never served in the militia or in regular forces would not ever have 'borne arms' in the parlance of the day. The men writing that document were fairly careful in their choice of words, and if they meant simply the right of the people to possess arms one suspects that is what they would have written, rather than what they did write, the right of the people to bear arms, which places the matter inescapably in the context of military, not civil usage.