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"Well regulated"

871 views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  liberty1 
#1 ·
On FB , I was reading a post about the Second Amendment. Some Democrat said, " it says a 'well regulated' militia. How regulated? Asking for a friend". Meaning of course that the government has the power to regulate the militia (or citizens) use of guns.

I thought that was a good question so I looked up the meaning of "regulated" in common use during the period that the Constitution was written.

Here's a good explanation that I found:

The phrase “well-regulated” was in common use long before 1789, and remained so for a century thereafter. It referred to the property of something being in proper working order. Something that was well-regulated was calibrated correctly, functioning as expected. Establishing government oversight of the people’s arms was not only not the intent in using the phrase in the 2nd amendment, it was precisely to render the government powerless to do so that the founders wrote it.

the score so far: Constitution -1
2A hating Liberals -0
 
#15 ·
That's exactly right. Even Scalia failed to undertand it.
 
#4 ·
If the forefathers had really been forward thinking, they would have left out that "well regulated militia" portion in its entirety and saved us a lot of heartache. There was no reason for any alleged need or qualification, just a simple "The right to keep and bare arms shall not be infringed."

But to our distress, they decided to be eloquently wordy.
 
#6 ·
Words have meaning, but as you found out the meaning can change over time.
The constitution must be followed by the original intent of the signers.

Our forefathers never dreamed that we would turn into a nation of morons.
 
#10 ·
Ask your anti 2A friend to read and explain the other 9 amendments in the Bill of Rights. Then ask why they think:
A. Only the 2nd is difficult to read.
Or
B. Only the 2nd is full of grammatical errors.
Oh, they don't think it's difficult to read or has grammatical errors...they think it clearly means that the militia (or people) can be regulated by the government. That explains the constant push to institute more gun laws.
 
#11 ·
No, that was for a laxative commercial.

Regulated also meant trained, and many militias of the day, being the "minuteman" type with no formal military training, were known to break ranks in the heat of the battle and were considered by many regular soldiers to be unreliable.
 
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