Re: CAN THE STATE MILITIAS EVER BE ABOLISHED?

On 28 Nov 2003 19:46:56 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leif Rakur)
wrote:

>When the Second Amendment was written, the states already had their
>militias.  The amendment was about protecting the people in their
>right to continue their state militia systems of security without
>infringement from the federal government.

     Actually,  it was protecting the "Right of the People" separate
from the states.   Otherwise,  it would have said "states" as in the
10th amendment.

       Similarly, at the time,   the only constutional power the feds
had over citizens arms would have been their control of the militia.
One of the antifederalists wrote "they can disarm the militia" as part
of his opposition to the new constitution.   So,  another likely goal
of the 2nd amendment was to prevent the feds from using its militia
powers to disarm the citizenry.   

PHP