Quote:
Originally Posted by detbuch
"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." George Mason Co-author of the Second Amendment during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution, 1788
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This isn't even a real quote, it's two Mason quotes glued together. The second statement was in context of the British Government's attempts to control the subjects in America.
Regardless, Mason's remarks at the debate were against reliance on a standing army (in addition to the risks he thought it posed) in favor of local militias that could be raised when necessary. They would need to be "well regulated" so that states that were called to come to the aid of other states would be sufficiently trained and equipped.
But fast forward a few hundred years and the militias are now really the National Guard, run by the states and regulated and funded by the federal government.
If you're called up for National Guard duty you don't bring your personal AR-15 in fact you're not even allowed.
How this justifies the average person to have a weapons designed for war is beyond me.