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Old 03-05-2018, 11:56 AM   #74
detbuch
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 7,688
[QUOTE=zimmy;1138798]Right, they blew it with the wording. There was no way for them to know that state militias would become obsolete.

The militia did not refer to "state" militias:
"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

There was no way for them to know the 14th amendment would come along and make it apply to state governments, as well as feds. It was 200 years until the Heller decision came along and flipped things on their head.

Heller decision didn't flip the original meaning. It asserted, in it's opinion, the original meaning.

Context of the writing of the 2nd amendment:
4 million people in US

Number of people in the entire nation is irrelevant. Most cities have less than 4 million people. Some States do.

Private arms were black powder flintlock muskets (a militia would have canons)

Private arms, flintlock muskets were the "assault" weapons of the day. They were standard military arms. And some private citizens did own canons--legally.

At time of writing, only applied to federal laws, states could have completely banned private ownership of arms.

That was one of the benefits of an armed citizenry. It would not have been possible then for the states to ban ownership of arms. And some of the original 13 state constitutions did establish the right to own and bear arms. And that right had already been established in English common law before the revolution and was considered by the Founders as a universal right.

Last edited by detbuch; 03-05-2018 at 12:05 PM..
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