MEMBER BLOG TAG: militia
| Wednesday, October 20, 2010 1:53PM | | | | Second Amendment & the Dick Act | Tags: Dick Act, Second Amendment, militia, keep and bear arms, national security, Lincoln
| | | | The Militia Act of 1792 mandated that “each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States...who is or shall be of age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years” be a member of the militia. Section XI dealt with select paramilitary or unregulated militia, “That such corps retain their accustomed privileges subject, nevertheless, to all other duties required by this Act, in like manner with the other militias.”
In 1842 Joseph Story, Supreme Court justice and author of Commentaries on the Constitution noticed a problem that existed from the beginning, the unwillingness of some of the militia to be regulated. “And yet, though this truth would seem so clear, and the importance of a well regulated militia would seem... | | | | | | | Tuesday, October 5, 2010 12:44PM | | | | Second Amendment & History | Tags: laws, guns, militia, presidential uses of militia, treason, insurrection
| | | | “The founding fathers” is a useful literary construct, but deceptive. There is no authoritative list of the “founding fathers,” and the revolutionaries who gained freedom and wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, the Second Amendment and the Militia Acts were a contentious bunch unified by a desire “to form a more perfect union” but with different ideas as to how to do it. Unlike the present political situation where one party wants the government to fail so corporations can rule, the founding fathers contended for their view but accepted majority rule.
It might be useful to consider what the founding fathers did. In 1786, three years after independence was won, before the Constitution was written, the first Congress met... | | | | | | | Wednesday, September 22, 2010 4:40PM | | | | Second Amendment & Militia Acts | Tags: Bill of Rights, Militia Acts, federal mandates, paramilitary
| | | | “A well-regulated militia, being necessary for a free state...” Why was a well-regulated militia necessary for a free state?
After the defeat of the British army in 1783, Congress disbanded the Continental Army for fear that a standing army in time of peace was “inconsistent with the principles of republican government, dangerous to the liberties of a free people, and generally converted into destructive engines for establishing despotism.”
Except for the coast, the borders were disputed. Spain did not recognize US sovereignty and had forts and missions to the south and west. The British remained in Canada, occupied forts in the disputed border, and British agents attempted to create trouble between the new nation and the original inhabitants. The country could not support a standing army,... | | | | | | | Thursday, September 16, 2010 2:58PM | | | | Second Amendment - first 10 words | Tags: Second Amendment, Constitution, Second Continental Congress, militia, guns
| | | | “A well-regulated militia, being necessary for a free state...” What did the “founding fathers” mean by those words?
Five politicians on the Supreme Court claimed that those words were meaningless, the founding fathers meant nothing by them. The National Rifle Association agreed that the words were idle chatter. Some white supremacists, politicians, and candidates for national office declare that the founding fathers intended the Second Amendment to enable citizens to rebel against the government.
Those who make such claims must overlook the written intention of the founding fathers, the militia acts, and history.
In 1777, “the Second Year of the Independence of America,” the founding fathers, sometimes referred to as the Second Continental Congress, adopted the Articles of Confederation. Article 6, paragraph 4: “every State shall... | | | | | | | Sunday, April 29, 2007 9:53AM | | | | The Lost Boys of Sudan | Tags: Mary Williams, Southern Sudan, Darfur, militia
| | | | Valentino Achak Deng had a surprise for the hundreds (at least, it looked like hundreds) of people waiting on line to see him and Dave Eggers at the Donnell Library on Thursday night: he had become a US citizen the day before! At Eggers’ prompting he opened the folder he had brought with him and showed us the certificate. We all applauded heartily. It was a sweet moment in an evening full of heart-warming and wrenching moments. And hugely informative – at least for those of us, like me, who hadn’t yet read What is the What.
For us, the biggest surprise of the evening was to put a face on the hero of Dave Eggers’ “novel,” and to discover how their unique collaboration came about.
It... | | | | | |
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