Since Simon doesn't appear
to want to discuss this, I'm going to elaborate a bit. It is axiomatic that an 18th century militia
would have possessed and used arms, because then as now, the word is defined
along military lines. How else would a
militia have fought? --Harsh language? --Sticks and stones?
If as the Second Amendment asserts, a well-regulated militia was in fact
necessary to the security of a free state then it is also axiomatic that said
militia and the citizens that would have composed it would have possessed and
used bearable arms. A guarantee thereof,
especially in the context of the Bill of Rights would therefore have been a
tautology. –A meaningless reiteration of
the obvious, which is one of the many criticisms of the dissenting opinion offered by Scaia in DC v
Heller. .
This brings us to the language of the Second Amendment itself. –A Latinism which our Simon has described as,
“A bit like Yoda.” Long before Star Wars, Latinisms were common. Don’t believe me? --How many of us were told as children in
grammar school that it was improper to end a sentence in a preposition? That’s a Latinism. –True in Latin, but untrue in English. In English, it’s perfectly acceptable to end
a sentence in a preposition, provided the preposition is functioning as an
adverb. IOW, “That’s the most absurd
thing I’ve ever heard of” is perfectly grammatical in English.
If I were to say, “A well regulated public reading program being necessary
to the literacy of a free state, the right of the people to keep and read books
shall not be infringed.” it would admittedly be awkward English because the
sentence structure is Latin in origin.
Despite that, would anyone seriously argue that the right of the people
to keep and read books would be restricted to public reading?
Simon?
Anyone? I'm all ears here.....
The sentence structure here is identical and it was used in at least one
state constitution to guarantee freedom of speech. If Simon wants to argue that the Second Amendment has become outdated and a
bit anachronistic, then I’m more than willing to listen. Personally, I think that viewpoint is pretty accurate.
–That doesn’t seem to
be the argument on this thread though….