Constitutional Law

Steve Halbrook on 2A wording

His Op-Ed is here.

Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson....

UPDATE: my own research into uses of "well regulated" in the 18th and early 19th centuries indicated that it was in common use as a term for something like "orderly" "in control."

Not necessarily under control from an outside force, it can be a matter of self-discipline. Uses such as "well-regulated tastes" or "well regulated mind" or "well regulated gentleman." And as the Heller briefing pointed out, Geo. Mason and others used it in the preamble to the Fairfax County militia resolves, which laid out a private, voluntary organization specifically designed to be outside direct Royal control.

How it got into the first part of the 2A is simple. If militia is the equivalent of "all men capable of bearing arms," then "a militia, being necessary to a free state" makes little sense. A free state will have a militia thus defined, but so will a tyranny. And a militia would be necessary to a free state only in the sense that it is necessary to any state (Even the Amazons of myth had to import guys from time to time in order to reproduce).

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on June 03, 2008 (boomark / email).