“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
That one sentence, more than any other these days, illustrates perfectly the ability of emotion to over-ride logic.
It is a perfectly adequate, and quite understandable, sentence; yet is the subject of more obfuscation, more nit-pickery, more mental gymnastics, and flat out more chicanery than any other sentence in recent history.
If you doubt this, take the sentence and perform a simple substitution: swap out some words, but leave the sentence grammatically identical — and watch people tie their brains into knots trying to explain why two grammatically identical sentences wind up meaning two different things.
In this case, let us take the classic 2nd Amendment substitution from Dr. Nelson Lund, of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy:
“A well educated Electorate, being necessary to self-governance in a free State, the right of the people to keep and read Books, shall not be infringed.”
I can hear them whinging now: “But, LawDog, ‘Militia’ instead of ‘Electorate’ makes it a whole different thing!”
No, Zippy, it doesn’t. The classic definition of ‘militia’ is “Every free man capable of bearing arms”, or “All able-bodied civilians eligible by law for military service”, and the current definition in Federal law is:
“The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.”
The argument can be made that the Electorate is the Militia, but machts nichts.
So. Two grammatically identical sentences:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
“A well educated Electorate, being necessary to self-governance in a free State, the right of the people to keep and read Books, shall not be infringed.”
If you believe that one of these — again, grammatically identical sentences — means that the people have the right to keep and read books, but the other means that only the State-maintained National Guard can have guns …
… You might want to have your headspace and timing recalibrated.
Nothing but love,
LawDog
