Re: 2nd Amendment (L4)

[Marvin Long, Jr.]

On Sun, 17 Jun 2001, Gautam Mukunda wrote:
> 
> I can't recall anything in the federalist Papers offhand on gun ownership,
> but I could be wrong, of course.  I'd be interested in the paper #, as,
> like all good government students, I have a copy close at hand at all
> times.

Federalist #29 deals most directly with the militia.  The Papers don't
discuss personal firearm ownership at all, to my knowledge, not that I've
scoured every line.  The general argument put forth concerning the milita,
and the military in general, is that the Constitution already includes
safeguards to prevent the militia from being abused by the fed.  Hamilton
in #29 works to debunk some antifederalist speculations which in today's
language he would probably dismiss as "conspiracy theories."

One source of the Federalist Papers on the web:

http://memory.loc.gov/const/fed/fedpapers.html

(Talk about throwing a cache of clubs in amongst a bunch of aggressive
monkeys! <bg>)

Marvin Long
Austin, Texas