On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 11:55:37PM -0500, Greg Jacobs wrote: > > At 02:01 PM 7/24/2006, Eugene wrote: > > Can anyone please help me track down the intellectual history of the > "defending life and liberty" part of this sentiment? > > I wish I could but, if you don't mind, I have a parallel phrase that I > often > wonder about: > With respect to the RKBA, and the "militia", exactly what is the > intellectual history of "well regulated". > Most modern thought processes go to control, particularly government > control, which I imagine none of us buy into. So whom or what is being > well > regulated? > Personally, I believe he phrase is Masonic in origin because all Masonic > lodges are supposed to be "well regulated" and so many of the Framers were > Masons. I take it to mean regular in disposition, self control, temperate > in most things (all?), and properly organized into regular society as a > regular member thereof.
Gibbon used the term a couple of times in Decline and Fall in approximately that sense. I've come across modern papers suggesting that in the context of a mechanism (clock, firearm, etc.) it means one that works well and accurately. I've heard modern usage as well: a "well regulated" double barreled shot gun has two barrels with the same aim point. In the context of a militia, I think it would include training so that they can work well together when called to duty. > But I cannot prove it.... > Sandra Froman, NRA President, in her monthly column in the American > Rifleman's August 2006 edition, states that someone has pointed out that > the > passengers on United 93 acted as an unorganized militia when they banded > together to thwart the crashing of the plane into Washington. Perhaps, but > how is that a "well regulated militia"? If being regulated means acting > well together in concert then maybe so but, otherwise, how does that fit > the > definition? The unorganized militia doesn't have to be well regulated. Part of the organized militia is the training necessary to being well regulated. Having seen how well a group of complete strangers can come together to form a film company, or an incident command team, I don't think that training together is required, but training, certainly. Possibly some or all of the Flight 93 activists were military, police, etc., or people familiar with such training, and could coalesce into an ad hoc team for the purpose. So arguably, upon boarding the plane, they were both well regulated and unorganized militia. But, having constituted themselves into a team for a specific goal, they became an ad hoc organized militia unit. Militia do not have to be called up by "constituted authority"; they can and did call themselves up. This is very clear in Paul Revere's Ride, David Hackett Fischer, 1995, OUP. > Food for thought. Thanks. > ***Greg Jacobs*** > _______________________________________________ > To post, send message to [email protected] > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see > http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof > > Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as > private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; > people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) > forward the messages to others. -- Charles Curley /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign Looking for fine software \ / Respect for open standards and/or writing? X No HTML/RTF in email http://www.charlescurley.com / \ No M$ Word docs in email Key fingerprint = CE5C 6645 A45A 64E4 94C0 809C FFF6 4C48 4ECD DFDB
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_______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
