---- Jon Roland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > For further discussion and perhaps participation. Nice topic for discussion. > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Fw: Seek partners for amicus brief in DC v. Heller > Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 07:13:06 -0600 > From: Jon Roland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Organization: Constitution Society > This is to expand the invitation set forth below to a larger group (all > presumed to be militia since you are not officials :-) > I propose to also make the argument that the primary original meaning of > "militia", from the Latin, is /defense activity/, or military service, > and only secondarily those engaged in it, or the subset of those who may > be required to engage in that that activity. It is a common idiom in > English of the era to use the same word for an activity and those > engaged in it. Understood in this way, the word is not a plural form, > and a single individual, engaged in defense activity, is engaged in militia. The definition of militia in the US is already properly defined in law, both original in colonial times and current. They are as follows: Legal definitions of “Militia” in US Law The Militia Act of 1792: Full text at: http://www.constitution.org/mil/mil_act_1792.htm The Militia Act of 1792 helped alleviate the suspicions of the founding fathers by creating a practical way of containing the dangerous potential of government. First, the law required everyone covered by the act (all able bodied males) to have a military rifle and ammunition for it. Second, military firearms were to be in peoples' homes, not in armories. This is carried through to modern times by the current version of the law: 10 United States Code, Section 311: The MILITIA: "(a) The Militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 13 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or have made a declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States ... (b) The classes of the militia are - (1) The organized militia, which consists of National Guard and the Naval militia; and (2) The unorganized militia, which consists of members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval militia." ... and 32 United States Code, Section 313: (a) The unorganized militia also consists of all able-bodied males between the ages of 17 and 64 years of age who are former members of the Regular Armed Forces provided they are not members of the organized militia.
The existing definition do serve our purposes. The second amendment as originally written is aimed specifically at the unorganized militia - each and every individual man in the US - and is outside of any control of law as it is intended to provide the people the means necessary for them to remain free if the government is subverted, overthrown or defeated in a war. I have the full text of the original militia act available in wpg, rtf, doc and pdf formats should anyone wish a copy. Regards, Bruce L. Jones _______________________________________________ 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.
