(UNEDITED)Some Utahans are campaigning for a state militia like the militia of the days of our Founding Fathers. There militia had always been universally understood to be a military recruited by private citizens, independent of the established government. It consisted of all able-bodied males, and each was required to personally own firearms (and ammunition) for self-training, be able to defend their lives and property, and be a formidable resistance to government tyranny. The Revolutionary War is a text book example.
Arkansas' Supreme Court (1882) explained the primary purpose for the Second Amendment: "The constitutional provision sprung from the tyrannical practice, on the part of governments, of disarming their subjects, so as to render them powerless against oppression. The amendment states: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people [not just a militia] to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
The Supreme Court of Texas (1859), expressed the universal sentiments of the colonists as well as early federal and state courts: "The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the state, is absolute . . . A law cannot be passed to infringe or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of all law-making power."
The Constitution, without the Second Amendment, prohibits federal or state gun-control laws of any kind for law-abiding citizens, or the formation of a "militia being necessary for the security of a free state". Its Framers prohibited any such laws to "impair" the constitutional "common defense" system. State militias were a vital part of America's national defense as well as armed American civilians, which prevented Japan from invading America during World War II. The militia was an alternative to an intensely feared standing army. The Constitution does authorize a standing Navy and an air force.
The "militia of the several states" (not the "National" Guard) was independent of the federal government until called into service by Congress to "execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions". The Constitution left the responsibility for militia training and the appointment of militia officers, to the states, according to the "discipline prescribed by Congress".
Walter Winters
Ogden
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