I had a revelation recently.
Liberals have been dealing with the Second Amendment all wrong.
Instead of arguing around the margins of what kinds of guns people can have under the law, it’s time for some Constitutional Originalism.
James Madison didn’t write the Second Amendment, and the first Congress did not approve it, so that people could shoot their fellow citizens from hiding, or so that an armed minority could overthrow a government they didn’t like. These are technologies that did not exist in 1789. In 1789 only 4% of the people had guns, and most couldn’t shoot straight.
The Second Amendment is a militia amendment. It demands that all gun owners hold themselves available for the state’s business. A big part of that business was catching, or killing, runaway slaves.
A bigger part of that business was serving as an armed force when called upon. That’s how it was used almost immediately upon its adoption. During the Whiskey Rebellion, an armed protest against alcohol taxes by Pennsylvania distillers (and their customers) was put down by 13,000 militia men under the direct command of the President of the United States, in the first decade of the Republic.
The suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion fooled the founders, especially Madison, into thinking that militia could substitute for regular troops. Madison’s War, the War of 1812, showed just how wrong he was. Repeated attempts to take Canada were beaten back. The militia foolishly burned out York, now Toronto, and British regulars then led Canadian militia to the capture of Washington, D.C., and the burning of the White House. Andrew Jackson’s victory at New Orleans was due to British stupidity, not American militia genius.
It was our professional Navy that kept America from being overrun. Our ships were manned by volunteers. British ships were manned by slaves “impressed” into service by armed gangs in seaports and placed under the barbaric rule of dictatorial captains. We won on sea. They won on land.
By the 1830s the whole idea of militia as a fighting force was a joke, best told by Abraham Lincoln, recounting his own experiences during the Black Hawk War. He was incompetent, yet made a captain. All militia were incompetent. From that day to this the U.S. has fought its wars with a professional, full-time, and well-drilled army.
The question is not whether gun ownership is legal or illegal. It’s the separation of gun ownership from service to the state that needs correcting.
The Militia Act of 1903 states that all able-bodied men can be called up as part of a reserve militia. Call ‘em up, all those who have guns. Many states already have state defense forces. Simply state that all gun owners are members under state law.
Don’t register guns, register their owners. Then put them to work.
There are a lot of big jobs that must be done, jobs presently being done by National Guardsmen, that could be done by militia for less. Cleaning up after hurricanes is one. Surrounding people trying to intimidate local police, as in Charlottesville, is another. You have a gun. You’re in the militia under the amendment. It’s Constitutional Originalism. There are no rights without responsibilities.
This is true for all the Amendments. You’re free to speak your peace, but you are responsible for what you say. You’re free to own a gun, but you make yourself eligible to call-up when your state or nation needs you.
Of course, you don’t want to go into danger without some training. Militiamen need to be drilled. They need to be marched back-and-forth, up-and-down, regularly, in ranks. They should be exercised, kept in shape. You like watching the Spartan Games on TV? How about doing it in real life, fattie, with an officer on your ass and extra duty or demotion for failure? Militia can win the battle of the bulge.
There are going to be willing militia members, and unwilling ones. Let the willing enforce military discipline on the unwilling. If you don’t want to serve, don’t hold yourself ready by owning a gun.
A small, solidly blue state could start the ball rolling on this. I’m thinking Connecticut. The state authorizes spending to create and maintain a militia under the Second Amendment. It signs people up. It puts people to work, on state protection projects that need to be done. It honors the men, and women, who serve and do this work. Now those NRA idiots who claim some privacy right in their arsenals are cowards, they can be prosecuted for shirking their duty to the state.
You can’t claim the Second Amendment both enables gun ownership and has nothing to do with militias, because it certainly does, through its plain language. Freedom isn’t free, even the freedom to own a gun. You carry, you serve. Those fat boys marching around WalMart with their AKs at the ready will be surprised. Those idiots claiming to protect Far Right marchers will be impressed.
No, really, they’ll be impressed. As in the 19th century British Navy. “They want you, they want you, they want you as a new recruit.” Protect the village, people.
