Premise of the Second Amendment

The Premise of the Second Amendment

a letter by

Harley L. Sachs

All this imbroglio about gun control and gun ownership justified by the Second Amendment misses the essential condition: “In order to establish a well-regulated militia…” None of those gun owners are members of a well regulated militia. The Second Amendment was created at a time when memories of colonists under an oppressive foreign government were still fresh and there was a need for resistance. This has been extrapolated by the NRA into a fear that our own government will take away our guns.

Some will argue that the states already have a militia, which is the National Guard under the control of the governors, but the Federal Government has the authority to mobilize the National Guard, and has sent our state armies to foreign lands to fight. The National Guard, then, cannot be construed as a militia to protect us from our own government.

What the Constitution appears to enable is a home guard. We have no home guard, and we have no well regulated militia. Being part of the official militia should be a condition for ownership of military-style firearms.