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Polar Bum;1067529082 said:I also, have heard quite often the argument that "militia" refers to the National Guard and Military Reserves; yet neither the timeline or definitions under the Federal Codes support these statements.
Which takes us back to the intent of the writers of the constitution and the Amendment in question.....The Citizens.....every able bodied citizen 17-45 capable of bearing arms. You and I.
Very well written.
When one looks at the drafting of our Constitution, they have to literally throw away everything that is current and look at the mindset of those who wrote it. And much of this can be seen in both the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers.
In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton argued that the Militia should be made up of all adult males living in the individual States, and under control of that state. In essence an almost universal draft.
However, the Anti-Federalist stance was that all members were also members of the Militia, but it should not be placed under control of the State unless it was needed at that time.
And in this case, the Anti-Federalists essentially won. And until the start of the 20th Century, that is how Militias were handled. Largely independent groups with minimal training and equipment, called up by their states at need. In fact, a great many were founded and supported by civic organizations and wealthy individuals as a form of prestige, and their officers were more often than not elected to their posts.
It was only at the dawn of the 20th century when it was realized that a more firm control of these groups had to be made because of the advances in both communication and travel. In the 19th century you literally could (and did) have a war end but both sides continue to fight because word of the peace had not reached them yet. Or have an invasion fleet appear off the shore with no warning.
But steam ships, telegraph, and then radio made this increasingly hard to fight against. Especially since the Army was purposefully kept at low numbers for most of the history of our country. In 1900 the Army was only 101,000 strong (mostly due to the remainders who served in the Spanish-American War a few years earlier). And this would remain the high point until World War I.
And it was realized that the US can not rely in a modern war of calling up huge amounts of troops, training them, equipping them, then sending them to an area of conflict in a reasonable amount of time. So the Reserves and National Guard were created. This standardized ranks and training, and kept these "citizen soldiers" ready for action where the looser militia system did not.
So stripping away the 20th century changes in the country and military, the 18th century concept has to be used. Where everybody is in the militia.