re: #274 ralphieboy

“well organized” is not outdated and probably means the same thing now as then…that is an aspect of the 2nd Amendment that seems to be terribly overlooked.

What is overlooked is the structure of the sentence and the logic behind it. What it does not say is “the right of the people to constitute themselves into a well organized militia and equip that militia with light infantry weapons shall not be abridged”.

What is does say is this: that because a well organized militia is a good thing, the right of the people to the prerequisite to any such militia, to wit, the kinds of dual use light infantry weapons that many households kept for hunting or sport or home defense, shall not be abridged.

This leaves out brass knuckles and warships etc. Nobody anticipated machine guns, which are clearly infantry weapons, or AK47’s, which are clearly light infantry weapons. Both, just as clearly, are not dual-use weapons like hunting rifles. So the constitution does not give definitive guidance on the matter.