Notes
editThe below notes have been collected to store information I personally find interesting for the purpose of improving Wikipedia articles. Other editors should confirm the sources and context themselves, as I am only quoting certain excerpts for my own purposes.
Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States - Joseph Story
editBoston: Little, Brown, and Company - Fourth Edition, 1873
S 1185 regards armies in time of peace and the militia.
S 1192 regards federal volunteer militia corps. See also footnotes on "militia when in actual service".
S 1201 - 1215 regards the regulating, training, equipping, calling, the militia
S 1865 (very short excerpt) ... limitations upon the power of parliament ... that the subjects ought to have a right to bear arms ...
S 1896 (complete) The next amendment is: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
S 1897 (complete) The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses with which they are attended and the facile means which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers to subvert the government or trample upon the rights of the people. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic, since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers, and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them. And yet, though the truth would seem so clear, and the importance of a well-regulated militia would seem so undeniable, it cannot be disguised that, among the American people, there is a growing indifference to any system of militia discipline, and a strong disposition, from a sense of its burdens, to be rid of all regulations. How is it practicable to keep the people duly armed without some organization it is difficult to see. There is certainly no small danger that indifference may lead to disgust, and disgust to contempt; and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national bill of rights.
S 1898 (complete) A similar provision in favor of Protestants (for to them it is confined) is found in the bill of rights of 1688, it being declared, "that the subjects, which are Protestants, may have arms for their defence suitable to their condition, and as allowed by law." But under various pretenses the effect of this provision has been greatly narrowed, and it is at present in England more nominal than real as a defensive privilege.
Index:
- Arms, right to bear: 1895-1898
- Defence, individual, right to bear arms for: 1896-1898
- Liberty, to bear arms: 1895-1898
- Militia, right to bear arms: 1895-1897
Key Diffs
edit
Miller
editFrye, The Peculiar Story of United States v. Miller, 3 N. Y. U. J. L. & Liberty 48 (2008)