PA Bill Number: HR518
Title: Designating the month of November 2024 as "Veterans and Military Families Month" in Pennsylvania.
Description: A Resolution designating the month of November 2024 as "Veterans and Military Families Month" in Pennsylvania.
Last Action: Reported as committed
Last Action Date: Sep 30, 2024
Second Amendment is about militias :: 09/20/2017
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
“We the People” is the phrase most often remembered in the preamble. It is a phrase often referenced and often misinterpreted. When the framers of the Constitution were wrangling over how to create a governing document, they created language that encompassed the body politic. Their conception was that for the good of the country, the good of “the People” surpassed the good of the individual.
There were contentious factions at the time. The Federalists favored a strong central government, and the Anti-Federalists favored a weak central government and stronger state governments. The Federalists prevailed, and the Constitution we have reflects that. Following the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, the Bill of Rights was created in 1789.
Consider the times in which the Constitution was being written. White male citizens over 25, who a few of years before had revolted against a global power far away, worked to develop a framework for government, one which they hoped would last. Armed insurrection and the defense of the new country, from both without and within, was on their minds. Shay’s Rebellion in western Massachusetts in 1787 was a recent memory as they drafted the Bill of Rights.
The Second Amendment has proven to be a rallying cry for a segment of the population which claims an individual’s inalienable right to own guns. It reads:
“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.”
The concept of a militia from 200-plus years ago is almost foreign to us today. The closest we have is the state-regulated National Guard, whose beginnings were in 1636. Local militias in the colonies, and later the states, provided the first line of defense against hostile actions that threatened the communities from which the members were drawn. For many, a man’s service in the militia was considered a duty and responsibility.
The militias were regarded by those outside the community in different ways. George Washington, commander of the Continental Army, had less than enthusiastic words about the militias of the colonies: “To place any dependence upon Militia is assuredly resting upon a broken staff.” Yet both James Madison and George Mason recognized the value of the militias, with Mason saying, “A well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free State… .” Evident in both of these statements, drawn from their experiences, is the element of a “well-regulated militia.”
The Second Amendment speaks to the composite militia, the group of men who could be called on to protect. It says nothing of individual rights. In fact, in the precursory discussion about the last clause, “shall not be infringed,” was about not requiring pacifists to bear arms, which is a military term, if it was against their religious principles. The stated purpose of this amendment is to protect the welfare of the people, so that the state has a means to defend against threats to domestic tranquility.
One of the dangers we face in this century is imagining that our own intentions and values are the same as those who came before us. Times have changed, and we have changed with them. The framers of the Constitution purposefully did not speak of an individual’s right to own guns, though many did at the time. Many in the militia units did not own guns, and, for this reason, the government took on the responsibility of providing those arms.
“We the People” is plural. Putting aside our own individual desires for the sake of our communities, our states and our nation allows us, the “Posterity” of which the framers of the Constitution spoke, to continue “to form a more perfect Union.”
David Winship is a local historian and writer currently residing in Abingdon.
