FireArm Friday: The Heritage of American Militias
American Militias are as crucial to our Republic as is freedom of speech.
The Second Amendment has two very distinct parts. The first portion states: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,” refers to Militias, not weapons. In fact, its preposition infers that the second portion of the amendment: “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed,” deals with weapons of war.
In fact, the Supreme Court ruled as much in its 1939 ruling in United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939). That case involved a man who transported a shotgun across state lines with a barrel less than 18″ long in violation of the 1934 National Firearms Act.
SCOTUS found: “The Court cannot take judicial notice that a shotgun having a barrel less than 18 inches long has today any reasonable relation to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia, and therefore cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees to the citizen the right to keep and bear such a weapon.”
In other words, the court found that only weapons that have a reasonable relationship to the effectiveness of a well-regulated militia are free from government regulation under the Second Amendment.
Therefore, weapons of war are covered under the Second Amendment…