David Hume Quotes

President James Madison expressed a similar sentiment in his first inaugural address.

Note the phrase “well regulated militia.” This is the exact same phrase which the Founding Fathers chose to use in the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights over a decade later. And in this amendment the right to bear arms is provided for the “well regulated militia” and not for individuals as the Supreme Court has ruled many times. This quotation shows that the phrase was not just drafted by the founders, but had a clear and established meaning of which they were aware. Many people think that the phrase did not have a known meaning at the time but this quotation shows differently as the Constitutions of all the States were available to and studied by the Congress and most educated people.

It would be more than a decade before the phrase “well regulated militia” would be added into the Constitution as the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights. This resolution was the last of several passed at this meeting by which Maryland endorsed resistance to the British. So these resolations would have been widely distributed throughout the colonies and known by the leaders. In 1788 Alexander Hamilton Published Federalist 29 which also used the phrase. (See {588393}.) Then on September 25, 1789, the Congress proposed the Bill of Rights and the 2nd Amendment using the same key phrase, “well regulated militia.” Whether the drafters of the 2nd Amendment got the phrase from Hamilton’s Federalist 29 or from the Maryland Resolutions is not known but Hamilton’s was much more current. Did he get the phrase from Maryland? Did Congress get it from him? Did Maryland originate the phrase or was there an earlier use that influenced the Maryland drafters? At this point no one is sure, but the phrase is critical to the meaning of the 2nd Amendment because the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the Second Amandment does not apply to individuals but only to the State’s right to bear arms within the “well regulated militia” and not as individual citizens. The right is that of the State government and that is why a state can control guns including banning them if they choose. So an individual in America does not have the constitutional right to bear arms. He may have a state constitutional right but in other states he may not use a gun in certain places and may not possess certain types of guns like hand guns which are illegal in New York, Washington DC and some other places.

See George Mason for an earlier expression

More than a decade before Hamilton wrote this, a Maryland commission used the phrase “well regulated militia” earlier. (See {588394}.) It would be less than 2 years before the phrase “well regulated militia” would be added into the Constitution in the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights—September 25, 1789. The Maryland resolution was the last of several passed at a meeting by which Maryland endorsed resistance to the British before the actual Revolution. So these resolations would have been widely distributed throughout the colonies and known by the leaders. Whether the drafters of the 2nd Amendment got the phrase from Hamilton’s Federalist 29 or from the Maryland Resolutions is not known but Hamilton’s was much more current. Did he get the phrase from Maryland? Did Congress get it from him? Did Maryland originate the phrase or was there an earlier use that influenced the Maryland drafters? At this point no one is sure, but the phrase is critical to the meaning of the 2nd Amendment because the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the Second Amandment does not apply to individuals but only to the State’s right to bear arms within the “well regulated militia” and not as individual citizens. The right is that of the State government and that is why a state can control guns including banning them if they choose. So an individual in America does not have the constitutional right to bear arms. He may have a state constitutional right but in other states he may not use a gun in certain places and may not possess certain types of guns like hand guns which are illegal in New York, Washington DC and some other places.

A state militia is necessary

This was his political speech about the importance of the state militia. However, in the War of 1812 in September the British attacked and burned the town of Portland which the militia feebly tried to defend. See his private view then: {613332}.

Congress and most of the Founding Fathers were very distrustful of standing armies. They were aware that standing armies had taken over societies ever since ancient Rome and Julius Caesar.

Earlier in the Arab-Israeli conflict United Nations troops were stationed at the borders to prevent either side from attacking the other. The Arabs mounted a major attack and the United Nations troops ran and did not fight. Ever since then, Israel policy was never to depend on any other than Israel to defend the country and the people.

There is a , romantic American myth about the Militiamen in Colonial and Revolutionary America—the citizen soldiers who would leave their farms and rise to the military necessity of the day. However, not only were the militia very hard to muster to duty, but most actually didn’t own or have experience with firearms, and the prevailing opinion of knowledgeable military leaders from George Washington on down was that the militia were not very good soldiers. See {613015}, {613016}, {613022}, {613027}, {621987}, {621988}, {613030}, {613033}, & {613056}

In early America, there was great concern about a standing army—a military force that exists and is organized in peacetime. History showed the founding fathers that tyrants who siezed power almost always did so by getting control of the standing army. The logic was if there is no standing army, no one can control it and therefore no tyrant can control the country by force. At the time, however, with oceans protecting us, there was penty of time to mobilize a defensive army should any foreign power invade. However, with modern military technology, and the importantance of retaliation as a protective3 strategy, it is virtually impossible to not have a standing army and stoll be secure.

Mao and other Chinese leaders molded the people into an Army to fight the invading Japanese in WWII after which they were attacked by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists. In a remarkable trek of escape the Communists moved across China to escape the nationalists while the Red Army provided protection. Without the Red Army, the Communists would easily have been overrun then and after the Nationalists “escaped” to Taiwan they planned and threatened to invade the mainland. It was the Red Army that kept them at bay, and so the “People’s Army” has an emotional, historical and intellectual impact and role even in 21st Century China when there really are no enemies that would attack China.