CONNECTICUT CITIZENS DEFENSE LEAGUE AND SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION SUE CT OVER BAN ON MODERN SPORTING ARMS [More]
I dunno– “in Common Use for Lawful Purposes Throughout the United States” seems to exclude everything that’s not, including what will be developed in the future.
The Supreme Court, in its infamous Miller decision, nonetheless recognized the function of the Militia, defined as “all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense [and] bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time,” was — and still is — to field citizen soldiers. These citizens bore arms that were suitable for that purpose, “ordinary military equipment” intended to be taken into “common defense” battles. The Militia did not assemble on the green bearing clubs and spears. They came with the intent to match and best a professional military threat. A modern Militia would require citizens to keep and bear exactly what the gun-grabbing politicians are trying to take away from them, what they pejoratively denounce as “weapons of war.”
Second Amendment will be Nullified if ‘Common Use’ is Restricted to ‘Popularity’
As Captain John Parker told his men as they readied themselves to stand against the British military approaching his men on the Commons at Lexington that April morning:
“We don’t want a war, but if they mean to have one, let it begin here”. They were armed with “military weapons in common use at the time”. If they’d been standing there with clubs and spears and arrows, we’d most likely still be using the Pound Sterling as the coin of the realm, and be just coming out of a period of solemn mourning upon the death of who would have been OUR Queen.
By being armed with the same grade of weapons, and far superior skill at arms than their opponents, later that same day at the North Bridge at Concord, Isaac Davis’ men overwhelmingly bested Colonel Smith’s troops, taking about forty percent of his officers out of action in two volleys, with weapons considered by many to have been inferior to the Brown Bess carried by the Redcoats opposing them. That very lopsided outcome persued the British Regulars all the way back to Charlestown that evening. At a couple points long that road, had the Colonists had a mind to, they could very easily have decimated the 2000 or so Regulars fielded that day, then pressed all the way back to Boston and made short work with the few that remained stationed there.
The citizens MUST be able to mount a defense with weapons every bit the equal to those who place themselves “in charge” else we are slaves, peons, subjects, nuisances in their sight.