Anyone who tells you 18-to-20-year-olds are not fully enfranchised citizens entitled to exercise their rights under the Second Amendment is a liar and an enabler of tyranny. [More]
Sending back what should have been a no-brainer makes me wonder which SCOTUS members we’ve been told are 2A-friendly are getting ready to disappoint…
Can’t have a gun? The. Their too young to go to war. Not complicated.
Congress isn’t very good at organizing itself. I’m not sure it would be a good idea for us to depend on them to organize the unorganized militia.
And if they did, wouldn’t that just create another entity akin to the National Guard?
If we borrow the test from Bruen, the colonies set requirements that military age males belong to a militia, (Except in the case of Pennsylvania. Due to the large portion of their population that objected to the carrying of arms, theirs was a voluntary association.) and minimum requirements for their equipment and training, then required the militia thus embodied to organize itself as per Quincy’s original “well organized militia.”
When the Constitution came into force, the function of setting those minimum standards was transferred to FedGov, and the states in some cases, appeared to wash their hands of the whole thing. Some vestiges of the original system were still in effect during Civil War times, with volunteer units showing up and placing themselves under national control on both sides. But other than the language in the “Militia Composition and Classes” clause, there’s actually no Federal analogue to the original states militia membership requirements, no standards for minimum equipment, and no requirements for periodic training. One result is that the vast majority of the unorganized militia have no idea that such a thing exists, much less that they’re part of it, or that they might have some obligations as a result. For a hoot, go tell Bill Maher that he’s in a militia and ask him where his M16 is.
In essence, the runners failed to cleanly pass the baton, and everybody pretended that it didn’t happen.
When was the last time that a member of the militia, other than a Guardsman or Reservist, got gigged for failure to show up for muster?
When I turned of age, I was required to register with Selective Service and was required to carry a card on my person at all times. We now register young men automatically, without their knowledge or participation, and the requirement that they carry a card was dropped. Its almost like someone is trying to ignore the fact that militia membership is part of USC.
Almost like.
10USC245, if I understand it correctly, DEFINES the unorganized militia as all able-bodied male citizens 17 to 45 years old (plus a few others). That’s the definition, not the enrollment criterion. All rowdy young males who manage to survive to their junior year in high school, are in. Period.
And see Article I, Section16, for the militia powers explicitly delegated to Congress–a section I don’t hear much about.