>>>> Given all their lofty ideals it's hard for me to believe the founders envisioned an entire society running around armed to the teeth.
>>
>>Actually, in the American of the 18th century it would have been hard for the Founders to imagine a society where everyone was *not* armed. Militia was a gathering of *armed* citizens - their own guns.
>
>You're right, of course. I wasn't thinking too well to add that extra sentence. I still think they put the word "militia" in there for a reason.
Since personal gun ownership was taken as given, I suppose it was to emphasize that with this came responsibility.
And often in these debates it is the ninth amendment that seems to be forgotten
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Rights are there thanks to "Nature and Nature's God" and it is up to the State to find a compelling reason to abridge them.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
