Prescriptive Gun Ownership

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film495

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Years ago - I traveled to Switzerland for work, and found it kind of fascinating that their culture was such that all young adult males were required to own and keep a rifle. I was looking at some articles, cause I'm planning a trip to Update NY, and ran into an article that talked about how in the US after the revolution, it was required for young males to purchase their own gun and ammunition, and be prepared to be called upon.

Is what I read accurate? or is that not something that was really part of US History? I had never heard that before.
 
Years ago - I traveled to Switzerland for work, and found it kind of fascinating that their culture was such that all young adult males were required to own and keep a rifle. I was looking at some articles, cause I'm planning a trip to Update NY, and ran into an article that talked about how in the US after the revolution, it was required for young males to purchase their own gun and ammunition, and be prepared to be called upon.

Is what I read accurate? or is that not something that was really part of US History? I had never heard that before.

Yes, look up the U.S. Militia acts circa the 1790's. The U.S. was broke and could not afford a standing army and there was considerable opposition to creating one. Nevertheless, Native Americans and settlers were having it out all along the frontiers, the British were to the west and north, the Spanish to the South, and the French ran New Orleans. Thus, the need was there and the American coastline was indefensible aside from a few forts in harbors. Thus, the idea was that militias would be able to save the day and delay invasions until an army could get there. https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Militia_Acts_of_1792 Later there was a Whiskey Rebellion in Western PA so the Militia Act was amended in 1795 and a later one during the Civil War extended militia definition to African American males.
 
Oh, and by the way, at the time, well regulated militia referred to being equipped and trained with some sort of structure so that they would be useful in the field. Brief summary https://bearingarms.com/bob-o/2014/06/24/well-regulated/

But if you are interested in delving more into it, take a look at colonial and early American state militia laws before the Constitution.
 
Change "was" to "is" and I think you will have it about right. To the best of my knowledge, title 10 of the United States Code still has males between 17 and 45 as part of the "unorganized militia".

Yep. https://codes.findlaw.com/us/title-10-armed-forces/10-usc-sect-311.html

(a)  The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32 , under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

(b)  The classes of the militia are--

(1)  the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia;  and

(2)  the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
 
Read what boom-boom cited and recall that in today's legal understanding the term 'males' is understood to apply to both sexes. Being - ahem - more than 45 years of age, I might claim age discrimination if so impelled.
 
Read what boom-boom cited and recall that in today's legal understanding the term 'males' is understood to apply to both sexes. Being - ahem - more than 45 years of age, I might claim age discrimination if so impelled.
The militia as currently defined in Title 10 of the U.S. Code is more limited than the circa 1791 "constitutional" militia. The idea then was that you would muster the entire available able-bodied manpower (except for slaves).

Under the wording of the Title 10 provision, women are specifically excluded unless they are already members of the National Guard. The unorganized militia -- from whom the draft would be drawn if it was ever reinstated -- is an exclusively male affair. (This would change if the Equal Rights Amendment were ever ratified -- which is an argument against ratification of the ERA.)
 
I don't have the case at my fingertips right now. I believe it was at the time of the Spanish-American war that the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that you could be impelled to furnish your own rifle for state militia service.
 
The militia as currently defined in Title 10 of the U.S. Code is more limited than the circa 1791 "constitutional" militia. The idea then was that you would muster the entire available able-bodied manpower (except for slaves).

Under the wording of the Title 10 provision, women are specifically excluded unless they are already members of the National Guard. The unorganized militia -- from whom the draft would be drawn if it was ever reinstated -- is an exclusively male affair. (This would change if the Equal Rights Amendment were ever ratified -- which is an argument against ratification of the ERA.)


Probably changing sooner than that. A federal district court judge held last year that selective service registration that only addressed males was unconstitutional and it is winding up the appellate trail. Since the Pentagon has opened almost all combat jobs to females, the old rationale that registration of females was not necessary because they were in low casualty military jobs is no longer true. Thus, a selective service registration law that only targets males and makes them suffer penalties for non-registration can no longer be substantively related to the government's important purpose of national defense.
 
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