What the Militia is all about...

[plainsdrifter]

@ Caribou, ya'll have your work cut out for you when the ruskies come across the Aleutian islands. So load up, just ask if you need ammo. lol

 

[AlexanderA]

Can there be a "Universal Militia" that isn't all volunteer, as opposed to compulsory?? Are they not one and the same?

You are missing the point. The "universal militia" is neither volunteer, nor compulsory. It's definitional. In other words, every citizen is ipso facto a member of this militia, although no actual service is contemplated.

In 1791, this "universal militia" was real. It's no longer real. It hasn't existed in practice since the 1820's, by which time it had been found to be unworkable. But it still exists as a notion. A very important notion, because laws and constitutional interpretations can be based on it. The concept of the "universal militia" gets around the conundrum of whether the 2nd Amendment describes an individual or a collective right. With the "universal militia," the individual is synonymous with, or is contained within, the collective, and vice versa. You cannot separate the two. The individual, then, can own and possess every weapon (i.e., military weapons) that can be possessed by the collective.

This line of thinking dovetails perfectly with the originalism of the conservative majority of the Supreme Court. They're looking for "text, history, and tradition" and this is certainly that.

 

[caribou]

You are missing the point. The "universal militia" is neither volunteer, nor compulsory. It's definitional. In other words, every citizen is ipso facto a member of this militia, although no actual service is contemplated.

Cool, thanks for making that clear......... as its a Citizens duty, like voting and obeying the law, yet as free peoples, we are free to decline or exit stage left. Im sure compulsion would come with desperation.

Compulsion to do something by law dosent work for Free people, like buying Obama Care, which is why we need to teach what a Citizens Duty's are again.

The Russians took the Aleutian Islands with Cossack's, muskets and steel, then through trade and insidious politics in the SouthEast of AK.

The Japanese came in '42 with ships to the Aleutians and took Kiska and Attu Islands, and attacked Dutch Harbor with bombers. They tied a couple million US and Canadian service up and diverted massive amounts of men and materials up for just a few thousand troops, planes ships and subs.

With news of this, the Men of AK got together for their local defense, with what they had at home, and waited.