A well-regulated militia...

The Chuckmeister was taken to task by a small number of sycophantic weenies in response to my September 14th essay, "Background checks, and why not." 

Yes, my friends, these fine, misguided citizens attempted to take me to the figurative woodshed over the fact I didn't start my quote of the 2nd Amendment with, "A well-regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free state," before starting with, "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Apparently these otherwise intelligent folks seem to think I left this "signing statement" out because it disembowels my argument that every American has the right to buy, own, polish, admire, carry, keep, display, and when necessary, use, a gun.

What's a "signing statement," you  may ask?  Well my Constitutionally-ignorant acquaintances, let me take you back in time to the late 1700s.  Back then, there was no TV, no Internet, no radio, no telegraph, no Facebook, no Instagram and no major region wide or nationwide newspapers.  So, it could take weeks, even months, to get news from the centers of power (NYC and Philly) to the people in the hinterlands.  So, once the Framers conjured up the Bill of Rights, they prefaced each of the ten with a so-called "signing statement."  This was to be, in essence, the "reason for" the Right.  They wanted you to know why they considered each of the original Rights to be a necessity.  So they told you why in the comment just prior to the comma, in each.   Thus, in the case of the 2nd, it went, blah, blah, blah, "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

If you have doubts, read the entire Bill of Rights.  You'll discover a "signing statement" prior to each Right.  So there.

I hear you saying, yes Mr. Chuckmeister, but they were still saying that only members of an organized militia had that Right. Wrongo, you misinformed leftist gun-haters, you!  I hereby offer up a few direct and exact quotes from some of the more important folks from that exalted and revered era.  Read, and learn...

"I ask sir, what is the militia?  It is the whole people.  To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave the population."  George Mason, speech, Virginia Ratification Convention, 1788 (and founder of George Mason University). 

"A well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country."  James Madison.

"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms.  Richard Henry Lee, initiator of the Declaration of Independence.

"Every citizen must be a soldier.  This was the case of the Greeks and the Romans, and must be that of every free state."  Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms, as a last resort, is to protect themselves against tyranny in Government."  Thomas Jefferson

And lastly, one of my all-time favorites:

"A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie (middle class)."  Vladimir Ilyavich Lenin (you may recall him as the dictator who disarmed Russians and killed millions of them).

By the way, I have only provided a bare few of the hundreds of quotes from our Founding Fathers defining a militia as free, armed citizens, ready and willing to take up arms in defense of themselves, their neighbors and their country (Google it if you doubt me).  It was that way when George Washington decided it was a good idea to form an army and throw off the chains imposed on our country by King George.  He called upon our citizenry to bring with them their own arms and answer the call to form a militia. 

They did it then.  We could do it now.  And the fact we can, is why the gun-grabbers want to disarm us.  Imagine, if you dare, what leftist governance would look like if they didn't fear, deep-down, what we Americans would do if they unleashed an unbridled assault on our core freedoms, in an effort to complete the task Oblamo took upon himself when he decided to "fundamentally transform America."  And then recall what's happened in North Korea, China, Cuba, Venezuela and a bunch more countries after successfully legislating the elimination of guns.  

Like a Congressman we all know well told me recently, "It's a good idea to stock up on canned goods and ammunition."  

I am...