Issue 12.15
Today we begin a discussion of the 2nd Amendment and the right to “keep and bear arms”. The text of the Amendment is brief but has been interpreted and misinterpreted repeatedly throughout our history. The first phrase is “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,” is one thought which is followed by the injunction that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
A militia, at the time of the founding of our nation, was understood to be a “citizen’s army”. There were numerous warnings from great thinkers about the dangers of a “standing” or professional army. The leaders had no desire to attack others or build an empire at the expense of lives and treasure. The understanding that we were to have a defensive force comprised of normal citizens that could be called forth in time of need was the order of the day. James Madison said, “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.” And Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The Greeks and Romans had no standing armies, yet they defended themselves. The Greeks by their laws, and the Romans by the spirit of their people, took care to put into the hands of their rulers no such engine of oppression as a standing army. Their system was to make every man a soldier and oblige him to repair to the standard of his country whenever that was reared. This made them invincible; and the same remedy will make us so.” It is only when a country has designs on the property of other countries or their own citizens that a standing army is required.
Switzerland has kept this basic premise for hundreds of years. They train and arm the citizenry but do not put them in full time employment by the government. As a result, there is a very low crime rate and other countries have not invaded them. During the first World War, it is reported that the German monarch threatened to send half a million troops against a quarter million Swiss; the Swiss responded by: “We’ll shoot twice and go home.”
Our government has tried to change this definition by creating the National Guard and, to some extent, placing them under control of the State governors. However, this is simply an addition to our standing army and not a citizens army, and as we see now, the Federal government regularly calls them up and sends them overseas to do it’s bidding rather than leaving them as a defensive force within their respective states.
It can be argued, probably successfully, that the world has changed and we need a “professional” army to counter the professional armies of other countries since armaments have changed and armies no longer only face their opponents across an open field with sabers and single shot firearms. We need the power of advanced weaponry and those who know how to deploy and use it. If we are honest with ourselves however, we do not need to be invading or pacifying or interfering with every nation on earth that has a conflict within or without its borders. Doing so simply makes us the policemen of the world at great cost and creates hatred towards us within many of those countries as we use deadly force to enforce what we think they should be doing.
If we can move back towards the concept that our efforts should be primarily defensive, a militia in the original sense is logical and powerful. Citizens trained and armed that can be called forth when needed to defend their homes, families and way of life are a motivated and morally superior force when compared with those who are trained and armed to war as a way of life and then know nothing else when eventually released from service. The true understanding of militia reflects the concept that the people control the government, not the other way around. It also makes the people responsible to do so which would be a great improvement on what we see today.
Lynn West is a thinker, a teacher and a patriot. You can reach him through email at forgingthefuture2021@gmail.com or through this newspaper. Liberty is a state of being which must be continually created. These articles can help all of us discover the ways we can contribute to that outcome.