The Constitution And The Right To Bear Arms

If you were inclined to listen to organizations like The National Rifle Association you would think that every American were born with the right to own a gun from birth. They always sight the Second Amendment to the Constitution to push forth their claim and quote directly from the document itself and state: "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." This is usually the mantra that they recite. The problem with that little quote that they use is that they are only selectively showing you half of it. The entire Second Amendment (It's only one sentence folks) goes like this: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." In order to understand what the second amendment is getting at you have to understand what militia means. Militia means military. A militia, as defined by Webster's Comprehensive Dictionary is "A body of citizens enrolled and drilled in military organizations other than the regular military forces, and called out only in emergencies." Examples of organized militia include The National Guard, The Naval Reserve, and The Marine Corps Reserve. What the second Amendment basically states is that Citizen soldiers have the right to bear arms. That is citizens who are serving in the military in some capacity and not everyone and anyone like the N.R.A. is always misleading people to believe. Not store clerks, not waiters, not florists, not pizza shop owners, not teachers, not plumbers, not bus drivers, not executives or anyone else. I understand that this is a tough pill for gun lovers to take, especially the ones who will only allow their guns to be pried from their cold dead fingers. The Founding Fathers were never intending for Every American in civilian life to be walking around packing heat. To somehow claim that they were is an attempt to twist the meaning of their words and to insult their collective intelligence.