About That Second Amendment

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 4 months ago

Seen in the comments at David’s WoG.

‘The Second Amendment states explicitly that it exists to protect “a well regulated Militia,” ‘

Ah, no!

What it says is that RKBA shall not be infringed.

In a prefatory clause it indicates ONE of the reasons why that must be true.

https://www.mic.com/articles/24210/gun-control-myth-the-second-amendment-makes-clear-guns-aren-t-just-for-the-military

Wishing it were otherwise, and trying to use SCOTUS lack of rulings on RKBA issues to make that wish come true, does not make it true.

What is rarely discussed by outfits such as Vox, is that for much of the Second Amendment’s existence, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms was not under ceaseless attack, so there was no reason for SCOTUS to get involved.

But that is not in alignment of Vox’s version of the truth.

But as noted leftist and anti gun Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said:

“You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, YES.  This.  This.  And a thousand times yes.

I’ve pointed out before that firearms ownership was ubiquitous in the states.  The colonists had a RKBA because God granted it.  This is an axiomatic irreducible.  It is the predicate upon which everything else is based.  Without this presupposition, the second amendment makes no sense.

The framers needed only one reason to tell the FedGov to stay out of their business, and this was their main one.  The second amendment is not a treatise on the RKBA.  The second amendment is the states telling the FedGov not to interfere with the militia.  The militia brought their own armaments.

Thus, God gave the right to own firearms for hunting and feeding the family, just like he gave men the right to use rocks and spears and bow and arrow to do the same in ancient history.  If you want firearms for this purpose, God protects that right.  It is assumed in the second amendment, which doesn’t speak to hunting.

If you want cannon to protect your ship’s cargo, God gave you that right in the Holy Writ.  The second amendment doesn’t speak to cannon aboard ships of trade because it doesn’t have to.  It is assumed.

If you want to give your son a rifle to carry with him to school like the founders did for hunting and plinking and learning to be a man, that’s within your rights too, because God says so.

If you are 90 years old and unable to form with the militia but want a machine gun to defend your home, that’s within your rights too because God says so.

If you want firearms for 3-gun competition because you enjoy it, that’s within your rights because God says so, totally apart from forming with the militia.

Rights and duties are granted and given by the Almighty, the sovereign maker of the universe.  The second amendment is the states telling the FedGov to back off ever trying to regulate said rights because what’s at risk is the capability overthrow tyranny.

That’s all the founders had to say.  The second amendment is about tyranny.  Not hunting, not competition, not self defense, not pleasure plinking.  Those things are assumed, presupposed, and irreducible.  They are the basis for everything else – because God says so.


Comments

  1. On November 1, 2021 at 12:14 am, Jimmy the Saint said:

    “because God says so.”

    Well, to paraphrase our dearly beloved inspiration, Stalin: how many divisions has God?
    – Congress & The Supreme Court

  2. On November 1, 2021 at 2:33 am, Mike Austin said:

    When Stalin said this, the response from the representative Pope Pius XII was, “Tell your master that he will meet my legions in Hell.”

    As Stalin lay dying he was screaming about wolves running across the snow to devour him. They were preparing him to meet the legions of Pius.

  3. On November 1, 2021 at 8:38 am, Fred said:

    You won’t learn much in the American Church about the Lord of hosts.

    “And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.”Joshua 5:13-15

    Jesus Christ is the Lord of hosts. Which means that He is the Lord of armies. The problem this presents is not one of God’s making at all. The problem with men is sin, and therefore thinking that just because you have an army, of whatever size, that your use of that army is righteous. I offer into evidence the heart of so called Christians in America who love war and killing and bombing brown people for fun and profit. If there was ever a self righteous group it’s them.

    The Lord may use an army in judgement. The term, or a variation, Lord of hosts is all throughout the books of the profits. This term is a reference to Holy God using the armies of men to bring about (a portion of) judgement against the whoring (love of false gods/religions) and idolatrous (worshipping of false gods having known the one true God).

    Now the hard part; the refusal by dispensationalists to recognize the very obvious use of this language and a great many other uses of OT type prophetic terms in the book of Revelation coupled with the very present connection to Matthew 24 and Luke 21.

    Revelation, just like the OT profits, is about judgement against Israel. And in no small part that judgement was accomplished by the use of Roman legions in the first century at the command of…wait for it…The thrice holy resurrected Christ of God Almighty, this Lord of Hosts.

    The Revelation is so well aligned with the OT profits in it’s description of judgement against Israel and then judgement against those He used to meet out that Judgement that it requires willful blindness to refute.

    Revelation is the answer to Matthew 24, and Luke 21. This leaves me with a problem, when was Revelation written? That’s worth the discovery. And a much larger problem looms today, if all was fulfilled just as Jesus, the Lord of Hosts, said, then what is that thing called Israel in present day Palestine? Eh, I actually don’t care about that last question.

    The point of this is, Pope Pius’ answer was the stupidest thing a Christian could have said. And, in part, the blood (his own) of Stalin (the man), is on the head of Pius.

    How about telling the dying man who the Lord of Hosts is and how wickedly and sinfully that he (Stalin) had abused the high honor and privilege of commanding any host of men? How about repentance toward the Lord of Hosts seeking His mercy and forgiveness since it is this Son of God who had died for Stalin’s sin and it is this same Lord of Hosts that is the judge of the quick and the dead.

    Pope Pius gave the worst Christian answer to a dying sinner I’ve ever heard. I don’t know if God would have forgiven Stalin but I do with emphatic assurance know as fact; that the job of a Christian is to tell the sinner, yes even Stalin, that the Lord of Hosts is also a merciful and a gracious Lord indeed.

    The hardest thing of all, sometimes the Lord of Hosts coming on clouds of power and numbered as the grasshopper is the most merciful thing He can do to a wicked and destructive, waring and murdering people such as us. Even so, come quickly Lord.

    I pray that when you meet this Lord, and surely you will, that it is not as the Lord of Hosts come for His vengeance, but that you meet Him in love, welcomed home to His eternity.

  4. On November 1, 2021 at 8:45 am, Herschel Smith said:

    Stalin is in eternal torment. God is still alive.

  5. On November 1, 2021 at 8:48 am, Fred said:

    I don’t think that’s in dispute.

  6. On November 1, 2021 at 12:16 pm, Fred said:

    I am further confused (I’m not) as to how the carrying away into Babylon (Jeremiah 27, elsewhere) is readily and rightly accepted as history fact but when our Lord said in Mark 13 that the temple and great buildings shall be not one stone left upon another and that not all of that generation would pass until those things would be fulfilled (Luke 21 and Matthew 24) that this can’t possibly be fulfilled in the Jewish wars of ’68–70 first century?

    How is one true and the other not? How is Jeremiah a greater (oh that I would just do as God says) profit than Jesus? Is Jesus lying about the judgement that must come for the rejection of Him? Was not all the blood since righteous able poorerd out on that generation who stoned the the profits?

    How is one as readily acceptable as the grass is green but the other, if spoken of at all, is as though God would be in sin if it were true? Was not the temple destroyed and the rest of that prophesy fulfilled in that generation or is Jesus a liar? It can only be one or the other.

  7. On November 1, 2021 at 12:17 pm, Bradlley A Graham said:

    The 2nd Amendment means nothing unless you are willing to personally enforce it.

  8. On November 1, 2021 at 2:05 pm, MTHead said:

    2A wasn’t under ceaseless attack. And that was also because the government could write a law. But their was no one to enforce it in large scale.
    Hillbilly Joe could saw off a shotgun and the odds of him getting caught were pretty slim.
    Only in modern times do we see the subject brought before the court because people are getting in trouble with police over it.
    No one really fought the NFA. Because machine guns and suppressors were not something alot of people were getting arrested for. Or were interested in.
    Troubled times have changed that.
    And at this point in God’s creation. Do we truly care what government says is right or wrong?
    It’s still a matter of enforcement.

  9. On November 2, 2021 at 6:05 pm, Elon Muskox said:

    The Founding Fathers were masters of the King’s because they were drilled in rigid and proper English at the finest institutions of higher learning in the Americas. Few today have such a high level of literacy but fortunately Justice Antonin Scalia was not one of those inflicted with the Public Education Syndrome.

    Scalia showed the depth of his understanding of the subtleties of the language in writing the majority opinion in the DC v. Heller decision, focusing in part on the grammatical significance of the phrase, “A well regulated Militia….”

    Scalia’s opinion, which paralleled the logic used in the amicus brief submitted by Dr. Nelson Lund, Ph.D., J.D., Professor at George Mason University School of Law, was that the phrase DOESN’T MATTER. NOT IN THE LEAST. It was nothing but window dressing, setting the stage for the meat of the sentence, which was to follow.

    Specifically they both correctly noted that the opening phrase of 2A is of a type known (variously) as a prefatory clause or an ablative (or nominative) absolute. And the function of the “prefatory clause” or “nominative absolute” is defined (and limited) as follows under Rule #15 of Noah Webster’s 1790 Rudiments of English Grammar, a treatise which was well-known to Mason, Jefferson, et Al:

    __________________________________________________________
    A nominative case or word, joined with a participle, often stands independently of the sentence. This is called, the case absolute.

    Examples.
    The sun being risen,
    it will be warm.
    They all consenting, the vote was passed.
    “Jesus conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.”

    Explanation.
    The words in italics ARE NOT CONNECTED with the other part of the sentence, either by agreement or government; they are therefore in the case absolute, which, in English, is always the nominative. (emphasis added)
    __________________________________________________________

    Get that? According to Noah Webster, the father of American scholarship, whose name is synonymous with the word “dictionary”:

    “…The words in italics are not connected with the other part of the sentence, either by agreement or government….”

    Arguments about the definition or role of the Militia are completely meaningless to 2A because its grammar commands that it be so. The phrase has absolutely no influence over or control of the meaning of the Operative Clause, “Right of the People.” You just have to have sufficient literacy to figure that out.

    So instead of engaging the hoplophobes and other neo-Bolsheviks on the meaning of “A well regulated Militia,” the cause of 2A would be better served if you simply told them to go away and come back once they’ve learned how to read proper English.

    The Heller decision online, to include Justice Scalia’s masterful rendering of the opinion for the Majority:
    https://web.archive.org/web/20160828030749/https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZO.html

  10. On November 2, 2021 at 6:58 pm, Fred said:

    Which “prefatory clause or an ablative (or nominative) absolute” arrived at the common use test instituted out of whole cloth by Scalia?

  11. On November 2, 2021 at 7:09 pm, Herschel Smith said:

    Like I said, Heller was a weak decision. If it says what’s being claimed is being said, then why didn’t Heller declare the NFA unconstitutional?

    Don’t answer that.

    The 2A doesn’t have to speak to personal ownership of firearms and the RKBA everywhere, because that’s assumed in the 2A. Without that assumption, the entirety of the 2A makes no sense whatsoever. To even begin a discussion or debate on the meaning of the 2A requires the stipulation by all parties that men have a RKBA. Otherwise, overthrowing the government because of tyranny makes no sense unless men have arms and bear them in public.

    Presuppositions.

    Presuppositions.

    Presuppositions.

    Logic. Presupposition + presupposition + deduction = proof.

    Or, presupposition + immediate inference = proof.

    It would have been better if American children had been trained in logic all of these years. I have in my possession a a book by Isaac Watts entitled “Logic,” intended for use in schooling children in colonial times. I had R. C. Sproul sign it for me (after talking a bit with him at a conference). I seriously doubt most adult Americans would be able to handle it.

  12. On November 2, 2021 at 8:30 pm, Fred said:

    Did you just challenge a known retard (me) to learn logic!!!

    Oh, it’s on!!! Heh.

    Yeah, Heller stinks.

  13. On November 2, 2021 at 9:09 pm, Herschel Smith said:

    You’re not a retard Fred. I wasn’t speaking to you. I was reemphasizing my points in the post because I can’t write everything down at one time. It tires me.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment


You are currently reading "About That Second Amendment", entry #28538 on The Captain's Journal.

This article is filed under the category(s) Second Amendment and was published October 31st, 2021 by Herschel Smith.

If you're interested in what else the The Captain's Journal has to say, you might try thumbing through the archives and visiting the main index, or; perhaps you would like to learn more about TCJ.

26th MEU (10)
Abu Muqawama (12)
ACOG (2)
ACOGs (1)
Afghan National Army (36)
Afghan National Police (17)
Afghanistan (704)
Afghanistan SOFA (4)
Agriculture in COIN (3)
AGW (1)
Air Force (40)
Air Power (10)
al Qaeda (83)
Ali al-Sistani (1)
America (22)
Ammunition (275)
Animals (282)
Ansar al Sunna (15)
Anthropology (3)
Antonin Scalia (1)
AR-15s (373)
Arghandab River Valley (1)
Arlington Cemetery (2)
Army (86)
Assassinations (2)
Assault Weapon Ban (28)
Australian Army (7)
Azerbaijan (4)
Backpacking (2)
Badr Organization (8)
Baitullah Mehsud (21)
Basra (17)
BATFE (218)
Battle of Bari Alai (2)
Battle of Wanat (18)
Battle Space Weight (3)
Bin Laden (7)
Blogroll (3)
Blogs (24)
Body Armor (23)
Books (3)
Border War (18)
Brady Campaign (1)
Britain (38)
British Army (35)
Camping (5)
Canada (17)
Castle Doctrine (1)
Caucasus (6)
CENTCOM (7)
Center For a New American Security (8)
Charity (3)
China (16)
Christmas (16)
CIA (30)
Civilian National Security Force (3)
Col. Gian Gentile (9)
Combat Outposts (3)
Combat Video (2)
Concerned Citizens (6)
Constabulary Actions (3)
Coolness Factor (3)
COP Keating (4)
Corruption in COIN (4)
Council on Foreign Relations (1)
Counterinsurgency (218)
DADT (2)
David Rohde (1)
Defense Contractors (2)
Department of Defense (210)
Department of Homeland Security (26)
Disaster Preparedness (5)
Distributed Operations (5)
Dogs (15)
Donald Trump (27)
Drone Campaign (4)
EFV (3)
Egypt (12)
El Salvador (1)
Embassy Security (1)
Enemy Spotters (1)
Expeditionary Warfare (17)
F-22 (2)
F-35 (1)
Fallujah (17)
Far East (3)
Fathers and Sons (2)
Favorite (1)
Fazlullah (3)
FBI (39)
Featured (189)
Federal Firearms Laws (18)
Financing the Taliban (2)
Firearms (1,758)
Football (1)
Force Projection (35)
Force Protection (4)
Force Transformation (1)
Foreign Policy (27)
Fukushima Reactor Accident (6)
Ganjgal (1)
Garmsir (1)
general (15)
General Amos (1)
General James Mattis (1)
General McChrystal (44)
General McKiernan (6)
General Rodriguez (3)
General Suleimani (9)
Georgia (19)
GITMO (2)
Google (1)
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (1)
Gun Control (1,633)
Guns (2,298)
Guns In National Parks (3)
Haditha Roundup (10)
Haiti (2)
HAMAS (7)
Haqqani Network (9)
Hate Mail (8)
Hekmatyar (1)
Heroism (4)
Hezbollah (12)
High Capacity Magazines (16)
High Value Targets (9)
Homecoming (1)
Homeland Security (3)
Horses (2)
Humor (72)
Hunting (31)
ICOS (1)
IEDs (7)
Immigration (106)
India (10)
Infantry (4)
Information Warfare (4)
Infrastructure (4)
Intelligence (23)
Intelligence Bulletin (6)
Iran (171)
Iraq (379)
Iraq SOFA (23)
Islamic Facism (64)
Islamists (98)
Israel (19)
Jaish al Mahdi (21)
Jalalabad (1)
Japan (3)
Jihadists (81)
John Nagl (5)
Joint Intelligence Centers (1)
JRTN (1)
Kabul (1)
Kajaki Dam (1)
Kamdesh (9)
Kandahar (12)
Karachi (7)
Kashmir (2)
Khost Province (1)
Khyber (11)
Knife Blogging (7)
Korea (4)
Korengal Valley (3)
Kunar Province (20)
Kurdistan (3)
Language in COIN (5)
Language in Statecraft (1)
Language Interpreters (2)
Lashkar-e-Taiba (2)
Law Enforcement (6)
Lawfare (14)
Leadership (6)
Lebanon (6)
Leon Panetta (2)
Let Them Fight (2)
Libya (14)
Lines of Effort (3)
Littoral Combat (8)
Logistics (50)
Long Guns (1)
Lt. Col. Allen West (2)
Marine Corps (280)
Marines in Bakwa (1)
Marines in Helmand (67)
Marjah (4)
MEDEVAC (2)
Media (67)
Medical (146)
Memorial Day (6)
Mexican Cartels (41)
Mexico (61)
Michael Yon (6)
Micromanaging the Military (7)
Middle East (1)
Military Blogging (26)
Military Contractors (5)
Military Equipment (25)
Militia (9)
Mitt Romney (3)
Monetary Policy (1)
Moqtada al Sadr (2)
Mosul (4)
Mountains (25)
MRAPs (1)
Mullah Baradar (1)
Mullah Fazlullah (1)
Mullah Omar (3)
Musa Qala (4)
Music (25)
Muslim Brotherhood (6)
Nation Building (2)
National Internet IDs (1)
National Rifle Association (95)
NATO (15)
Navy (30)
Navy Corpsman (1)
NCOs (3)
News (1)
NGOs (3)
Nicholas Schmidle (2)
Now Zad (19)
NSA (3)
NSA James L. Jones (6)
Nuclear (62)
Nuristan (8)
Obama Administration (221)
Offshore Balancing (1)
Operation Alljah (7)
Operation Khanjar (14)
Ossetia (7)
Pakistan (165)
Paktya Province (1)
Palestine (5)
Patriotism (7)
Patrolling (1)
Pech River Valley (11)
Personal (72)
Petraeus (14)
Pictures (1)
Piracy (13)
Pistol (4)
Pizzagate (21)
Police (648)
Police in COIN (3)
Policy (15)
Politics (969)
Poppy (2)
PPEs (1)
Prisons in Counterinsurgency (12)
Project Gunrunner (20)
PRTs (1)
Qatar (1)
Quadrennial Defense Review (2)
Quds Force (13)
Quetta Shura (1)
RAND (3)
Recommended Reading (14)
Refueling Tanker (1)
Religion (491)
Religion and Insurgency (19)
Reuters (1)
Rick Perry (4)
Rifles (1)
Roads (4)
Rolling Stone (1)
Ron Paul (1)
ROTC (1)
Rules of Engagement (75)
Rumsfeld (1)
Russia (37)
Sabbatical (1)
Sangin (1)
Saqlawiyah (1)
Satellite Patrols (2)
Saudi Arabia (4)
Scenes from Iraq (1)
Second Amendment (668)
Second Amendment Quick Hits (2)
Secretary Gates (9)
Sharia Law (3)
Shura Ittehad-ul-Mujahiden (1)
SIIC (2)
Sirajuddin Haqqani (1)
Small Wars (72)
Snipers (9)
Sniveling Lackeys (2)
Soft Power (4)
Somalia (8)
Sons of Afghanistan (1)
Sons of Iraq (2)
Special Forces (28)
Squad Rushes (1)
State Department (23)
Statistics (1)
Sunni Insurgency (10)
Support to Infantry Ratio (1)
Supreme Court (52)
Survival (185)
SWAT Raids (57)
Syria (38)
Tactical Drills (38)
Tactical Gear (14)
Taliban (168)
Taliban Massing of Forces (4)
Tarmiyah (1)
TBI (1)
Technology (21)
Tehrik-i-Taliban (78)
Terrain in Combat (1)
Terrorism (96)
Thanksgiving (13)
The Anbar Narrative (23)
The Art of War (5)
The Fallen (1)
The Long War (20)
The Surge (3)
The Wounded (13)
Thomas Barnett (1)
Transnational Insurgencies (5)
Tribes (5)
TSA (24)
TSA Ineptitude (13)
TTPs (4)
U.S. Border Patrol (6)
U.S. Border Security (18)
U.S. Sovereignty (23)
UAVs (2)
UBL (4)
Ukraine (10)
Uncategorized (98)
Universal Background Check (3)
Unrestricted Warfare (4)
USS Iwo Jima (2)
USS San Antonio (1)
Uzbekistan (1)
V-22 Osprey (4)
Veterans (3)
Vietnam (1)
War & Warfare (412)
War & Warfare (41)
War Movies (4)
War Reporting (21)
Wardak Province (1)
Warriors (6)
Waziristan (1)
Weapons and Tactics (79)
West Point (1)
Winter Operations (1)
Women in Combat (21)
WTF? (1)
Yemen (1)

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006

about · archives · contact · register

Copyright © 2006-2024 Captain's Journal. All rights reserved.