Militia

Land-mann, m. farmer, countryman, -messer, m. surveyor, -polizei,/. rural police, -schaft, /. province, district, state landscape, -see, m. lake, -seuche, /. epidemic, -stadt, /. inland town, country town, -strasse, /. highway, road, -strich, m. district climate. -Sturm, m. general levy (of troops), reserves, -tag, m. diet, legislature, -ung, /. landing, -vogt, m. governor, landw., abbret. of landwirtschaftlich. Land-wehr, /. first home reserve, militia. 

To reward Thompson, in 1773 Wentworth commissioned him a major in the New Hampshire militia. There Thompson acted as an informant for the British, so arousing the rancor of his fellow colonists that they planned to tar and feather him. He quietly departed for Boston, leaving his wife and baby daughter behind. He never saw his wife again, and only saw his daughter briefly many years later when he was living in France. 

At the time of Degas visit, the men in Rillieux s white family were briefly involved in the Unification Movement, an abortive attempt by pragmatic white and black businessmen to head off Reconstruction by radical Republicans and voluntarily integrate local governments and public schools. After the Unification Movement failed and Degas returned to France, Rillieux s relations moved on to support whites-only political movements. In a pitched street battle, an all-white militia fought an integrated city police force 32 people died before federal troops restored order. 

Fedayeen Saddam—Iraq s paramilitary organization, which was said to be equivalent to the Nazis SS. The militia was loyal to Saddam Hussein and was responsible for using brutality on civilians who were not loyal to the policies of Saddam. They did not dress in uniform. 

Andrew Fletcher, who survived a death sentence from James II and went on to help establish the new government, discussed the role of the armed citizen in A Discourse of Government with Relation to Militias (1698), where he said the constitution should put the sword into the hands of the subject. And I cannot see, why arms should be denied to any man who is not a slave, since they are the only true badges of liberty. i°... 

At about the time the militia and the right to bear arms were becoming less important to many English people, they became essential for the colonists who... 

The rival French colonists, too, posed a military threat to the British colonies until they were defeated by a combination of British and colonial volunteer forces in the French and Indian War of 1754—63. The British government did not want to undertake the expense of maintaining and supplying large numbers of professional soldiers on a frontier 3,000 miles away. The colonists would have to take primary responsibility for their own defense. They naturally adopted and refined the historical model of the militia to the needs of a very different society. 

The Militia Law should be repealed and none sujfered to be reenacted and the Arms of all the People should be taken away and every piece of Ordnance removed into the King s Stores, nor should any Foundry or manufacturer of Arms, Gunpowder, or Warlike Stores, be ever suffered in America, nor should any Gunpowder, Lead, Arms, or Ordnance be imported into it without License they will have but little need of such things for the future, as the King s Troops, Ships Forts will be sufficient to protect them from danger. ... 

Colonial activists formed the militias known as minutemen, creating a widespread network of resistance while leaders in the Second Continental Congress of 1775 debated whether to seek total American independence. But events overtook them when British officials, in the spirit of Knox s proposal, sent troops to Lexington and Concord to seize arms and... 

In the War of Independence, of the 231,771 men who served on the American side, 164,087 came from the militias. Militarily, the militias were a mixed bag, often poorly trained and ill prepared for major field battles, as well as being prone to desertion. But although it was the professional military efforts of George Washington, his colleagues, and French allies that ultimately won the war, the conflict could not have been started or sustained in its early years without the militia. 

In creating its new charter of government, U.S. political leaders kept the importance of the militia and the traditional distrust of a standing army in mind. James Madison, for example, noted that liberty could be kept secure because... 

To a U.S. army of about 25,000 or 30,000 men] would he opposed a militia amounting to near half a million citizens, with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. ... 

The Court s ruling suggests an answer to the first question that sees the militia clause as limiting or qualifying the right to bear arms. The key part of the decision said that the Court... 

In other words, the Court based its decision on whether the weapon in question had military application and thus could further the development of the militia. 

Ever since then, gun control advocates have argued that the Second Amendment thus applies only to bearing arms as part of an organized militia, which today is the National Guard ... 

Militia and military weapons Andrews v. State Presserv. Illinois City of Salina v. Blaksley United States v. Miller Cases v. U.S U.S. v. Warin... 

This decision continues in the tradition of the keeping of arms being an individual right, but one exercised in the context of promoting a collective defense (the well-trained militia). The state s police power can prohibit weapons that are not suitable or customary for this purpose. The keeping of military weapons cannot be banned, but the manner of bearing them can be regulated. 

The military code of the state of Illinois specifies It shall not be lawful for any body of men whatever, other than the regular organized volunteer militia of this State, and the troops of the United States, to associate themselves together as a military company or organization, or to drill or parade with arms in any city, or town, of this State, without the license of the Governor thereof... ... 

The State made the usual argument that the Second Amendment was not applicable to the states. It also argued that the prohibition of private militias was not in conflict with the power of Congress to oversee the organization of state militias. 

The Court sided with the State s argument. There is no constitutionally protected right to march as part of a private armed militia. The Second Amendment does not apply to the states. 

This decision gained some recent relevance with the formation of many private militias in the 1980s. Gun control advocates see Presser as denying any constitutional protection to such organizations, as well as reaffirming that the Second Amendment is not a bar to state or local gun regulations. 

Further, The provision in section 4 of the Bill of Rights that the people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security refers to the people as a collective body. It was the safety and security of society that was being considered when this provision was put into our Constimtion. The court went on to point out that the provisions for the maintenance of the state militia implied that the state could regulate the way in which weapons were to be carried. 

This view of the state constimtional provision is close to the viewpoint of most modern gun control advocates with regard to the Second Amendment Only the right of the state to form and operate a militia is protected the legislature is free to regulate or even prohibit the individual carrying of weapons. Certainly few people would assert that anyone has the right to carry a weapon while drunk. 

This short, rather cryptic decision has been interpreted in two different ways in the continuing debate over the meaning of the Second Amendment. Gun control advocates cite it as clearly stating that the Second Amendment must be interpreted in terms of the militia clause and does not give individuals the right to keep and bear any sort of firearm they want. 

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