Militia clause

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... 

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. 

Just after the above quoted portion of its opinion, the Miller court continued in a separate paragraph initially quoting the militia clauses of article 1, 8 (clauses 15 and 16) and concluding ... 

Certainly, the preamble implies that the substantive guarantee is one which tends to enable, promote or further the existence, continuation or effectiveness of that well-regulated Militia which is necessary to the security of a free State. As the Court said in Miller, immediately after quoting the militia clauses of Article I, 8 (cl. 15 and 16), [wjith obvious purpose to assure the continuation and render possible the effectiveness of such... 

Volokh, Eugene. The Commonplace Second Amendment. UCLA Law School. Available online. URL http //wwwl.law.ucla.edu/ volokh/ common.htm. Posted in 1998. Argues that the unusual structure of the Second Amendment (with its introductory clause about the militia) was actually a quite common construction in contemporary American constitutions. A change in the conditions used to justify a right does not imply that the right will expire. 

The power to raise armies, is indefinite and unlimited, and authorises the raising forces, as well in peace as in war. Whether the clause which impowers the Congress to pass all laws which are proper and necessary, to carry this into execution, will not authorise them to impress men for the army, is a question well worthy consideration If the general legislature deem it for the general welfare to raise a body of troops, and they cannot be procured by voluntary enlistments, it seems evident, that it will be proper and necessary to effect it, that men be impressed from the militia to make up the deficiency. 

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