re some more about gun control first i would like to say how much i appreciate having so literate and erudite an individual as mr rutledge with whom to discuss this topic frankly most anti rkba posters refuse even to approach the topic of the original understanding of the bill of rights as detailed in the writings of the era this is most refreshing second i must apologize for leaving the discussion for several days my brigade s quarterly drill was this weekend and i needed to attend to several matters pertaining to the state militia some people seem to feel that the concept of the militia is an anachro nism that is out of place in the th century i m not sure the swiss would agree and i think perhaps a discussion of how the militia both organized and unorganized fits into the defense plans of my state mississippi please do not assume that this describes something peculiar to one southern state for instance the commonwealth of massachusetts has a well organized militia which members report maintains stocks of both riot guns and machine guns the laws of other states will vary but are probably similar title of mississippi code defines our militia as all able bodied citizens of the state between the ages of seventeen and sixty two years the militia is divided into classes the national guard the mississippi state guard and the unorganized militia the national guard is a strange sort of fish from a constitutional perspective it tries to be both state militia and federal reserve the discussion of this para constitutional arrangement is quite interesting in itself but somewhat beyond the scope of this discussion suffice it that at this date the national guard has ceased to have any constitutional standing as anything but a federal reserve force mississippi and most other states maintains a purely state organized militia in mississippi this is called the state guard in other states it may be called something else the state guard exists as a cadre or training corps made up of mostly experienced officers and senior ncos who serve as volunteers without compensation we drill on a monthly basis at the company and battalion level brigade once a quarter and have an annual drill of the whole organization our state authorized cadre strength is this is a skeleton of an organization without any flesh the muscle and sinew when needed will come from the unorganized militia in time of invasion insurrection or calamity the governor can order the activation of the state guard when this takes place a call will first be made for volunteers to fill the organization out to either its contingency strength of or full strength of in the event that a sufficient number of people fail to volunteer the law provides detailed instructions for the conducting of a draft of the unorganized militia the size of the state guard is not specified by law but rather by executive order at one time the organized militia of mississippi consisted of regiments needless to say the state does not have armories brimming with weapons with which to equip such a force the historical precedent for arming such a force is by use of mostly the private arms of the militiamen it is my hope that demonstrates that state militias are far from being the long dead anachronisms that some may wish to claim no i simple stated that the people have a right to join a well organized militia and i have also stated that a militia that meets once or twice a year is clearly well organized and this state of readiness that i have claimed the people have a right to is the same state of readiness expected of the militia as stated by hamilton regarding hamilton if you take hamilton s opinion as being the sole representative of the opinions of the founding fathers you will have chosen a highly skewed sample set hamilton was on the extreme federalist end of the political spectrum others such as coxe and henry can be chosen to represent the other end many contemporaries felt that the idea of having a standing army of any sort or even a select militia or train bands were contrary to the egalitarian nature of the govern ment they were striving to perfect the compromise reached was to provide for a small army which had to be refinanced every two years and iron clad protection for the militia which was to remain ever terrible and irresistible these protections included state control not federal limitation of federal utilization of the militia i e execute laws suppress insurrections and repel invasions and the right to keep and bear arms to prevent what the british had tried to do at lexington these limitations eventually proved so onerous to the federal govern ment that they were skirted by the creation of the national guard the national guard was created for one very simple reason the constitutional militia was had proved too unreliable for fighting wars of imperial expansion e g spanish american war the constitution provided that the militia could only be employed by the federal government in very limited purposes as far back as the war of militia units had refused to leave united states territory to attack the enemy further there was no constitutional authorization for any conscription of anyone into the federal military and militiamen were particularly protected in all wars until ww i every american who left the country under arms was a volunteer when the national guard acts of required that each new member also enlist as a reservest in the army existing soldiers were grandfathered at least one of these grandfathered individuals refused to go to france in and his refusal was upheld by the federal courts mr rutledge has stated that the second amendment applies only to members of a well organized militia however the pre constitutional history of the american militia shows relatively few periods when the militia came close to meeting either messrs rutledge or hamilton s definition of well organized in the period of peace between the french indian war and the revolution many companies simply stopped drilling and had to be reconstituted just prior to the revolution perhaps mr rutledge would care to argue that those of my ancestors who answered the lexington alarm had forfeited their rights because their units didn t drill for a few years in the s i would not be so bold again i wish to repeat the national guard for all its merits is not the militia described by the constitution nor by mr hamilton nor by mr henry nor by mr coxe the fact that the federal government and many states are delinquent in their attentions to and organizing of their constitutional militias diminishes neither their responsibilities nor the rights of the militia as detailed in the constitution misunderstanding of the nature and purpose of the militia is but one error that has crept into modern readings of the constitution the constitution prohibits states from keeping troops or ships of war in time of peace i have heard some insist this prevents states from maintaining a militia but this comes about because people today do not understand the meanings of the words in their th century usage today we call any large vessel a ship but in the th century the word described a particular kind of vessel a ship is a large vessel with three or more masts each carrying square rigged sails a brig has two masts in the contemporary usage the states were prohibited only from keeping the largest warships of the day those capable of global operations today s equivalent might be a prohibition on the states keeping nuclear missiles troops at this time meant a full time professional military organization any study of contemporaneous writings will bear this out in at least one respect i am in agreement with mr rutledge being personally involved in the maintenance and advancement of the militia as a viable means of defense for a modern society i am frequently both bemused and saddened when friends and associates wax poetic on their place in the unorganized militia and become strangely silent or scarce when invited to attend a drill of their state s militia donald r newcomb university of southern mississippi dnewcomb whale st usm edu this is the way we tax and spend tax dnewcomb falcon st usm edu and spend we re democrats in office
