Well Regulated
What does "Well Regulated" mean in the second?
Remember words DO change significantly over time. When we hear of regulation now we tend to think of controlled or controlled by LAW.
Such was not always the case.
Well Regulated could ALSO be interpreted as WLL OUTFITTED or WELL EQUIPPED.
Check these out:
http://www.constitution.org/cons/wellregu.htm
The meaning of the phrase "well-regulated" in the 2nd amendment
From: Brian T. Halonen <
[email protected]>
The following are taken from the Oxford English Dictionary, and bracket in time the writing of the 2nd amendment:
1709: "If a liberal Education has formed in us well-regulated Appetites and worthy Inclinations."
1714: "The practice of all well-regulated courts of justice in the world."
1812: "The equation of time ... is the adjustment of the difference of time as shown by a well-regulated clock and a true sun dial."
1848: "A remissness for which I am sure every well-regulated person will blame the Mayor."
1862: "It appeared to her well-regulated mind, like a clandestine proceeding."
1894: "The newspaper, a never wanting adjunct to every well-regulated American embryo city."
The phrase "well-regulated" was in common use long before 1789, and remained so for a century thereafter. It referred to the property of something being in proper working order. Something that was well-regulated was calibrated correctly, functioning as expected. Establishing government oversight of the people's arms was not only not the intent in using the phrase in the 2nd amendment, it was precisely to render the government powerless to do so that the founders wrote it.
http://www.2ampd.net/Articles/Tremoglie/a_well-regulated_militia.htm
Well-Regulated Militia
By
Michael P. Tremoglie
In his final statement to Pennsylvania's ratifying convention James Wilson said:
" It is said that Congress should not have the power of calling out the militia to execute the laws of the union... nor should the president have command of them....I believe a gentleman who possesses military experience will inform you that men without an uniformity of arms, accoutrements, and discipline are no more than a mob....By means of this system a uniformity of arms and discipline will prevail throughout United States... militia formed under this system will be..a bulwark. In every point of view this regulation is calculated to produce the best effects. "
Wilson was no ordinary delegate. According to liberal historian Garry Wills:" Wilson was one of the principal drafters of the Constitution and the principal ratifier of it." When Wilson spoke, he was speaking conceptually about the Constitution. It is with that statement, made in December 1787, that the meaning of the phrase " well regulated militia," may be found.
Well regulated according to Princeton's Wordnet means: "orderly adj, 4: marked by or adhering to method or system, a well regulated life."
Is it possible that well regulated does not mean, "governing," as the liberals have been claiming all along. Has the liberal intelligentsia distorted the meaning? If so, it would not be unusual.
Consider Rutgers Associate Law Professor Steven Gifis, who wrote in his Law Dictionary that the Second Amendment does not apply to private conduct. Gifis cites Laurence Tribe. It just so happens that Professor Tribe, who has unimpeachable liberal credentials, has opined that the right to bear arms is an important political right that should not be dismissed as "wholly irrelevant." Tribe thinks the Second Amendment stipulates, "the federal government may not disarm individual citizens without some unusually strong justification."
So, it is quite possible that the Second Amendment only refers to the uniformity of the militia not the control.
Please go to each of the above links to make sure I have quoted in context then...
Go get em!
Charles