Feb. 27th USA Today

[chris in va]

Front page article, "Do you have a legal right to own a gun?"

Written by Joan Biskupic.

Picture of a snub revolver colored as the American flag on top of the Constitution.

Lots of glaring falsehoods, a couple that stood out to me.

"Current laws ban private ownership of machine guns and limit possession of firearms that can go undetected by metal detectors or x-ray machines."

USA Today Gallup poll was also published. I think we may have hit this poll IIRC.

"Do you believe the SA guarantees the rights of Americans to own guns, or does it only guarantee members of state militias such as National Guard units the right to own guns?" Generally overwhelmingly voted 'Right of all Americans' vs 'Only state militias'.

Now, since when is the National Guard a state militia? How did they even arrive at that assumption?

Here I am reading this article the other day at the coffee shop, snickering and going 'Pssshhh' almost constantly.

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Fact checking in journalism apparently either isn't done, or is done on anti sites like Brady or the VPC. After all these years they are still talking about the glock 7. It's ok, only unicorns and leprechauns pack those.

Now I'm off to write an article about how to pick the best steak by visiting PETA's website...

 

[Robert Hairless]

Now I'm off to write an article about how to pick the best steak by visiting PETA's website...

Okay, you win the February award for that one. No one else can come close.

 

[Winchester 73]

Okay, you win the February award for that one. No one else can come close.

That was so clever the thread closed down.
But USA Today?Just consider the source.

 

[Strings]

My favorite is the constant pointing at Miller, claiming that it states "Collective right of the militia"...

That wasn't an issue of Miller. The question in Miller was "Is a short-barreled shotgun a militia weapon?". If we had been using our collective brains, we ould have been pushing for a strict interpretation of Miller, showing that only military weapons are protected...

 

[Craig_AR]

Is the National Guard a Militia?

chris_in_VA said
"Now, since when is the National Guard a state militia? How did they even arrive at that assumption?"

Chris,
I'm sorry, but you appear to display a distressing lack of knowledge on this topic. Based on the combination of historical lineage, shared legal authority between state and federal governments, and shared and separated funding lines for state and federal money, the National Guard is most certainly and clearly a state militia. It is also a reserve federal force.
The National Guard has always been a state militia. Further, it has never claimed to be THE state militia. Many states (our own Virginia being one), have both a National Guard, which is a dual status state militia and federal reserve force, plus a State Guard, which is only a state militia.
Many people only see news of the Guard when called up for federal duty. Whether it is a Presidential National Emergency with Guard serving in Federal status, or an overseas military campaign as we have had in the 92 Gulf War, and today in Afghanistan and Iraq, they think that the Guard only does Federal missions. That is far from reality. The Guard is called out hundreds of times a year by governors, used in state status (militia) for such diverse duties as post-tornado clean up and security, delivering water to communities with water service limits, digging stranded motorists out of snow drifts, and even air-dropping hay to feed cattle stranded by snows.
The funding for National Guard is split, too. The cost of building and operating Army Guard armories is split 50/50 state and federal. The cost of operating Air Guard facilities, is split 10/90 state/federal, because the states get so much less use of those facilities. (Think of all the meetings and dances at local armories.) When the Guard is called out by the governor, 100% of the pay and expenses are state money.
By the way, that pay and cost thing is areason that governors often ASK the president to declare a national emergency after a big hurricane, tornado, flood, or fire. That act shifts the expenses of the Guard from state to federal budgets.
The truth - the National Guard is VERY much a state militia.

Craig in VA

p.s My information is based no serving 26 years in the National Guard, almost ten of those years doing the money stuff, at both sttae and federal levels.

 

[Craig_AR]

Is the National Guard a Militia?

dupe