Yet some people want you to believe that the purpose of the 2nd Amendment was to arm the Militia...despite the fact that the constitution itself [Article 1, Section 8, Clause 16] had already given to Congress the power to "provide for the organizing, arming an disciplining the Militia." These same people want you to believe that only the right of the Militia to keep and bear arm "shall not be infringed." Take note of the caps in the Constitution for Militia and the lack of caps for militia in the Bill of Rights.

     Apparently they do not know that the framers of the Bill of Rights haggled long and hard over individual words and phrases. The Founders' understanding of the English language far surpassed that of the 2nd's present misinterpreters.

     For those people, who obviously have never learned to diagram a sentence, I will take this opportunity to examine the 2nd from a grammatical point of view.

     In the first place, the word "right" is indisputably the subject of the sentence. The predicate ,or main verb phrase, is: "shall not be infringed." That is the imperative form of the verb; in short, it is a straightforward command. The reference to the militia appears only as an introductory subordinate clause, which has no power to limit or restrict the subject or the predicate.

     The Bill of Rights was drafted in response to demands by a number of states as a condition for their ratification. These states insisted on an explicit Bill of Rights to protect the people from the possible tyranny of some future too-powerful central government [talk about farsighted]. They wanted a listing of inalienable rights "of which men, when they form a social compact, cannot deprive or divest their posterity." [Samuel Adams 1st Constitutional Congress].

     The state constitutions of Virginia, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island include the clause..."the people have the right to keep and bear arms."

     If any unschooled person still believes, after this lesson in grammar and history that the framers of the Bill of Rights did not mean that "the people have the right to keep and bear arms", I suggest that they visit an English teacher, and a competent historian.

     The odd "militia misconception" as to what the founders intended as opposed to what the 2nd actually says, is a figment of the imaginations of those who would disarm the USA. In their hearts they know they are blowing smoke, witness their fatuous attempts recently to have the 2nd repealed.

     "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson, proposal for a Virginia constitution, T. Jefferson papers, pg.344.

     I must add a note of thanks to some people T. Jefferson, S. Adams, P. Henry, et al.

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