[SATLUG] OT: Walmart / Right-Left Paradigm

[Brad Knowles]

On 11/6/07, pixelnate wrote:

>>  and.. sorry....
>>  Not even a literal Second ammendment affords the right to an uzi... just as
>>  the context as to what constit
>
>  Ask yourself, what enemy would a well regulated militia be defending the
>  republic against, exactly? If you come up with the right answer on that
>  one you would understand the need for exactly the thing you say there
>  are no rights for.

The original purpose for the well regulated militia was to defend the 
people against tyrants.  They were armed with the best individual 
military weapons available at the time (the same weapons were used 
for hunting animals as well as people), and the larger-scale weapons 
(e.g., cannons, capital ships, etc...) were bought by and through 
governments, although they were maintained and operated by the well 
regulated militia.

Note that the well regulated militia was only called into format at a 
time of war, otherwise they were basically just normal people, like 
you or me.  There were no standing armies at the time -- they were 
considered to be tools of the tyrants, and the founding fathers were 
well aware of this fact.


So, warp into the 21st century.  If we are still to have a well 
regulated militia, who would it be?  The closest equivalent would be 
the various military reserve organizations, but we'd have to get rid 
of the standing army/navy/air force/marines, etc....  You'd have a 
rotation system where some people were called to active duty in order 
to maintain a minimal readiness capability as well as to keep the 
weapons stores secure, but that's it.

Oh, and these people would still be armed with the best available 
militarily significant weapons.  Since the well regulated militia 
should be comprised of each and every able-bodied citizen of the 
country, that means everyone would not only have the right to have 
and carry Uzis or other submachine guns, you'd have the 
responsibility to use them appropriately.

Think about the mandatory military service programs in use by various 
other countries around the world, especially countries like 
Switzerland or Israel.  Same deal here, just on a larger scale.


So, what kind of tyrants would they be defending us against?  Well, 
it would be the tyrants that supposedly govern us, as well as those 
tyrants in other countries who would impose their will upon us.

In my view, we've got more than a few tyrants sitting in the White 
House right now, and I'm definitely feeling the need to have someone 
stand up in my defense against them -- companies like AT&T sure as 
hell ain't gonna do it.

-- 
Brad Knowles <brad at shub-internet.org>
LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu>