AES/newspost wrote:

Want to give us a few details, just for the record, about the "well
regulated militia" to which you, personally, belong? (given your focus
on the Constitution, I assume you do) -- Name, location where it's
registered, number of members, just who it's "well regulated" by, that
sort of thing?

Using the definitions applicable at the time the Constitution was written, the 2nd
ammendment states that every citizen is allowed to own and carry arms because an
armed citizenry is necessary for the defense of the country. The word "militia" did
not begin to aquire it's current meaning of an adjunct of the U.S. military until the
War Between the States.

Even applying the current meaning of the word "militia", there is no requirement that
a citizen be a member of the militia to own firearms; just a requirement that the
government not prohibit that ownership.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.