One of the main purposes of the 2nd Amendment wasn’t just to protect our right to keep a firearm for personal defense, but to keep it for defense against a tyrannical government. This was verified in the Supreme Court decision of U.S. vs. Miller (1939). One of the key elements of the court decision was the type of firearm.
Jack Miller was arrested because he made a sawed-off shotgun, failed to register it as required by the National Firearms Act and illegally transported it from Oklahoma to Arkansas.
Miller’s defense was the 2nd Amendment protected his right to own a sawed-off shotgun. The local District Court found in favor of Miller. The prosecutor appealed the case to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court reversed the decision and found Miller guilty. That reversal was based on some long-standing definitions used in the early years of our country when writing our Constitution.
Back when our constitution was written, militia was defined as “All adult male inhabitants” and “A body of citizens enrolled for military discipline.”
As to the organization of the militia, it further stated, “Men were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time.”
Note: It did not say “muskets”. Some gun control advocates would have you believe that the Second Amendment only protects your right to own a musket.
What it said was two key points in the discussion on the right bear arms.
- “supplied by themselves.” This implies private ownership of the weapon the citizen was to bring when the militia was needed.
- “in common use at the time.” The Founding Fathers knew that firearm design would change over time and they wanted to ensure the militia would be armed at the same level as a tyrannical government’s military.
The phrase “in common use at the time” was the key point in the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the decision in the U.S. vs. Miller case. Sawed-off shotguns were not in common use at the time in the military. They never have been.
In the late 1700’s, flintlock, smooth-bore muskets were the weapon of choice. Eventually smooth-bores were replaced with rifled bores. Flintlocks were replaced by percussion caps. Muzzle-loaders were replaced with breech-loaders. Breech-loaders were replaced with bolt-actions. Bolt actions were replaced with semi-automatics and semi-automatics were replaced with select-fire weapons capable of both semi-automatic and fully automatic fire.
Which brings us to today. Every modern military in the world uses a select-fire, magazine fed rifle firing an intermediate cartridge – the actual definition of Assault Rifle (Assault weapon is a made up term that can mean whatever the user wants it to mean).
Currently, the most commonly used military weapon in the U.S. Military today is the M16A2 rifle and M4 Carbine. The most readily available civilian equivalent to these weapons (being semi-auto versions of the same weapon) is the AR-15.
Supreme Court decision protects owning AR15’s.
Based on the definition of militia, “All adult male inhabitants”, every man should own an AR-15. With our changes in gender equality over the years, all women should be in line to buy their AR-15.
And for those that say a citizenry armed with AR15’s could never stand up against the might of the U.S. Military, have they never studied history? The citizens of Afghanistan, using small arms and man-portable weapons fought the largest Army in the world (USSR for those that didn’t study history) to a standstill and eventually forced them from their country even though the USSR employed tanks, APC’s, helicopters and jet bombers. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog.
U.S. vs. Miller (You may have to cut and paste this link to review case)