American Law Enforcement and Guns

[Seamus Fermanagh]

...

Your Constitution provides for a "well regulated" militia - QED the State should regulate the ownership and carriage of weapons so that seditious groups and enemy aliens, along with the criminal and insane, are prevented from carrying weapons.

IN FACT it would seem that REFUSING to regulate the citizen militia at all is as unconstitutional as a blanket ban.

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."....

There is an excellent point here. Clear indications from the Federalist papers and other then-extent commentary suggest that the founders did view the bearing of arms as an individual right. Guns were kept in the home and were used by individuals and brought to musterings of the militia. In the larger cities of the East Coast, some cities held weapons at the armory and issued them to the citizenry as needed (city dwellers were less likely to own).

However, you make a nice point that the amendment clearly limits the federal government's ability to infringe on the bearing of arms, some degree of regulation by the several states is implied. A fair point to consider. State "dodges" such as declaring all adults part of the "un-regulated militia" may well be running against the provision.

When we were defended by a militia, ALL males of 16 years and older were expected to turn out and bear arms unless they were crippled, incompetent, or were in occupations/roles clearly accepted as being non-violent. Yet our communities DID keep weapons out of the hands of persons thought to be mentally incompetent. There is at least some precedent for regulation at the state level.

[HoreTore]

Yet our communities DID keep weapons out of the hands of persons thought to be mentally incompetent. There is at least some precedent for regulation at the state level.

.......And blacks.

[drone]

Via the Militia Act of 1903, the US has two separate militia categories. The organized militia consists of the state's National Guard units. The reserve militia consists of every able-bodied male between the ages of 17 and 45, minus those in certain important professions. States are allowed to categorize/regulate further, but pretty much every adult male is in a regulated militia by federal law so most of the word-lawyering around the Second Amendment is pointless.

And the Brits are bad guys not because we hate the Brits, but we need a foreigner and the British accent is distinct, yet easily understood by the audience.

[Montmorency]

That's exactly why it's so important, actually.

but pretty much every adult male

Except the tens of millions above age 45.

And here, it becomes very easy to argue for reform on the basis that the current militias are not well-regulated.

And there is less basis to complain against any regulatory legislation toward that end, since if curtailing the use of guns is a side-effect of a better-regulated militia, then so be it.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

.......And blacks.

Free blacks were gun owners as well. Sometimes even in the South (MD). Those who were not free were not thought of as persons but as property without rights. That view is asinine of itself.

[Montmorency]

There were those black militias that operated within the South during the time of the Civil War, for one side or another. Though I grant there weren't too many of those...

[Seamus Fermanagh]

There were those black militias that operated within the South during the time of the Civil War, for one side or another. Though I grant there weren't too many of those...

Blacks fought for both sides during the ACW. The Union employed them in "somewhat" larger numbers than did the Confederacy. Documentable numbers are more than 150k for the Union, and about 10 for the Confederacy.