Well Regulated Militia
BY Herschel Smith
1 month ago
David Codrea, quoting Richard Henry Lee.
“A militia when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves, and render regular troops in great measure unnecessary. The powers to form and arm the militia, to appoint their officers, and to command their services, are very important; nor ought they in a confederated republic to be lodged, solely, in any one member of the government. First, the constitution ought to secure a genuine [ ] and guard against a select militia, by providing that the militia shall always be kept well organized, armed, and disciplined, and include, according to the past and general usage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms; and that all regulations tending to render this general militia ― useless and defenceless, by establishing select corps of militia, or distinct bodies of military men, not having permament interests and attachments in the community is to be avoided. …To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them….”
Then he quite rhetorically asks, “What about well regulated?”
Go read David’s piece.
Here’s what well regulated means from the Oxford English Dictionary.
“The equation of time … is the adjustment of the difference of time as shown by a well-regulated clock and a true sun dial.”
Functioning properly. “Something that was well-regulated was calibrated correctly.” “Working as expected, calibrated correctly, normal, regular.”
On March 5, 2025 at 9:30 pm, X said:
Forming an unauthorized militia in New York is a Class C Felony, worth fifteen years in prison.
The fact is that nobody in New York gives a damn what Richard Henry Lee said 240 years ago. They don’t give a damn what the Constitution says, or what the Supreme Court says today, either.
New York is engaged in open nullification of the Supreme Court and the Bruen decision. After Bruen they held a special session of the legislature in which they made it a FELONY to carry in 99% of the state WITH a permit. Got that? The Supreme Court says we have to issue permits. So we will, and we will make them useless, and you will be arrested for a felony and be disarmed for life if you carry with your permit. Ha, ha, f–k you, Supreme Court.
And NOBODY is calling them out on it or making them pay or punishing them for this defiance. Not the Federal government, not the courts, not the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile they pay their trooper goons $150,000 a year to arrest anyone who violates their bullshit unconstitutional gun laws. And they do arrest them, every day.
On March 6, 2025 at 12:14 am, Dan said:
The commie left and the gun grabbers know EXACTLY what the Second Amendment says and means. They don’t care. They want us disarmed. And will do quite literally ANYTHING required to accomplish that. And they will NEVER give up or go away. There can be no negotiating with them, no coexistence.
On March 6, 2025 at 12:46 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
“Well-regulated” – during the time of the Founders – also meant “well-equipped” or “well=trained,” not simply properly functioning.
In this context, a “well-regulated militia” meant one that was trained, equipped and operated so as to be the equivalent of a professional army of the same size.
In today’s world, the nearest equivalent to the type of force of which the Founders spoke/wrote is perhaps not to be found in the U.S. but in Switzerland.
The Swiss model has compulsory military service for a brief interval after secondary (high) school, after which all males save those who wish to make the military their career, are released to their civilian pursuits but remain in reserve. The small but highly competent cadre are formed by these professionals, who serve as the institutional skeleton and musculature of the large mixed active-reserve force.
Swiss males are issued a military-pattern rifle and are allotted an annual ammunition supply, both of which must be kept on hand ready for use in his home, should the need arise from some sort of emergency or call-up. He is expected to remain proficient in its use, and many Swiss take part in regular shooting competition events and training of other sorts, to this end.
Let there be no mistake: The Swiss are a nation of riflemen. A story from just before the Great War illustrates the point. A delegation from the Kaiser’s Imperial Germany visited Switzerland, and embarked upon an inspection tour, the culmination of which was an opportunity for the Kaiser to ‘troop the line’ of an honor guard – an assembled formation of elite Swiss soldiers.
Stopping in front of the senior non-comm, an old sergeant major, the Kaiser quipped that his army was twice the size of that of Switzerland, what would Germany’s smaller neighbor do if the Kaiser’s army decided to invade their mountain home?
The grizzled old campaigner thought for a moment, and then replied: “Then, your excellency, my riflemen would each have to shoot twice…”
Swiss armed neutrality held during both World Wars and there was no Holocaust on Swiss soil…
On March 6, 2025 at 2:10 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
Returning to the Founder’s conception of colonial militia, during the War of Independence from Great Britain, George Washington and his senior officers comprised the “professional” military of the yet-to-be-born new republic. They wore uniforms, had a traditional hierarchy and rank structure of officers and enlisted men, were paid a wage for service, and so forth. They were, insofar as was possible at the time, professional military men.
The reserve component of the resistance was in large part made up of yeoman farmers and other de facto reservists whose normal occupation was not soldiering. These colonial militia fought side-by-side with their professional brethren, but under somewhat different terms. For one thing, they were in the fullest sense of the word volunteers. While part of their units, they were subject to the orders of officers and non-commissioned officers senior in rank to them.
The real difference was that colonial “militia” could come or go at their discretion. The Founders intended the system to work this way since most of these men had left behind farms or other business concerns which could require their presence at any time, particularly during harvest.
This is one of the greatest differences between the modern military and that of colonial times: No one was forced or compelled to serve – it was strictly voluntary.
The key takeaway here is that if the state/government cannot compel you to remain in uniform, and if you are free to come/go as you please, then the ability of the central government or other authority to wage unpopular wars or wars of choice (“elective” conflicts) is vastly lessened.
That’s the vital difference between then and now: The militiamen of that time were free men, and not de facto slaves compelled to serve an empire or government whose actions they may not even have supported….
And if one drills down deep enough into the so-called “recruiting crisis,” this problem lies at its heart. Numbers are down not because Americans won’t fight for their country; they are down because they recognize unnecessary wars when they see them, and want no part of them.
On March 6, 2025 at 5:00 am, Mark Matis said:
When you admit that the gun-grabbers yearn for the “good old days” of their Messiahs – Lenin and Stalin – it all is far easier to understand!
On March 6, 2025 at 8:50 am, Pat H. Bowman said:
I don’t really disagree with anything previously said here. I will proffer this observation, however. Back when our nation was founded, the men knew how to do things. Farmers were familiar with firearms and used them for defense and provision, even while they were not professional soldiers. They were comfortable with working outside when the weather wasn’t 72 and sunny. They understood hardship, the value of a good days work and knew it was up to them to provide for their family (setting aside their faith in God’s provision for the moment).
Today, a sizeable portion of our population doesn’t eve know how to make dinner; instead they order door dash every night or maybe grocery store delivery of a pre-roasted chicken. They couldn’t conceive of intentionally going outside when it’s too hot or too cold and would have no idea what they would need to bring to a muster. Having outsourced nearly everything in their lives, I can’t see them being remotely interested in coming together with their community to fend off an enemy.
I agree we should be working to get back to a place where people actually do take responsibility for their lives, but we’ve got a long ways to go.
On March 6, 2025 at 8:59 am, Bill Buppert said:
Thanks for this examination, Herschel.
There’s a cultural residual here that informed that time in the 1770’s that was drawing from a deep well of armed self-sufficiency. The unconscious competence of armed conflict was an assumption in every man alive then on the Atlantic seaboard. In this case one could proffer: well-regulated = proficient and skilled in self defense, single combat & small unit tactics.
Between 1609 and 1924 (and the genetic memory still serves) American men on the frontier fought a constant single combat & low-level war against American aboriginals, fellow frontiersmen and occasional scalawags which, like our Boer colleagues, shaped a fighting man who learned to be ready on a dime.
The Minuteman has a very deep history in North America.
Reach deep and nurture your inner Minuteman.
Viking adage: “The man who has no enemies is not a good warrior.”
On March 6, 2025 at 1:01 pm, Latigo Morgan said:
A “Well Regulated Militia” would go a long way’s to helping alleviate the obesity epidemic in this country. Start with martial training high school – not just with JROTC.
On March 6, 2025 at 6:31 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@Latigo Morgan
Re: “Start with martial training high school – not just with JROTC.”
Why do you think that the usual suspects on the left labored so hard for so long to destroy the Boy Scouts of America, an institution which they could not have hated more?
Participation in contact sports is a great way to get our young men fit again, and introduce some of that old time fighting spirit. The Duke of Wellington, after winning at Waterloo, mentioned “The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton…” And not only team sports, but individual combat sports, such as boxing, martial arts/MMA, wrestling, fencing, and the like.
Far as team sports go, the usual that come to mind, football, basketball, etc. but don’t forget great dark-horses such as rugby (now there’s a violent game!) or ice hockey.
There is nothing quite so salutary to a boy or young man as discovering that he can survive being punched in the head!
On March 6, 2025 at 8:11 pm, PGF said:
Friendly reminder, the Second Amendment doesn’t say anything about firearms.
On March 6, 2025 at 10:51 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@PGF
Re: “Friendly reminder, the Second Amendment doesn’t say anything about firearms.”
That’s quite correct. Indeed, the Founders probably intended that the militia ~ I am speaking of their time – be armed as well as whatever standing professional army the nation possessed. This would have been one of the checks upon the power of the central government, specifically their fear of standing armies.
Entire categories of weapons did not exist in that time; one wonders what the Founding Fathers would have made of them. We can only speculate, but I’ll go out on a limb and state that I don’t think they intended tin-hat dictators like Biden to threaten the American people with jet fighters or some contemptible so-called Congressmen to do the same with nukes…
On March 7, 2025 at 3:23 pm, MTHead said:
Very good Herschel.
Something that we overlook in law is what it’s attached to and where it’s placed.
The 2A is placed in the “Bill of rights”, not under congressional powers or executive powers.
That, and the fact that it’s part of a completed paragraph.
“A well regulated militia”, Is completed by the sentence that it’s attached to. ” The right of the people to keep and bear arms.”
You can’t remove and examine one without the other. Legally speaking, I would think.
And why would a grant of government power bestowed by the sons of revolution be found in the “Bill of (individual) rights?
The answer is it isn’t.
Just like the communist stupidity behind suppressors. If one has a right to protect one’s self. Doesn’t that include your hearing?
The fact that earplugs aren’t necessary to the functioning of my rifle doesn’t mean the government can regulate me from using them.
It’s far passed time we petitioned the government for redress of these grievances.
On March 9, 2025 at 3:37 am, Nolan Parker said:
Blah blah blah, militia whatever
The Right of The People to keep and bear arms Shall NOT be infringed.
The founders didn’t write a self contradictory amendment.
On March 9, 2025 at 4:18 pm, Paul B said:
Yes. I partipate in TKD, Krav Maga and Hae Dong Gumbo, the last is a Korean sword art. I am 69 right now. So a little old for front line stuff. But I could whip up some green guys pretty quick.
On March 9, 2025 at 8:55 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Paul B
If you have done TKD and Hae Dong Gumbo, then hapkido might be just the ticket for you – the “other” Korean martial art. Jump in the pool; the water’s fine!
P.S. Krav Maga borrowed a lot of stuff from jujitsu, hapkido and aikido, since that’s what founder
Imi Lichtenfeld did… he surveyed as many of the world’s martial arts and hand-to-hand systems, and took what was best, in his opinion, from each one. A “mixed martial art” before the term existed, if you will.