mike: it is true that the militias used the same firearms as the regular army. specifically 69 and 75 caliber smoothbore muskets...but the second amendment don't say nuttin about firearms. is just says arms, which could very well include all types of weapons, including, knives, swords, spears and bows, etc. the wording of the second amendment is precise, so we all know we have the right to keep and bear arms. but what those arms are is left to interpretation, in the context of a well regulated milita...course now we get into what is a well regulated militia? that is not defined anywhere in the constitution that I am aware of.
I do like this line of logic from Constitutional Scholar ed good. We can apply it to other Amendments as well!
Since English was the language of common usage at the time of the Bill of Rights, we can ban or limit other languages under the First Amendment. Only English speech would be covered under the free speech clause. We could legally pass the equivalent of a NFA of 1934 and enact a $200.00 tax on every Spanish language sign in Home Depot or Lowes, and totally ban Spanish language TV broadcasts, since there were none in 1789.
We could also put a $200.00 transfer tax on aborted fetuses since abortion was not legal or practiced at the time of the Constitution. Hey, why not make it $20,000 and use the money to pare down the defecit?
We could logically have warrantless searches and siezures of computers since there was no such technology in 1789. This would especially apply to computers with Spanish or Muslim content on their hard drives. What kind of sick stuff is on your hard drive ed?
Hell, we could ban or strictly regulate all electronic communications, for as ed would agree, the First amendment don't say nuttin' about TV's, radios, or computers.
And of course, it is true that the Constitution does not anywhere define what a well regulated Militia consists of. All we have is the original intent of the Framers... and this... the 10th Amendment:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."
How utterly inconvenient for dumbasses who only skim instead of reading and comprehending.
As an aside, I wonder where the anti-Second Amendment fraud King Brown went. He's probably hanging out with his new buddies, the Koch brothers.