Why More Americans Want to Own Guns

[Chas]

Don't let the "militia" bit fool you. You may have seen the "massive mobilization of patriotic militia men" when that siege went down in Oregon? Drunks with guns do not make a militia. Feel free to ignore the following historical account.

When we formed the US under the Constitution the founders were concerned that big government institutions would require taxation and that would lead to domination of the country by the Feds. (This is in the time when it was "These United States" rather than "The United States" and "states' rights" were very important.)

One of the institutions they avoided was a standing army that could put up a resonable defense against an invader, say an army from Canada. They want it to be true that the locals could form up on short notice and create militia groups that could be formed into an ad hoc army of defense. They offered no pay for this, and gave very little support to the local militia. As a result we were not ready when the British burned Washington in 1814.

But since they wanted it to be true, they decided that it was true. So they added an Amendment that stated people would always be allowed to carry (bear) their long guns to militia training sessions.

The ardent gunners ignore the first part of the 2A, the reason it is there at all, and focus imperfectly on the part about "bear arms". The distortions stem from a desire to have their toys and not pay for them with anything but money.

Um, no.

The Bill of Rights was adopted December 15, 1791;  the British burned Washington August 24, 1814.
In fact, Washington D.C. was only being surveyed in 1791.