Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: How is Meatloaf's 'Id Do Anything for Love' like the 2nd Amendment? [View all]jmg257
(11,996 posts)35. I think Hamilton was 1 of the 1st..the militia is much more of a defensive notion against tyranny
than an offensive (& treasonous) one.
"this will not only lessen the call for military establishments, but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.''...
If there should be an army to be made use of as the engine of despotism, what need of the militia? If there should be no army, whither would the militia... direct their course, but to the seat of the tyrants, who had meditated so foolish as well as so wicked a project, to crush them in their imagined intrenchments of power, and to make them an example of the just vengeance of an abused and incensed people?
If there should be an army to be made use of as the engine of despotism, what need of the militia? If there should be no army, whither would the militia... direct their course, but to the seat of the tyrants, who had meditated so foolish as well as so wicked a project, to crush them in their imagined intrenchments of power, and to make them an example of the just vengeance of an abused and incensed people?
Hamilton Federalist 29
Then again, it took over a hundred years for his notion of "a selective militia" to come to be, and the whole "no standing army" thing of course turned out to be a huge sham.
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
46 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
The Democratic party says the 2A supports an individual right to keep and bear arms.
hack89
Jan 2017
#2
Might have saved yourself the effort. It's settled law now, at least for the foreseeable future.
Marengo
Jan 2017
#19