The American Spectator

commented that standing armies are a sign of modernizing society as modern warfare requires increased skill and discipline of regularly trained standing armies.

TODAY’S GUN CONTROL ADVOCATES argue that militias have been replaced by standing armies, thus the Second Amendment is obsolete, and must be interpreted as being so. And since the Second Amendment merely protects states’ rights to form armed militias, there is no individual right to bear arms. Indeed, in a 1991 interview, former Chief Justice Warren Berger called the individual rights view “one of the greatest pieces of fraud — I repeat the word ‘fraud’ — on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”

In the Parker decision, the Court found a right to bear arms separate from the militia, noting that the right to bear arms “was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad).” As for the militia, the Court noted too that “[T]he right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia.”

It’s a complicated historical issue that doubtless will wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court and become an important issue in the 2008 election. It is important that Americans understand the historical aspects surrounding the debate, and not rely solely on the empty wind of politicians’ soundbites.