12-19-2012, 9:57 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: South Bay in So Cal
Posts: 683
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In order to educate myself, I've been looking at the State Constitutions of the original 13 regarding the right of the people to keep and bear arms. I wanted to understand better the climate of the land and the general sentiment of the framers.
Some states neglected the matter all together perhaps because of the U.S. Constitution.
I love Maine's which reads,
"Section 16. To keep and bear arms. Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms and this right shall never be questioned."
No ambiguity.
http://www.maine.gov/legis/const/
And, Pennsylvania
XIII. That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the state; and as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; And that the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsyl...tution_of_1776
Even Massachusetts
Art. XVII. The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence. And as, in time of peace, armies are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be maintained without the consent of the legislature; and the military power shall always be held in an exact subordination to the civil authority and be governed by it.
http://www.nhinet.org/ccs/docs/ma-1780.htm
And Vermont
XV. That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the State; and, as standing armies, in the time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/vt01.asp
Rhode Island
17th That the people have a right to keep and bear arms, that a well regulated militia, including the body of the people capable of bearing arms, is the proper, natural and safe defence of a free state; that the militia shall not be subject to martial law except in time of war, rebellion or insurrection; that standing armies in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and ought not to be kept up, except in cases of necessity; and that at all times the military should be under strict subordination to the civil power; that in time of peace no soldier ought to be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, and in time of war, only by the civil magistrate, in such manner as the law directs.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ratri.asp
North Carolina
17. That the people have a right to bear arms, for the defense of the State; and as standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.
http://www.nhinet.org/ccs/docs/nc-1776.htm
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This is the USA. We don't elect kings, we rebel against them!
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