• FireTower@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      You don’t want to play the game of “we can apply modern definitions” to the Constitution.

      Hopefully this elucidates why that’s a bad idea:

      Art 4 sect 4

      The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It’s not modern. Or at least 1792 English was a lot more modern than the gun lobby wants people to think. It absolutely included rules and regulations.

        Also, which state isn’t a republic? Point it out. Or are you trying to threaten us with twisting language even further to benefit a political party?

        • FireTower@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          It is decidedly not the one used in that context given the history of America under the articles of confederation and the revolution.

          I don’t know who “us” is but I decidedly not threatening anyone. My point was that taking law to mean anything but what it meant is lunacy and will simply lead to people misreading it to achieve political goals defying the legislative process. Changes in law should be done via the legislature.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            You can deny it all you want. The Etymology is clear. If they wanted to write it as “healthy” or “well oiled” they would have. Instead they used the word that meant to control by rules since the Roman Empire.

            • FireTower@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              They also could have written “limited” but they didn’t. The people at the time widely understood it to refer to a militia attended to, to ensure it efficacious. The regulations they had at the time were there to ensure they were well trained and armed. See the militia acts of 1792 & 1795 or for example or any of the other many acts from the period like 1786 N.H. Laws 409-10, An Act for Forming and Regulating the Militia within this State,. Which provided:

              [E]very non-commissioned officer and soldier, both in the alarm list and training band, shall be provided, and have constantly in readiness, a good musket, and a bayonet fitted thereto, with a good scabbard and belt, a worm, priming-wire and brush, a cartridge-box that will hold at least twenty-four rounds, six flints, and a pound of powder, forty leaden balls fitted to his gun, a knap sack, a blanket, and a canteen that will hold one quart.

              When they wanted their militias well regulated they meant this.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                So you have polling from 1792 to cite? For the word being widely understood to mean something other than what it actually means?

                • FireTower@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  If you go to the hyperlink above you can search for how regulating militia was used across the states during the founding period. They universally share the same efficacious meaning.

                  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                    2 months ago

                    I’m going to trust the etymologists on this one. It’s literally their field of study. You don’t go to a mathematician for chemistry, and you don’t go to a lawyer for history.

                    ETA- I had an extra moment so I took it for a spin and found this. I’m sure they’re just talking about how freely you can transport explosives…