[ExI] what does "bear arms" mean now and then?

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Damien Broderick
... 
> ...I admire what I know of the 
> Constitution, as a good try by a group of smart, practical 
> Enlightenment thinkers hundreds of years ago--but I never 
> ever have to fight off early conditioning informing me that 
> the document is "sacred," a sort of Testament from God via 
> His representatives on earth... Damien Broderick 


Right on!  I do not consider the framers of the constitution as holding any
particularly noble station, as being more enlightened than present day
thinkers, nor do I consider the product of their notions as sacred.  The
reason I revere the constitution is that the framers did have the legal
right to design a framework inside which government must operate.  I depend
on that framework to protect my legal rights.  Without that strict
framework, it looks to me that governments are free to run over whomever is
in the way.  Rather to run over us hapless proles even more than it already
does.

spike