The idea of a militia is only quaint if one has not taken the time to understand the way the founding fathers set it up. The weapons in use does not matter, they wanted the average citizen of an age able to bear arms to have and be able to use the normal infantry soldiers small arms and equipment. In their day that meant a musket, bayonet, powder and ball. They did not see it as necessary for them to go to the expense of artillery, mortars, and man-o-war ships etc. because they knew that no country on earth and no government in place could become tyrannical with an armed civilian population. They looked to Switzerland as a model that has worked for hundreds of years and just like the Swiss they wanted something that could not be easily dominated but something that would make it hard to dominate others.

In their day the infantry soldier carried a musket. In WWI it was a 1903 Springfield or a 1917 Enfield in WWII it was that same rifle or a M1 Garand and on down through history they expected the citizens of this country to have the same weapon as the infantry soldier of their day.

They did not want us to become a colonial power and the best way to get that is to have your country protected by a militia type of organization. Some have claimed that they meant a National Guard but the National Guard in their day would have been Tories fighting for the British.

The steps and missteps of this county during its development are interesting to study. Did we always do the right thing?? No it is very obvious that we did not but we were also the ones to rectify the situation and in the process steer the whole world away from things like slavery, which had been a worldwide phenomena since earliest recorded history. We took the ideas of the earliest Greek republics and built on them till we have a country unlike any other in history. One where you can be anything you are smart enough and motivated enough to be.

Some will complain about how their ancestors were treated in this country during its growth phase while it was finding its center and deciding what kind of country it was. So what look at history bad stuff happens. Mine got to take a really long walk from North Carolina and Tennessee area to Oklahoma and you know what it has never impacted my life in modern America one bit.

Our founding fathers would be ashamed of what we have done to their life’s work but in this country they set up a way for us to change back to were we need to be so quit complaining and do what needs to be done.