The Virginia Declaration of Rights

[tongodeon]

I learned something interesting today. The Bill of Rights (1789) was based heavily on the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776). The Second Amendment was derived from this section:
Section 13. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing

Comments

[xiphias]

I've always thought of "well-regulated" to be in the "well-regulated clock" sense: working together smoothly as a single unit. Which was the general way the term was being used at the time, and was also very much how armies fought.

[matrygg]

It's also why my personal counterargument to the guns on campus debate has always been to point out the shocking lack of training in impromptu small-unit tactics in concealed carry classes.

[mmcirvin]

I got the impression that there were anti-and pro-army sides involved in drafting the Bill of Rights, and the language was something of a sop to the anti-army side by the pro-army side, which was why the language is so maddeningly ambiguous: it was always sort of artful bullshit. The Virginia declaration is much clearer.