the Constitution, on display in the National Archive
The Constitution was adopted and signed on this date in 1787, replacing the Articles of Confederation signed in 1776, and ratified in 1781.
The original articles proved insufficient to defend AGAINST men with guns who INCORRECTLY believed in Shay's rebellion that they had some innate and inalienable right to take up arms against the government of the United States.
NO SUCH RIGHT exists, and very specifically, as outlined in extensive legislation and judicial findings, that has been established, extensively and repeatedly. The notion that there is such a right is false, a silly and ignorant myth. The militias, as formed under the constitution, specifically exist to take up arms AGAINST people who engage in insurrection.
More to the point, at the time the Constitution was founded, the term armies had a very different meaning, referring to mercenaries, rather than the kind of volunteer, mostly citizen army we have today. Again referencing Doughtery's article:
In the eighteenth century, before the rise of national military conscription, the term "army" meant mercenaries.
Militias, aka the National Guard since the 1903 Militia Act, report to the government, ultimately to the commander and chief/the President. Any non-military entity is denied similar military equipment to those of the official armed forces of the United States, as noted, for example, in the scholarly article written by Chuck Dougherty in the John Marshall Law Review:
What began at the time of the framing of the Constitution, before we had any experience as a nation of how the separation of powers into the three branches of government would work, and of how in practice the balance between local, state, and federal tiers of government would work once we actually began operating under it has evolved with experience - as it was anticipated we should. That is why we retain the right to modify the Constitution, as we have done 27 times so far.
...that the private "citizen" militias, being outside of the control of state or federal government, have no basis for Second Amendment protection.
and
...U.S. Const. art. I, S 8. Congress has the power to "provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions." Id. cl. 15. Congress also may "provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States." Id. cl. 16. The Constitution leaves the states with the power of "the Appointment of Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress."
and
...See United States v. Oakes, 564 F.2d 384 (10th Cir. 1977) (holding membership in the Kansas militia irrelevant to possession of an unregistered machine gun), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 926 (1978); United States v. Warin, 530 F.2d 103 (6th Cir. 1975) (holding that membership in the Ohio militia did not confer a right to design and construct a prototype for a new submachine gun), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 948 (1976).
That evolution of militia law included this change, as the Supremacy clause has been widely accepted to function as the federal government having dominance to require the conformity of the states constitutions and laws to the U.S. Constitution and usually to federal law as well:
Federalization, or nationalization as some authors have referred to it, describes the process whereby the federal government gained greater control over the state organized militias in exchange for increased federal funding.So, if you wish to celebrate the existence of Citizens Day, which evolved from "I am an American Day" back in the middle of the 20th century, into a formally recognized federal holiday in 2004-5 as "Constitution and Citizenship Day".
Be a good citizen; know your constitution and know the rights and duties as citizens, and especially, know the laws and history that made it what it is today.
