Letter: Amendment’s true meaning hinges on definition of ‘state’

Friday, July 2, 1999 | 10:22 a.m.

Mr. Greenspun first quotes the Second Amendment in full: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Immediately following, he asks rhetorically, "What is a militia and what is necessary for the security of the State? And what is a State, anyway?"

Three paragraphs below, he defines state parenthetically and here he goes seriously wrong. Throughout the Constitution and all of its amendments, the term "United States" uniformly refers to the entity that the Constitution creates, and the capitalized term "State" uniformly refers to any of the constituent states of the United States.

Mr. Greenspun's effort to federalize the Militia referred to in the Second Amendment therefore must fail.

Second, even if we should accept the demonstrably incorrect conclusion that "State" as used in the Second Amendment refers to "the United States of America," the language of the Second Amendment -- something of a non-sequitur however it is read -- may easily be understood to mean something entirely different from what Mr. Greenspun hypothesizes.

It may just as easily be understood as promoting a familiarity with arms as a matter of importance to a State when it must call upon its militia.

Hence, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

C. H. MCCREA

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