Is Gun Ownership a Right?

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[FONT=&amp]http://constitutionalmilitia.org/women-and-the-militia/


Women and the Militia
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[FONT=&amp]In the pre-constitutional era, the full duty to keep and bear arms defined in the colonial and State Militia Acts applied only to all able-bodied adult free males, but never to free women and usually not to male slaves. Adult free women however, were often required by law to provide firearms, ammunition, and accoutrements for their minor sons and their male apprentices and servants enrolled in the Militia— so in this limited sense, free women too, were subject to a duty to keep arms. And in times of crisis, armed women who organized themselves in their own military company’s were not unknown. (footnote 1)
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The duty to keep and bear arms carried with it an implicit right to do so, without such fulfillment of the duty would have been problematic or even impossible. So, “the people” who appertained the right and duty to keep and bear arms in relationship to the Militia consisted of all adult free males (for all purposes) and certain adult women (for certain purposes). Moreover, no statute in that era ever generally disbarred any free men or women from themselves possessing firearms in their homes, or from carrying them abroad for any legitimate purpose reason unrelated to the Militia. (footnote 2)[/FONT]

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[/FONT][FONT=&amp]1.) See e.g., David H. Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), at 170-171.
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[FONT=&amp]2.) Constitutional “Homeland Security”, Volume I, The Nation in Arms, Bookmasters Inc., Ashland, Ohio (2007), by Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr., page 44

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[/FONT]http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/revolution.htm

Over 420 African Americans who were born free during the colonial period served in the Revolution from Virginia. Another 400 who descended from free-born colonial families served from North Carolina, 40 from South Carolina, 60 from Maryland, and 17 from Delaware.

[FONT=&amp][SIZE=5][SIZE=2]There were over 75 free African Americans in colonial militias and French and Indian Wars in Virginia, North and South Carolina.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/FONT]

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[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=&amp]I would venture that women were part of the "unorganized" militia...free blacks were part of the militia. So, YES, the whole "free" population was part of the militia.[/FONT]