Excellent! Stats on gun violence

[Double Naught Spy]

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for few public officials." (George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 425-426) Must have forgotten that fact Stan. What constituted a citizen back then has been rectified today. We already had that discussion.

George Mason and many of the founding fathers had various opinions on what a militia should be, but that isn't necessarily what the country recognized as such.

The earliest federal legal definition I find in US law for 'militia' that is close to the time of the Constitution was the second Militia Act of 1792. It conscripted every "free able-bodied white male citizen" between the ages of 18 and 45 into a local militia company. It also required each to own a musket, bayonet and belt, two spare flints, a box able to contain not less than 24 suitable cartridges, and a knapsack: or a rifle, powder horn, ? pound of gunpowder, 20 rifle balls, a shot-pouch, etc., thereby taking away the right to keep and bear arms by making it a stipulation of conscripts.

In 1862, that was updated to include males of all races between the ages of 18 and 54. In 1903, the militia became the National Guard.