By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
Former Vice President Joe Biden says the 2nd Amendment is badly misinterpreted. Biden claims the 2nd Amendment was not for gun ownership for everyone, or the ownership of scary, high caliber guns. He considers the conservative Republican view of the 2nd Amendment a “prostitution” of the amendment.
Biden said, “I think the 2nd Amendment is being very badly interpreted. It’s not consistent with what they’re — our founders intended, in my view. You saw Justice John Paul Stevens say that we should — because it’s been so prostituted, we should repeal the 2nd Amendment. It was about a standing militia. It’s a long story. I won’t go into all the legal side of that having taught it in law school. But there’s rational or irrational policy.”
He added, “What’s happened here is, the nation as a whole has decided it can no longer, in my view, continue to turn a blind eye to the prostitution of the 2nd Amendment here, and no longer can turn a blind eye to the enormous damage being done, not just in our schools, but on our streets, right here in Philly and Wilmington, Delaware, where I’m from, every night.”
Standing militia?
Even the U.S. Code recognizes that the citizens at large are a part of the militia, for one.
Title 10 of the United States Code provides for both “organized” and “unorganized” civilian militias. While the organized militia is made up of members of the National Guard and Naval Militia, the unorganized militia is composed entirely of private individuals.
**(b) The classes of the militia are –
*****(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard
and the Naval Militia; and
*****(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of
the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the
Naval Militia.
Other than age, health, gender, or citizenship, there are no additional provisions for exemption from membership in the unorganized militia.
