Thank you for some new (to me) information. I wish Adams had included what you have written here in his book (the parts that were available as of that writing, anyway). Obviously, no one else has told me any of that, either. I will say that I was never apprised of any opportunity to vote for any officers in this Militia of which I was by law a part (lastly, 22 years ago). [Of course, there is the possibility that it is in his book and I simply missed it; thanks to you, I’ll have to check that out.]

As for this Response of yours, since all of that is legislation and decisions of the Supreme Court, all of it can be legitimately subject to revision via new legislation and new decisions.

I think we would be well-advised as a nation to use membership in the Militia to regulate the arms its members may keep and the storage of those arms. Per my original argument, doing that would not violate the Constitution, as it would fall under the Congressional powers related to the Militia. Again, I would personally be in favor of local differences.

More broadly, it seems to me that people who want an (all but) unfettered right to keep and bear arms are insisting on Total Victory. I think seeking after Total Victory — whatever side, whatever the issue — is inherently bad for democracy. Without democracy, liberty and justice for all has no chance.

All issues boil down to either/or at some point. Even so, the more compromise that can be achieved the better for democracy. As citizens of a democratic nation we should seek it out. [By “democratic nation” I mean one with a democratic political process, by which I mean one with freedom of political speech for all citizens and a democratic distribution of political rights — meaning they are available to all citizens but for universally applicable restrictions (if any), universally applied.]

In this case, will the keeping and bearing of arms be regulated or not? I think my proposal is a reasonable compromise.

Now, thanks to you, I have to go and revise my article. I’ll probably include a link to this Response of yours.