Lawyer for Turkish student at Tufts University detained by feds calls for government to produce her

[AntiFascist]

11. 2nd Amendment is all about defense, not just the use of firearms...

The first two phrases of the 2nd Amendment spell it out: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State..." At the time the 2nd Amendment was drafted, there was concern that a Federal government with too much power might return the nation to control under a monarchy. As James Madison points out in Federalist No. 46:

Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however be made. Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops.

Of course these concerns have faded over time and the US military now has enormous power, but still we should remember why the 2nd Amendment was drafted in this way and how States are granted this power under the Constitution to defend against a Federal government that has overreached its powers.