Interesting sidenote
The right to bear arms and the suspicion of standing armies in peacetime arises from the same constellation of abuse.
So, the "right to bear arms" originally meant "right of Protestants to defend themselves against the already armed Papists (Catholics)". It was NOT meant as a right of the people to defend themselves against intrusive government, as militias would have you believe. It was tacitly assumed the government would not become intrusive to that extent, and the loyalty of the People to that government was tacitly assumed to be absolute.
It is also interesting how the deep suspicion of standing professional armies (and I believe an armed and all-powerful police force would have qualified) has been all but forgotton, to our enormous cost. How long will it take for other rights to morph into unrecognizable form?
