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Back in 1791 in the first months of George Washingtons presidency some disgruntled people in western Pennsylvania organized something that came to be called the Whiskey Rebellion. It was a protest against taxes. The new president, without a standing army, called on militias in four states to confront the protesters. These 12,000 militiamen were too much for the rebels, who soon faded away and Washington survived his first crisis.

That was the definition of the word militia 240 years ago: private citizens, mostly owning their own guns, and organized by the government (regulated).

For about two centuries we lived with that meaning of militia in our US Constitution. Here is how our Second Amendment reads: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

It all changed in a heartbeat in 2008 when the US Supreme Court decided to reinterpret that amendment. In the case of District of Columbia v. Heller five of the nine justices decided to drop the first 13 words and emphasize the last 14 words: the right to bear arms, NOT for a regulated militia but for individuals.

Lets go deeper into history. When Col. George Rogers Clark of Clarksville was charged with taking an army up into the territories of Indiana and Ohio, he had to raise a militia from the local men who lived here. It was like the sheriff in the Western movies who had to raise a posse from the townsmen to pursue the bad guys. They were virtually untrained and even more undisciplined and no one was surprised that many deserted before they saw their first Shawnee or Delaware. Finally, when confronted by the Native Americans, many of the militiamen broke and ran.

Those days of militiamen with their hunting rifles are long gone. The closest thing we have today to a militia are the state National Guards, who are more akin to being a reserve US Army than they are to a militia.

The other kind of so-called militias are the groups of white-supremacist terrorists who are no more militia than the West New Albany Sewing Club. The leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers have just been rightly convicted of attacking our national capitol. Other than the rulings at recent criminal trials, these groups see little regulation from government.

For decades we have had this void in the Second Amendment. What happened is that the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the weapons manufacturers have convinced lawmakers that they alone have the power to read the Constitution the way they want to. For a long time and maybe still today they have had the lobby money and the votes to maintain the status quo.

The result is:

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Some 390 million guns are loose in the United States, more than one for each infant, adult and 90-something in a nursing home.

The major cause of death for American children is now a gun.

More than one mass murder occurs each week.

Many lawmakers are calling for more guns, in the hands of teachers and others.

Where is Congress? Republicans have stopped any attempt to rein in guns no matter how wimpy the attempt is from the Democrats.

Where is the Supreme Court? Three of the five justices who changed the Second Amendment 15 years ago are still there: Chief Justice John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. All were appointed by Republicans and they are joined by three more new people from a Republican base. They all have referenced their leanings toward the concept of originalism espoused by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the five who altered the Second Amendment meaning.

The Scalia-influenced judges all decried making laws from the bench. They all said they lean heavily on the original intent of the founding fathers. Ironically, they in effect wrote new law by drastically changing the Second Amendment and parted ways from the original version that referred to both regulation and security. Now we have neither, just more blood under the bridge.

(David Ross Stevens is a sculptor and contributing columnist for The Jeffersonville (Indiana) News and Tribune.)

David Ross Stevens was the Courier-Journals first investigative environmental writer, from 1968 to 1978. From 1993 to 2003 he taught a course Environment and People at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany. His email is dbqwriter@gmail.com.

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Column by David Ross Stevens | Not regulation or security, just blood - New Castle News