Quote Originally Posted by urleebird
Well, that was certainly delivered with confidence and authority. Except, it is still just another opinion. I really hope that when the time comes to decide what it really means that you are the one that is wrong.

Think there is a difference between a militia and a government operated standing army? just a thought.
Since there's no specific opinion, all you can give is opinions. Mine is given after studying constitutional law for 35 years. It represents the state of the law. It's what I would tell a client, except the law would be cited specifically and adressed to his particular issues.

There was no government operated standing army until after the civil war. What happened was the states had their own militia, and they were assembled into the US army. Notice, for example that in the civil war each unit came from a state.

What we call militia today is not what is meant by the Constitution.