Americans were once required to buy guns Re: “Justice Thomas: Nightmare for Obamacare,” Aug. 31
Reading Michael Barone’s column, I couldn’t help but feel at least a small bit of irony in his conclusion. Barone talks about the history of firearms control, yet at the end he contends that “Congress has never before passed and the Supreme Court has never upheld a law requiring individuals to buy a commercial product, as Obamacare does.”
Justice Thomas, as a scholar of firearms law, would be the first to point out that the Militia Act of 1792 required every male citizen between 18 and 45 to provide themselves with a “good musket or firelock [or rifle]” as well as ammunition and the appropriate kit to accompany it.
As the nation grew, the enforcement of militia training and armament certainly waned, but it remained the law until 1903, when the Dick Act restructured the militias into the modern National Guard. Today it still stands as a strong precedent from the Founding Fathers that can’t be ignored.
Hunter Higgison
Washington
Police misconduct is nothing new
Re: “Officer in transgender shooting had prior alcohol run-in,” Aug. 30
It did not surprise me a bit to read this article about a D.C. cop involved in an off-duty shooting.
Over a year ago, I was pulled over by cops in D.C. for no reason. Although they never once asked me for my driver’s license and registration, they handcuffed me and left me standing in the rain while they illegally searched my vehicle without my permission. Eventually they placed me in the back of the squad car. All the while I was asking them what was going on, but I got no answer.
Then I was told that the car dealer logo around my back license plate (DARCARS) was illegal in the District. They un-handcuffed me, issued me a warning ticket, and told me I was free to go.
By this time, I was wet, humiliated, demoralized and had to drive away in a soaking wet car because they left the doors open during the illegal search.
I made a formal complaint but the police department said they did nothing wrong, so nothing ever happened to these officers.
Keith Robinson
New Carrollton
Deeper defense cuts will cripple military
President Obama’s 2011 budget slashed $78 billion from defense spending, reduced our forces by nearly 47,000, and scrapped entire weapons programs.
But this was only the start. Obama now seeks even more reductions. The Pentagon has not seen such anti-military cuts since the Berlin Wall came down and Democrats demanded a peace dividend, leaving our military and intelligence agencies unprepared to defend against the 9/11 attacks and global terror.
After appeasing the Russians, Iranians and North Koreans, bowing to Red Chinese and Saudi dictators, hugging Hugo Chavez and losing allies to the Islamic Brotherhood, Obama is bent on giving up our gains in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In the meantime, the Red Chinese are building intercontinental ballistic missiles, a high seas navy to control the Pacific and are determined to dominate outer space and cyberwarfare. Pakistan is unstable and Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power.
These arbitrary cuts are not directed at waste or fraud, but are intended to strip our country of its national defenses to fulfill Obama’s fantasy of a world without nuclear weapons, and will result in the loss of both America’s exceptionalism and its world leadership.
Lt.Col. Dominik Nargele (Retired U.S. Marine)
Arlington
