Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Our U.S. Constitution defines what the federal government is authorized to do, including maintain a navy which is needed to protect the landlocked states. But a federal standing army was not authorized. Why? Because each state had its own militia.

The Second Amendment states: “A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

“Free state” refers to the sovereignty of individual states. Not only was the citizen militia to protect the states against a foreign power, but against any federal forces as well. Well-armed citizens performed exercises keeping ready at a moment’s notice.

The U.S. Constitution authorizes temporary federal armies, but with a two-year time limit (the time before an election in the House of Representatives) as a deterrent to lengthy foreign wars. And it mandates that only Congress is authorized to declare war. This is to preven...