By Robert Enayati

The Second Amendment Sisters, unlike the Million Mom Marchers, see the right to keep and bear arms as especially vital to the fairer sex. "If there is disparity of strength between two combatants," Maria Heil, a spokeswoman for the Sisters asked the audience at AIAs conservative university conference last summer, "should [or does] the weaker combatant have the right to be armed, thus avoiding being a victim of the bigger, stronger one?" Heil, who spoke at the Georgetown University conference, serves as legislative liaison for the Second Amendment Sisters.

Today's anti-gun activists try to push their agenda through the United Nations where they may supercede U. S. law through such initiatives as the "Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. according to Heil. Heil quoted Bob Barr, then a U. S. delegate to the UN, who said this proposed measure is a "blow to our sovereignty."

We should emulate the Founding Fathers' fight against British tyranny, she answered adding, "self-defense is a basic human right." Heil reviewed James Madison's original draft of what became the Second Amendment. She quoted, "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well-armed and well-regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person."

Heil went on to compare this to what is now in the Constitution's Bill of Rights: "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 is the definition of "militia" that continues to be debated today

When the Constitution was drafted, Heil noted, "militia" was understood to mean all able-bodied men between the ages of 17 and 44, inclusively. She contended that the 'militia' definition that anti-gun rights activists typically use, referring to a government-organized militia, is not applicable because none yet existed. [The Militia Act did not pass until five months after the Constitution was enacted.] Heil emphasized that the Second Amendment explicitly states, "The people have the right to keep and bear arms."