I truly enjoy your books and your comments. Today you mention that the right to keep and bear arms was tied to military training. Actually it started as a cheap way to equip an army. By definition at the time of the Revolution, a militia was comprised of people who owned and maintained their own weapons. Virtually all weapons were individually constructed. Each was unique. Even the ball ammo couldn’t be shared.Assembly lines weren’t invented until later. A bullet mold was specifically for the bore of an individual weapon, especially long rifles. So the Constitution granted individuals the right to own weapons so an army could be more easily raised. No need to arm it. As to the numbers of men in battle, I agree “rice paddy” strength was much less than full strength. A US rifle company typically has over 200 men assigned to it. In Vietnam few companies had more than 100 men in the field at a time. Often there were as few as 80. Medieval armies often were grossly overstated. But during Roman times they usually weren’t. Hannibal apparently did kill at least 50,000 Romans at Cannae. Over 18,000 legionnaires died at TeutoBerg Wald. Over 20,000 died at Carrhae, with another 10,000 being captured. Yet by 370 a.d. the Eastern Roman army only numbered 15,000 when it was annihilated at Adrianople. Thanks so much for so much entertainment.

Don Conrad