Letter to the editor, SJ Mercury News: Judge Reinhardt and company made many mistakes in this recent decision, but two stand out: 1) In 1792, Federal law declared that all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 were members of the "militia". This was later revised late in the 19th century to specify that there was an "organized militia" (what we today call the National Guard) and an "unorganized militia" consisting of everybody else. This is still current US law today...which the 9th Circuit has now ignored completely. 2) Reinhardt declared that a citizen militia was "useless" in this age of WW1, WW2 (etc) and terrorist attacks by Al Qaida. On 9/11, as this nation was under brutal attack, the single most effective portion of the US military on that day was the unorganized militia on Flight 93, when Todd Beamer and company saved untold lives. More recently, local officials called for volunteers to help watch the San Rafael bridge and other pieces of key infrastructure - similar efforts have cropped up elsewhere. The Israelis have responded to the same sorts of terrorist threats by issuing permits to legally carry concealed weapons to about 10% of their adult population; this group has been able to stop several suicide bombers via precision application of hot lead. Based on our own recent experiences plus the Israeli example, the need for a trained, effective and ARMED civilian militia is greater than at any time since the war of 1812 (when the Brits burned Washington DC). Jim March Fremont