Do you believe individual gun ownership prevents dictatorship, or could do so?

[former9thward]

16. You are misusing words.

"well regulated" meant "well trained" as the words were used in the 1700s. The founders had no conception of the word "regulations" as we now use it. It did not exist. It did in fact have to do with tyranny as you would know if you had read the Federalist Papers. The Federalist papers were written to explain different sections of the Constitution. James Madison, author of the 2nd amendment, wrote in Federalist 46:

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments,to which the people are attached, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it.