Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: Does the Second Amendment belong in the Bill of Rights? Why or why not? [View all]Blanks
(4,835 posts)i.e people in organized militias. My claim is that they were granting the right to 'the people' to regulate their own militia; not granting the right to the militia itself. It was written to prevent the federal government from passing a law to prevent citizens from protecting themselves against enemies of the state. In some cases that may be an individual right (sparsely populated areas for example), but in some cases (i.e. Inner cities) the best protection for a people may actually be to remove some of the arms from some of the people. Hence, a well regulated militia providing security to a free state.
It makes perfect sense that the framers were granting smaller government entities the right to protect themselves from an outside threat. What doesn't make sense is that they would be removing the right to protect themselves from an inside threat in the very next sentence. (OK, after the comma; not necessarily the next sentence)