Reply #7: That makes the most sense to me. It would be absurd to create a militia

[Hosnon]

to counter the military might of the federal government where the arms are held by that government. Perhaps the arms could be held by the state governments but the concept of the Citizen-Soldier was pretty big back then.

Given the choice between: 1) Federal government holding arms, 2) State governments holding arms or 3) Individuals holding arms, I'm going to go with 3.

However, I do think the arms allowed must be militia-like...whatever that means, as you said. I know that an atomic bomb would not be in that category but I don't want to attempt to draw the line.