ok, I just have a slight addiction to fishing rods but I've been a pondering about what the founding fathers meant by a "Well regulated militia" when they wrote that 2nd amendment.
"A well regulated militia being necessary to a free state, ........"
It should rank right up there with the rest of it, don't ya think? Do you surmise they meant the National Guard? The Civil Air Patrol?, The National Park Service?
Who was that "WELL REGULATED MILITIA" supposed to be "well regulated" by?
"Well regulated" meant well trained - it had/has absolutely nothing to do with governing, rules, legislation, or even "regulation" (as the word tends to be used today).
There was no National Guard, No Civil Air Patrol, no National Park Service.
There was the militia - which consisted of all able-bodied males between the ages of 18 and 45. That still holds true (with a few inclusions) to this day, although the legal definition of militia has been categorized into two groups:
1. The organized militia (National Guard and Naval Militia)
2. The unorganized militia (able-bodied citizens 17-45 - not members of the National Guard or Naval Militia).
10 U.S. Code § 246 - Militia: composition and classes (search that exact phrase and today's legal definition should come up)
The clause "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state"... is a stated purpose for the immediately following "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
The 2nd Amendment does not restrict the right to keep and bear arms to those in a militia - as evidenced by the words "the right of the people."
The framers were very intelligent people. Had they intended to recognize a power held by government - they would have (and did with the powers legally held by government).
The first 10 Amendments are all negatives - as in they specifically forbid the government from having power over the rights cited. The 9th and 10th Amendments hammer that fact home.
Don't believe me?
Read the thoughts expressed by the men who authored the Constitution (and Bill of Rights). Read the thoughts expressed by the men who ratified the Constitution (and Bill of Rights) - their thoughts are of the upmost importance because they're the people who made the Constitution our supreme law.
Read the Federalist papers.
Read the Anti-federalist papers.
Read the Congressional archives.
Read the transcripts of the Constitutional Convention.
Read the thoughts of the framers/founders - Washington, Franklin, Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Jay, etc...
Not one single founder/framer/ratifier stated a belief that the 2nd Amendment did anything other than protect the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
'A well trained neighborhood watch group, being necessary to the security of free neighborhood, the right of the people to keep and use cell phones shall not be infringed.'
Nobody could read that above analogy and seriously pretend it somehow granted government the power to prohibit the law-abiding citizen from owning a cell phone (or multiple cell phones). The sentence (analogy) gives a reason for its declaration that the people have a right to keep/use cell phones and that the right cannot be infringed upon. It, like the 2nd Amendment, is a clear restriction on government.
Note also the word 'shall.' It is a directive - an order. It is not a suggestion, nor is it open for creative definition. "Shall not" makes infringement illegal. Not just occasional infringements, or infringements really desired by some - any infringement is illegal.