[dragonwriter]

> Note that the "right of the people to keep and bear arms" is a precondition, according to the 2A, for a "well-regulated militia", not vice versa.

That's a fairly strained interpretation, especially given that where the 2A sees a necessary pre-condition (well-regulated militia to the security of a free state) it expressly identifies it as such: a more reasonable interpretation would be that the 2A is based on the strongly implicit premise that right of the people to keep and bear arms is at least useful to a well-regulated militia, whereas a well-regulated militia is a necessary precondition for a secure, free state.