[ascagnel_]

The purpose of the second amendment was to avoid tyranny in a powerful central government _over the individual states_. The current (2008) Supreme Court interpretation of the second amendment is controversial because it largely ignores the "well regulated militia" text.[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United...

[jemfinch]

Interpreting the "well regulated militia" text as limiting the right to state militias is an anachronistic, twentieth century attempt to read modern sensibilities into the text. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it wasn't even a debate: the right of individuals to bear arms was understood simply to be the manifestation of their natural right to self defense. Consider texts contemporaneous with the constitution and written in similar places:

Pennsylvania State Constitution, 1776: "The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned."

New Hampshire State Constitution, 1783: "All persons have the right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families, their property and the state."

And, of course, the second amendment itself: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."