[solidsnack9000]

That is not true, although there is a DailyKos article that says that.

Whatever rights they wanted to give the states in the Constitution, they gave to "the states". The right to bear arms was specifically given to "the people", to prevent disarmament.

[diminoten]

The states are not the same as the people. You literally notice what you wrote is different in the two sets of quotes you have here, right?

[solidsnack9000]

Right, the states are not the same as the people. The right to bear arms is the right "of the people".

[diminoten]

No, it's a right of a "well regulated militia", which was at the time run by the states.

The militia wouldn't have been mentioned if it wasn't relevant, and it's only relevant if it's a limitation to the individual right to bear arms.

[solidsnack9000]

It is strange that you say that because the wording is “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” and not “the right of the militia...” and, again, not the right of the states.

The militia certainly are relevant but how they are relevant is the question, not the answer. There are a lot of ways to argue about that, but the right of keeping and bearing arms is literally called the right “of the people” — it isn’t assigned to any other body and the founders certainly had the language to do so if they wanted to.

How we keep and bear the arms is a great question. To my own mind, it would be better if training were more front-loaded. Right now, you buy a gun to be able to get training — seems backwards. It could also be much better if more people held guns through equitable ownership of trusts with firearms homed at a range or other secure location. The net effect would be fewer, more varied and better maintained firearms. The trust also provides a locus for training standards, liability insurance and cooperation with law enforcement.

[diminoten]

It's called a right of the people because back when it was written, the militias were made up of "the people", but not in an individual, "each person gets a say" kind of way.

This isn't the scholarly debate people make it out to be; there is a clear meaning, and it's been muddled over the past 30 years by special interests who have corrupted the original intent of the law.

The problems the second amendment was written to solve don't exist anymore, so the second amendment shouldn't exist anymore.

[solidsnack9000]

What were the problems the 2nd Amendment was written to solve, and what happened to them?

There isn’t anything scholarly or muddled about reading the “the right of the people” to reference a right held by people and not by states or the federal government.