Yeah, but things _were_ different in the 1700s when they wrote it. At the time there was no standing army, each state had a militia and citizens were often resp

Yeah, but things _were_ different in the 1700s when they wrote it. At the time there was no standing army, each state had a militia and citizens were often responsible for providing their own equipment. The 2nd amendment seems to have been aimed mostly at state governments, sort of a "when we need your militia, you'd better have one we can use". The reading where being armed is a protected right of each individual _is_ a reinterpretation, and a fairly recent one at that. http://backstoryradio.org/straight-shot-guns-in-america-2/ http://backstoryradio.org/straight-shot-guns-in-america-2/ (podcast, but well worth the time) has a wonderful summary of how this view has evolved over the last 2.5 centuries.