The meaning of the 2nd Amendment is clear today and has been clear since before its codification, revisionist contemporary judges and their fawning apologists be damned.
"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms."
— Tench Coxe, in `Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution under the Pseudonym `A Pennsylvanian in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1.
"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms."
— Tench Coxe, in `Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution under the Pseudonym `A Pennsylvanian in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1.
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."
-- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188
-- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188