I don’t think it was ever in the Founders’ minds to ever deny a person’s right to self-protection. I think it was just absolutely a given considering the threats and needs pioneers and revolutionaries faced daily. It was probably foreign to a man of the sixteenth century that you would ever try to take away his means of self-protection.
A persons right to self-protection with a gun? That right was only protected for a certain class of citizens -- primarily white, male landowners.
Non-whites didn't have that right protected. Nor women, children, foreign visitors, illegal aliens, Indians, prisoners, the insane ... quite a few persons did not have that right protected.
Now, that's not to say they couldn't have guns. Just that their right to have them wasn't protected.
A persons right to self-protection with a gun? That right was only protected for a certain class of citizens -- primarily white, male landowners.
Non-whites didn't have that right protected. Nor women, children, foreign visitors, illegal aliens, Indians, prisoners, the insane ... quite a few persons did not have that right protected.
Now, that's not to say they couldn't have guns. Just that their right to have them wasn't protected.