The second amendment protects a well regulated state militia. The federal government cannot infringe their RKBA.
"And who was in a position of authority over them such that the Minutemen could be disarmed?"
General Gage wanted very much to do just that.
Once we had a constitution, why would a state want to disarm the state militia, the entity necessary to the state's security? I mean it could, but why would it want to?
Some of us are curious why the words of the Second Amendment reflect otherwise. Why doesn't it say, "A well-regulated State Militia, being necessary to a free State, the right of each state to keep and arm their militia shall not be infringed"? Why does it say, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"?
Why does it explicitly say what I believe, instead of what you believe? How did our Founders get so confused about the difference between people and states?
Or is it just the courts like the Ninth Circuit, and Diane Feinstein, and others who are so confused?
Are you aware of what is referred to as the "standard model" of the Second Amendment? Outside the Ninth Circuit it is becoming quite the fashion.
For the same reason that General Gage wanted to disarm the militia. So that the people could be subjected to the arbitrary police powers of the government.
Kalifornians, for example, seemed convinced that the various police forces or the National Guard are sufficient protection for the people's security.
This was demonstrated to be nonsense during the L.A. riots when armed Korean shopkeepers stood on the rooftops of their buidings protecting their property from looting by rioting mobs.
Not long ago a man running a sausage factory in the San Francisco East Bay area shot and killed several government sausage inspectors. Until this kind of response is impossible, Kalifornia and the federal government will have to limit its intrusions into the lives of its citizens. When the right to keep and bear arms is gone, there will be nothing left to limit government tyranny.
Don't misunderstand the Second Amendment. The militia is necessary to the security of a FREE state. Kalifornians are more interested today in entitlements and not freedom. With the help of the Ninth Circuit, Diane Feinstein, and others, Kalifornians are now on track to attempt total disarmament of the people and the unlimited government tyranny which our Founders knew would result.