You didn't need permission to *own* the cannon or the ship, only to "go hunting" ships belonging to the nation's enemies.
Next, Madison's notes come from the Constitutional Convention which occurred 2 years before he wrote a Bill of rights. The use of privateers discussed at the Constitutional convention could not be based on a right that was only drafted 2 years later.
The second amendment doesn't *create*, the right, it forbids the government from infringing upon it. The bill of rights was a response to the perceived power of the federal government created by the Constitution. One of those powers was over the state militias, which could be ordered into federal service and whose organization and weapons were to be "provided for" by Congress.
“The second amendment doesn't *create*, the right, it forbids the government from infringing upon it. The bill of rights was a response to the perceived power of the federal government created by the Constitution. One of those powers was over the state militias, which could be ordered into federal service and whose organization and weapons were to be "provided for" by Congress.”
The first part of this is right on. As to Militias, the feds enacted specific laws concerning the Militia, how it was to be armed and how it was to be controlled when federalized. The states were expected to write their own enabling legislation to facilitate this federal law, perhaps our first unfunded mandate. The states did exactly that.