Rereading Joyce Lee Malcolm’s book “Guns and Violence”, I think “the people” here was roughly equivalent to what was termed in reference to the 1689 events in England: “Persons of Virtue”. These did not include criminals, children, or insane people.
Sometimes I find myself thinking we would be better off if instead of the 20,000 gun laws on the books, we adhered more closely to the meaning and intent of that phrase Of course, the devil is in the details: how crazy a person? how young a child? how criminal a criminal?
During the Revolution, anyone who fought against Britain was considered a criminal. The Constitution and Bill of Rights is a uniquely AMERICAN document for the AMERICAN people and no one else. It is OUR culture and I don’t care how many ‘interpretations’ they tout to agree with their own opinions or agendas there are. It is what it is.