The 2nd is there to protect all of the other amendments.
We, as a nation have failed because we’ve given into the “government will take care of us!”
That is true - but the 9th & 10th Amendments were also intended to serve that purpose. The original 'check & balance' on federal power was intended to be the people of the States, acting within and through their States. Madison discussed the possibility of State militias opposing unconstitutional actions by the proposed federal government and its standing army, as he argued for ratification of the new Constitution. (Some constitutional scholars have recognized that the federal military draft may be unconstitutional, because it essentially negates the specifically reserved power of the individual States to appoint the officers of the State militia.) The theory that the separate branches of the federal government (executive, legislative, & judicial) were intended to compose the primary 'check & balance' on unconstitutional federal actions is largely a modern fantasy...