tired song-and-dance about how "militia" means Nat'l Guard and not individuals.
When the 2nd amendment was written, there was no such thing as a National Guard.
Militia is defined as:
1.An army composed of ordinary citizens rather than professional soldiers.
2.A military force that is not part of a regular army and is subject to call for service in an emergency.
3.The whole body of physically fit civilians eligible by law for military service.
1.An army composed of ordinary citizens rather than professional soldiers.
2.A military force that is not part of a regular army and is subject to call for service in an emergency.
3.The whole body of physically fit civilians eligible by law for military service.
And "well regulated" does not mean regulated by government, but rather properly functioning. I put "well regulated" and "appetite" into a search engine looking for a quote from an old version of the Oxforde English dictionary. Instead I found lots of medical and vetenary articles speaking of "well regulated" cats, dogs , diabetes, etc. Here is one such article, which speaks of a "well regulated" household, which from the context clearly means properly or smoothly functioning.
I knew the term was quite common up through the mid 1800s, but had no idea it was still in common use in some circles having nothing do with guns or militias or even politics. Additional one still speaks of a clock or a gun being properly regulated, in the first case meaning that it keeps good time, and in the second meaning that it shoots where it's supposed to, or when refering to double barrelled weapons, as it's most commonly used, that the barrells shoot to the same point, like they are supposed. to.
Thus a "well-regulated" militia is merely one that works properly.