A militia can not exist without the right of the common man to bear arms, and that right IS protected under the U.S. Constitution, with the words "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Without that, a militia couldn't exist, and the first part of the Amendment couldn't exist. The Founding Fathers obviously knew that if people couldn't arm themselves, they couldn't rise if necessary to protect themselves from tyranny.
The other side to the 2ndA is that you don't HAVE to have arms! Unlike Switzerland e.g., you are NOT FORCED to have any armament!
I cannot understand how any1 can miss the whole point of the American Revolution and what it taught the generation who fought it.
The Founders were all about *recognizing* (as opposed to GRANTING, which too many here seem to think not to mention all the Joe Schmoes out there) NATURAL RIGHTS.
If they were concerned that there are NATURAL rights such as the right to self-defense (in whatever form!) which cannot be infringed and that they recognized in the BOR, how on earth would the Founders think it was OK for states' gov's (as part of the nation) to infringe these *natural rights* (Jefferson's "inalienable") any more than the national gov?
Unbelievable!