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In answer to your first question:Who is in the militia ? All able bodied citizens between 17 & 40 except those few public officials who specifically exempted by statute. The term well regulated in the time the Bill of Rights was written was understood to mean that you were proficient in the manual of arms and basic marksmanship.

Your argument that you have to register your car is a straw-man argument since the purpose of vehicle registration is the collection of taxes. Also you do not have a constitutionally protected right to drive your privately owned vehicle on publicly owned & maintained roads without proof of the fact that your vehicle taxes had been paid & that you were actually competent to operate said vehicle in public.

You assume that I am in favor of the patriot act ( I ain't)I am of the belief that the govt. has entirely to much power to snoop on my finances ,medical history,religions beliefs etc.

As for your objecting to someone having access to potentially dangerous objects just look at what you are doing!!! You are visiting a web site that discusses politics, you can go to the grocery store & buy junk food, book matches,go to the hardware store & buy the materials for renovateing your house ie powertools/electrical wiring components , visit a gas station & buy a gallon of gasoline!!!

All these things you can do without have to get down on bent knee to beg some government official to please, please, pretty please let me buy a six pack of Italian sausages instead of the tofu surprise,buy a kitchen cutlery set,decide to sleep in or go to attend the divine services of your choosing.

The same bozo's ramrodding gun control tried to give us "Know your customer" were your bank would literally compile a financial dossier on you for the govt.Being a smart aleck is no substitute for understanding the fact that government is not always looking out for YOUR best interests or the best interests of the citizenry at large .

"All able bodied citizens between 17 & 40 except those few public officials who specifically exempted by statute. The term well regulated in the time the Bill of Rights was written was understood to mean that you were proficient in the manual of arms and basic marksmanship."

Right so, everybody has to give up their guns at age 41? And what about the proficiency - which frankly I think would be a good idea. Who tests proficiency? I have a certificate from the state of Tennessee (somewhere) showing I've been through a basic course on Hunter Safety, which included gun safety and I had to load and fire a gun 5 times to pass (thankfully nothing on marksmanship because I didn't do very well).

And my argument about car registration isn't a straw man, because it isn't just about taxes. If I use my car irresponsibly (speeding, hit someone or something) my registration is how they track me down to make sure I'm held responsible for my actions.

Back to my original point, I'm in favor of more control over guns and gun ownership (to what extent, I will tell you honestly I don't know), but I'm not in favor of taking everybody's guns away. I currently live in the UK, where I think gun control has gone far too far - it would be quite difficult (but not impossible) for me to legally have a gun and I could not legally have a hand gun.

I'm certainly not in favor of dismantling the Bill of Rights, but the 2nd amendment to me isn't very clear. And just like Tom DeLay says - I'm not a bad person for wanting a more balanced approach to gun control.