[robertpaulsen]

The second amendment was referring to "the people at large" -- those who were expected to take up arms to "execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions." This would exclude non-whites, women, children, the infirm, non-citizens, Indians, and prisoners.

Perhaps states protected the individual rights of others to own firearms. But the second amendment did not.

[Political Junkie Too]

Couldn't one argue that the entire Constitution referred to "the people at large" who were citizens of the several states at the time? Wouldn't that make every single right within it a collective right?

-PJ