***And no, the Founders and the average person never was looking at the 2nd Amendment as a granting to them to purchase personal cannons.***
Actually they did consider cannon to be private arms. There was even a horse drawn PLOW made with a built in cannon made for farmers in remote areas. I wish I could find a picture!
Awesome! I want one!
Yes I know there are exceptions, I know some rich private folks had cannon. But there really is no equivalent to a nuke, that was the closest thing. Just to illustrate the Founders never thought the 2nd Amendment meant citizens were going to be able to have every single type of weapon the militia/armed forces would have. They understood that if we ever did have to fight against the government, men armed personally would kill off the warped government forces and take over their heavier equipment.