Opinion: The Real Reason For The Second Amendment

There are two versions of the text of the Second Amendment, each with slight capitalization and punctuation differences. The Second Amendment, as passed by the House and Senate, reads:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 

The original and copies distributed to the states, and then ratified by them, had different capitalization and punctuation: 

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 

Both versions are commonly used in government publications.

Have you ever wondered just what was meant by these infamous words? There is no other amendment that has gone  through more scrutiny and interpretation than the Second Amendment. In District of Columbia v. Heller the Supreme Court tackled this, and many people were upset with Justice Scalia's reading and interpretation of the Second Amendment.

Yer after having done some research I feel that Scalia was absolutely right to determine the Second Amendment applies to an individuals right to bear arms. Furthermore, reading some of the quotes from our Founding Fathers has led me to believe their primary intent was something I have never heard before now:

The true purpose of the Second Amendment was/is to protect the people from the oppression of their own government. 

In other words, the Second Amendment ensured the people would have the means to fight back, if it ever became necessary. Sound believable? Check out some of these quotes...

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." - Alexandr Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 148-8.

"The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who  is able might have a gun." - Patrick Henry

"The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams, debates & Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, 1 T Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms  [of government], those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson, Bill for the More General diffusion of Knowledge (1778)

"The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed  which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." - James Madison

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States." - Noah Webster, An Examination into the Leading Principles of the federal Constitution (1787) in Pamphlets to the Constitution of the United States (P. Ford, 1988)

For me there is no doubt that the true intent of the Second Amendment was to protect the people from their own government. Considering all of what they experienced and witnessed in their time, it seems a reasonable premise. 

However that was back when guns were only second to cannons. An armed citizenry was (more or less) equal to the military, in terms of weaponry and tactics...Nowadays, though, our military has so many ways to wipe us out it's scary. And, it's been that way for years. Yet, here we still are with our Constitution intact (many would probably argue against that statement). 

If the intent of the Constitution is to protect the citizens by allowing them the means to fight back, then something is really wrong here. It looks as if We the People are severely outmatched in weaponry by our own government's military. This isn't good.

But what is the solution? Arm the citizens with machine guns, tanks and bombers? Or, reduce the weaponry of our military? Neither sounds like a good idea to me.

Who knows what the answer is. But it is a dilemma.