Reddit reviews The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms (Independent Studies in Political Economy)

I can give some historical context to this.

At the time the Second Amendment was written, it is important to remember a few very important things:

First, immediately after the Boston Massacre, King George order all guns in Boston to be confiscated, effectively disarming the core location of dissent (at the time) in the Colonies. *He also quartered troops in homes through out the area as a means of solidifying his ability to maintain order, leading directly to the 3rd Amendment.

Secondly, at the time of the official outbreak of war, there were no "States". There was no official military at all other than the troops directly under the command of King George. The "Well Organized Militia" was the term created in perpetuity for the Minute Men. The farmers, business owners, and common citizens who took up arms against the British and officially started the War of Independence.

Third, books such as "The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms (Independent Studies in Political Economy)", written by Stephen P. Halbrook, it is known that one of the key things that allowed the colonies to gain independence was the immediate ability to form a citizen militia (NOT State) and to bring the fight directly to the British troops stationed in the colonies.

TL;DR A "well regulated militia" was not meant to mean a state sponsored, standing military presence. When the Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment, it was with the idea that all citizens should maintain the right to arms, and had a duty to the country, to take up arms against any enemy that threatened the nation they were creating.

> Pre-2008 it wasn't always interpreted the way it is now.

By anti-gun/liberal educators, etc., maybe, however their view was never the norm. If you look at the actual historical record, the intent was quite clearly to protect the individual right to firearms, and there are a great many people who have held that view since it was written. This author does a pretty good job of researching and presenting the historical info.

I recommend you read Stephen P. Halbrook's The Founders' Second Amendment.

Heck, read any of the 90-odd-pages of citations, any of the personal correspondences of the framers, debate transcripts from the time, newspaper articles, shit just read ANYTHING historical instead of just peeling off more talking points from Maddow or whever you get them.

Come back when you have assembled at least a picogram's worth of intelligent and fact-based historical knowledge instead of regurgitating nonsense in bold like that means anything.