Peel back the 2nd Amendment

Hopefully part one of analysis on this excellent article from the New Yorker.

“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.”--Second Amendment to the US Constitution

If only this language was a little less ambiguous. People interpret it many different ways. It is maddening because of the inflexibility on these issues.

"The firearms used by a well-regulated militia, at the time the Second Amendment was written, were mostly long arms that, like a smaller stockpile of pistols, could discharge only once before they had to be reloaded. In size, speed, efficiency, capacity, and sleekness, the difference between an eighteenth-century musket and the gun that George Zimmerman was carrying is roughly the difference between the first laptop computer—which, not counting the external modem and the battery pack, weighed twenty-four pounds—and an iPhone."

I wonder if our modern gun enthusiasts know about the prototype to the Second Amendment?

"In the United States, Article VI of the Articles of Confederation, drafted in 1776 and ratified in 1781, required that 'every state shall always keep up a well regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition and camp equipage.' In early America, firearms and ammunition were often kept in public arsenals." (emphasis mine)

Just something to think about. Certainly doesn't sound like a prescription for private armies the way most contemporary militias operate.