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 Supreme Court has decided they will look at a case involving the ban of handguns, which means they will review the meaning of the second amendment. There has been dispute about the intentions of the second amendment. Some say it meant to provide individual protection for the right to bear arms and others believe it protects the right relating to military service. I believe it applies to the right of each citizen to bear arms. Why would you have to say a well regulated militia has the right to bear arms? I would think it would be understood that any type of military is going to have weapons. It seems to me this whole amendment was to ensure that each individual state would be in a position to defend itself against a federal government gone bad. How easy would it be for an administration to subdue the citizens if it had an armed military and we the people were unarmed. I believe our country's founders knew the possibility existed that a power hungry President might want to seize absolute power. With armed citizens this would make it difficult for this possibility to happen.

If we're going to look at the second amendment, we should look at the well regulated militia part. I have to question if these private armies we see today are well regulated. They operate independently of the government and are not organized for the protection of any state, unless they were paid to do so. Maybe we should consider if private armies violate the second amendment. How big should they be allowed to grow? They are staffed with many ex-military personnel who know and understand how our military functions. They probably know all of its weaknesses and if allowed to become powerful enough these private armies could probably take over. The more I think about this private army thing, the more uncomfortable I become about it. It seems this is just one more reason that each individual citizen should have the right to bear arms.