First Note

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 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 official government publications. The original hand-written copy of the Bill of Rights, approved by the House and Senate, was prepared by scribe William Lambert and hangs in the National Archives.

The above from Wikipedia (I hate quoting Wiki, but it served the purpose)
I have been reading about the literal interpretation of the 2nd amendment. Being a geek, I want to know as much as possible to be able to validate or change the things I have considered. The language of the 2nd amendment has made it open to interpretation. The question becomes "does the 2nd amendment only apply to militia members?

In my research, I found a great interpretation at the "Second Amendment Sisters" website. http://www.2asisters.org/unabridged.htm Ultimately, I have come to the conclusion that the rights of the individuals that are safeguarded by the Bill of Rights are assumed to have always been present. They were, and are, there and granted by the Creator and not by the Bill of Rights itself.

This brings me to my concerns about the current gun debates. It seems that those that want to prevent firearms from being in civilian hands have forgotten that the same people that founded this country were they ones that fought to overthrow it's previous ruler. They did this because they had the right to have the weapons required to do this usurping of authority. They had the same equipment as the governing military. Without this, we would have remained under the the oppression of British rule.

Any discussion of the 2nd Amendment would be fundamentally flawed if the Declaration of Independence was not included. Of the 56 signatories of the Declaration of Independence, 6 also signed the Constitution. This austire group of 56 also produced several Presidents of the United States, Presidents of the Continental Congress, and other that built the foundation of freedom upon which we have built.

As Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention, on September 18, 1787, a certain Mrs. Powel shouted out to him: “Well, doctor, what have we got?,” and Franklin responded: “A Republic, if you can keep it.” We need to stand up for Franklin, Washington, Hancock, and the other men who stood up and shouted "No more!" We the People must fight to keep this Republic and to preserve our unailable rights, granted to us by our Creator. We must be stalwart and stand for truth and original intent.