"Guns Have Changed. Our Gun Laws Have Not Kept Pace."

[Eleanors38]

236. New models didn't spring forth from the head of Zeus...

As with the rifled, cheaply-made weapons, new things and processes were constantly being dealt with, hence "arms."

The right to keep and bear occurs to "the people" individually, as do All the other Bill of Rights. The "militia" announcement is a reiteration of the government's powers to organize a militia, and of its dependency on that broad individual right which is the operative portion of 2A. "Well-regulated" is the government's power to require militia members to report, bearing arms in good operating condition, suitable for military service, and with the bearer having knowledge of its use. The manner of "bearing" arms is a power of the government within its militia powers, but it is also an individual right as written.

As to context, the record is replete with examples of folks reporting for duty with both muskets, but mainly rifles, during the Rev War; the government had to know the people were armed, and later acknowedged this to be a pre-existing right. Any strictures implied in 2A are on its militia powers.

The innovation of breech-loading had been experimented with and patented (in a corrupt manner) by the 1790s. Firearms did not exist in a static technological world.