I find it hard to believe the the 2nd Amendment is exclusively for national defense

[jimmy the one]

19. Magic Time

N-unicorn: How then can the 2nd Amendment NOT be designed to give THE PEOPLE the ultimate means..
2 lizzie poppet: RKBA is quite unequivocally ascribed to the set "the people" by virtue of direct attribution.. (.."militia," a subset of "the people.&quot . Were these terms used synonymously, there would be no reason to differentiate...

That's the gun lobby manipulation & spin (to lizzie), & note women couldn't even vote less yet have a right to bear arms in 1791. Unequivocally you say? why all the dispute the past 50 years then?;

Observe now - Presto - Abracadabra - Behold as I conjure up how tench coxe equated the militia with the people in the first draft of 2ndA: .. Sam Adams very first 2ndAmendment draft - written feb 6, 1788: .. "And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms." --- Samuel Adams, (Feb 6, 1788) This language was proposed in the Massachusetts convention for ratification of the U.S. Constitution to be added to Article I of that document. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Also see 'sam adams': http://www.guncite.com/journals/haladopt.html

Note that in the first draft of 2ndA above, there is no mention of a militia - sam adams simply said congress could not 'prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms'.

In response to this proposed amendment/draft, tench coxe wrote 2 wks later feb20,1788: .. The powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from 16 to 60. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? .. Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their swords and every terrible implement of the soldier are the birthright of Americans. The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments but where, I trust in God, it will always remain, in the hands of the people. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tench_Coxe

Why did tench coxe introduce the word militia 3 times in his response to Sam Adams' first draft of 2ndA, when militia was not even mentioned in the first draft? There had been no federal constitutional 2ndA draft previous for coxe to say what he said (only state rkbas). Had he thought 'the people' had an individual rkba disconnected from militia service, coxe would not have introduced militia at all when remarking upon the first draft which mentioned only 'the people'.
Coxe obviously & clearly uses 'the people' interchangeably with 'the militia' - accepted as free white males aged 16-60 (later reduced to 45 in 1792). Joseph Story does it as well as demonstrated in discntnt's thread elsewhere.