That is a phrase and is not able to stand alone without considering the rest of the sentence.
What the 2nd Amendment really means is:-
"We need an army and anyone will be able to join".
Of course it only means something different now because the American version of English has been warped to give the desired modern meaning.
To "bear arms" does not mean to carry a gun around, to bear arms means to be part of a military force, for example to "bear arms for his country".
It was the practice in British Empire days to prevent locals of colonies and occupied countries joining the British Army or if they did they were in units far from their homes this was to ensure that the army's capacity to exert force on the locals was not compromised. Hence the right to bear arms meant a right to join the milita.
There is also the matter of the 'well regulated milita', according to modern American usage 'regulated' at the time of writing the 2 Amendment meant 'well supplied', which is rather curious as that is not the meaning of regulated as used at the time of the Romans which incidently is the same meaning as it has now.
The modern interpretation, and the selection of the single phrase, is a deliberate distortion of the meaning of the 2nd Amendment.
So Colpy which bit of that do you not understand?
It never ceases to amaze me how the anti-gunners can twist and turn plain English to their own ends....
The military, the army is a tool of state power. The Bill of Rights is a document that outlines the rights of the People in the face of state power. It is obvious then, that the Second Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, is NOT intended to further state power, but to limit it, as every other amendment does. And it limits state power by recognizing the pre-existing "right of the PEOPLE to keep and bear arms"
You obviously have no grip on history whatsoever. Please avoid pulling things out of your arse to justify your historical fantasies.
Bear arms means EXACTLY "carry a gun around" lol....you are at least amusing! When you bear arms in service to your country, you carry weapons in service of your country.....when you bear arms as a private citizen, you simply carry weapons for whatever purpose...military service has NOTHING to do with it.
"Regulated", btw, means "trained" in the language of the day. And militia, by the definition of the US Code, is EVERY male between the ages of 17 and 45. So even that argument fails.......
And read a little about the men that set up the Bill of Rights........you will find it is based on the 1689 Bill of Rights which recognizes the ancient right of free men to "keep arms for their defense"......and that, as the Supreme Court of the United States has FINALLY recognized, is an individual right.
That exists with or without the documentation of man-made constitutions.
What I do know, after a lifetime of interest in history in general, and firearms rights in particular, is that
you don't have the slightest clue about the subject you are debating. Not the slightest.
Oh, and in case you are still on about the " deliberate distortion of the meaning of the 2nd Amendment.", here is what the people responsible for writing and presenting it had to say:
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms. . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." -- Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776, quoting from On Crimes and Punishment, by criminologist Cesare Beccaria, 1764
-- Thomas Jefferson
The Constitution preserves "the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation. . . (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." -- The Federalist, No. 46
- James Madison
"f circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights and those of their fellow citizens." -- The Federalist, No. 29
- Alexander Hamilton
"[A]rms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. . . Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
- Thomas Paine
I hope you're getting the point......