Consider the word people in the text: "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." Note that militia is not capitalized but People is, emphasizing that every citizen with a firearm may be a defender.

How can one see people in the Second Amendment as a military unit but not in the Constitution's preamble, "We the People"? People means everyone, not militia.

Thomas Jefferson surely had private firearm ownership in mind when he wrote in the Declaration of Independence, "that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." There's that bothersome people word again. When it came to altering or abolishing an abusive government, Jefferson must have preferred the ballot box, but he knew firsthand the value of armed people as a last resort.

Al Vogel

Dugway