Personally, I’ve never found the wording of the second amendment to be unclear. However, people will argue about nuances when they disagree in any area. Stephen Halbrook tries to clear up original intent in his article entitled In Webster’s English.
The Second Amendment states simply, “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 Supreme Court questioned whether the D.C. statute “violate[d] the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes.”
For the answer, turn to Noah Webster.
Known as the Father of American Scholarship and Education, Webster believed that popular sovereignty in government must be accompanied by popular usage in language. In “A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language,” published in 1806, and “An American Dictionary of the English Language,” published in 1828 and adopted by Congress as the American standard, Webster defined all the words in the Second Amendment.
“People” were “the commonality, as distinct from men of rank,” and “Right” was “just claim; immunity; privilege.” “All men have a right to secure enjoyment of life, personal safety, liberty and property,” he wrote.
Thus in the language of Webster’s time, “the people” meant individuals and individuals have “rights.”
The bottom line, from my perspective, is that Americans are entitled to carry weapons for both individual and community defense purposes. The founders wanted a guarantee set in stone because they had been abused by a king. It was pretty black and white. Any weapons the king’s soldiers had were weapons the colonists could have too.
We can argue till we are blue in the face about machine guns and rocket launchers and suitcase nukes, but the bottom line is that law abiding people aren’t going to use those items to massacre others. That’s about 98% of the population we are needlessly worrying over and restricting for no good reason.