What exactly is the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, in simple terms?
Good question and (as an American) I appreciate your seeking a better understanding; I see you have given it much thought. The whole ‘militia’ thing stems from the time when the Constitution was written. Folks at that time, having observed Europe or come from there, had a great fear of “standing armies’ which were considered the “bane of Liberty” because the government always misused them to oppress the people. So the newly formed Federal government (first under the Articles of the Confederation and later our constitution) couldn’t really get an Army going, nobody wanted it. So they had to rely on the State Militias, which were sort of volunteer and sort of a draft. Since society was in a relatively undeveloped state, the deal was that when called on for militia duty, each man was to supply his own arms. At that time they did not use cartridges but each man melted lead and carried a mold so as to form his own balls. This was an era before standardized mass production so each gun was un
