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Originally Posted by ratbastid
If you were a speculating man, why would you guess the Framers wrote it the way they did? What was the point of putting the "hey, come on, we gotta have a well-regulated militia, guys!" rationalization in there?
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Because regulation of arms by oppressive governments was a common occurrence in their day and the centuries prior.
What made the original roman republic so powerful was that the common man was expected to have his arms and armor ready to be used at a moments notice in defense of the republic. The founding fathers were aware of this history. Every citizen was expected to fight for the republic and being a republic for themselves, not the king or emperor, or whatever lord there was.
I still find this sentiment true today. We, the people, should be armed and able to handle threats to the republic, we should not rely on a professional army and police force to be the only ones capable of defense. That threat may be a lone gunman or an invasion, it doesn't matter, we the people are our own masters.
Its dangerous to think that because things seem 'free' right now they will remain such indefinitely. I doubt those roman solider citizens thought their civilization, perhaps the greatest in the world until the last 200 years, would collapse in chaos either.