Baraka_Guru

Yeah, one needs to read all the clauses. A well-regulated militia is "necessary to the security of a free state." This implies that a militia that isn't well-regulated could compromise this security. And "the people" relates back to "militia." They are talking about the same people: ordinary citizens who might at any moment need to take on a soldier's role. I don't read this as a blank cheque on arms ownership.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot