Boberfett,
I wasn't swaying in the least. I barely let known my position on the 2nd ammendment until the last line. My point is that I read and interpet The Constitution with the belief that black is black, white is white. There should be no gray.
When the Consitution was drafted, I interpet this as the Framers believing that upon war the People shall form into a well regulated militia. In the colonial times, we did not have a State funded large militia. It was believed that it was every "man's" duty to come to the aid of the country. We stockpiled weapons and ammo before the Revolutionary War started. It was the intent of the the British to destory these stockpile of weapons. Unfortunately for the Brits, most of the "soldiers" at the battle of Lexington and Concord brought their own arms from their homes. (The stockpile of arms were in the process of being destroyed when the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired.)
Today we have a large State funded militia with a large stockpile of weapons. So people interpet the 2nd Ammendment as "no longer valid or needed" and emphasis the "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, " and forget about the
"right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The ammendment was poorly written and we will never know what the true intent and message was from the Framers.
My humble interpetation is simply this: We need a strong militia, should our country ever be invaded. Therefore, the government will not interfere with citizens stockpiling arms for this reason.
Hell, if you look at that ammendment, it's unconstitutional for the government to deny me the right to own a M60 machine gun. Now on the flip side of it, I do not have the right to utilize that weapon to kill another citizen with it. I do have the right to posses that weapon, to maintain proficiency with that weapon and to use that weapon should my country call me up to serve as part of the militia.
IMHO, does the government have the right to deny me access/ownership to these arms? NO! Do they have a right to make me register that arm? YES! The consitution makes no reference or implied reference that I can own arms without them being able to track who's got the arms.