Arguably, one of the best US Presidents ever, Ronald Reagan, has some sage advice for those who would pervert the second amendment language to mean anything other than “individual right to own and bear arms.” Read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution – realize that that’s exactly what the founders meant: to keep individuals free and independent, with the right to defend themselves from tyranny, both at home and abroad.
“The second amendment gives the individual citizen a means of protection against the despotism of the state. Look what it refers to: “The security of a free state.” The word “free” should be underlined because that is what they are talking about and that is what the Constitution is about–a free nation and a free people, where the rights of the individual are preeminent. The founding fathers had seen, as the Declaration of Independence tells us, what a despotic government can do to its own people. Indeed, every American should read the Declaration of Independence before he reads the Constitution, and he will see that the Constitution aims at preventing a recurrence of the way George III’s government treated the colonies.”
— President Ronald Reagan