It’s not a “recent interpretation.” There was a long period during the 20th century when a narrow view of the second amendment was favored, but in earlier eras it was regarded as a personal right. It was actually liberal scholars like Akhil Amar that did critical work laying the foundation for Heller: https://newrepublic.com/article/73718/second-thoughts
> The key subject-nouns were simply different ways of saying the same thing: at the Founding, the militia was the people and the people were the militia. Indeed, the earlier draft of the amendment linked the two clauses with linchpin language speaking of “a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people.” The linchpin was later pulled out as clumsy and redundant. A modern translation of the amendment might thus be: “An armed and militarily trained citizenry being conducive to freedom, the right of the electorate to organize itself militarily shall not be infringed.”
Recall that the Constitution bars maintaining a standing army in peace time. The Framers obviously thought that the way to go was to round up a bunch of armed yokels (sorry, citizens) in times of war, instead of maintaining a permanent army. That is, in fact, what they did during the Revolutionary War.
There's contours to that--I kind of think that the Swiss system where you're required to have guns, but there are measures for keeping them secure in peace time would be Constitutional. But random individuals need to be able to own guns without belonging to a formal "militia" because random individuals are supposed to be the militia.
> The key subject-nouns were simply different ways of saying the same thing: at the Founding, the militia was the people and the people were the militia. Indeed, the earlier draft of the amendment linked the two clauses with linchpin language speaking of “a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people.” The linchpin was later pulled out as clumsy and redundant. A modern translation of the amendment might thus be: “An armed and militarily trained citizenry being conducive to freedom, the right of the electorate to organize itself militarily shall not be infringed.”
Recall that the Constitution bars maintaining a standing army in peace time. The Framers obviously thought that the way to go was to round up a bunch of armed yokels (sorry, citizens) in times of war, instead of maintaining a permanent army. That is, in fact, what they did during the Revolutionary War.
There's contours to that--I kind of think that the Swiss system where you're required to have guns, but there are measures for keeping them secure in peace time would be Constitutional. But random individuals need to be able to own guns without belonging to a formal "militia" because random individuals are supposed to be the militia.