The Founding Fathers, writing in an age when single-shot muskets were all the rage, may not have known to what lengths their precious Second Amendment was destined to be stretched.
The Second Amendment was not the initial penning of the protection of the right to carry. When first written down, it protected the right and established the duty to carry
swords. Can you imagine the following being written in the 1780s, as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were being considered?
The authors of the original right to keep and bear arms in England, writing in an age when swords were all the rage, may not have known to what lengths their precious right to be armed was destined to be stretched now that we live in the age of firearms.
The right has historically referred to the typical arm that folks routinely carry for personal use (such as, but not limited to, self-defense), but could use as a primary personal weapon when serving as a militiaman. Today, that includes personal firearms, such as rifles, shotguns, and handguns.