That may have been part of it, but the main reason was because the founding father feared our own government. England had behaved in a repressive manner toward the colonists. So, they rebelled. A large part of the forces that helped to drive out the british were mere citizens who had brought their own weapon (guns) to the battle. (It was the British attempt to disarm the citizens of Concord that sparked the war in the first place.) The founding fathers knew that there was no such thing as a perfect government. They new that there is the potential for any government to become tyrannical. Because of this, they wanted to insure that the people of this nation would have the ability to stage another armed rebellion against the government which they created if it should turn into a tyranny. The fear of rebellion was to be one final check on the government. The second amendment has nothing to do with sport shooting or hunting, as some seem to think. It has everything to do with keeping the government from becoming too oppressive. ****************** "Captain Birdseye: I never knew any of that, thank you very much." Unfortunately, not many people do and the gun control advocates don't want people to know this. The fact of the matter is that, after their experiences with England, our founding fathers were rather paranoid about a strong central government. That is why the first national government that the came up with (Articles of Confederation) had very little power. They only agreed to create a stronger central government because the Articles proved unworkable. However, they still did not trust their government. This is why the constitution separates the power into three separate branches. It is also why the people wanted a Bill of Rights before they would ratify the Constitution. Finally it is also why the founders wanted to insure that we could overthrow the government if that became necessary. ****************** "yohoho05: Can you use rifles to overthrow a government that has nuclear weapons in ITS arsenal?" How much of a chance would we have of overthrowing a government if we don't have guns? You really aught to study your history a bit better. When the colonies rebelled against England, they were largely a bunch of under-trained and under-supplied civilians going up against the best, most powerful military in the world. No one gave them much of a chance of succeeding. By your argument, they should never have rebelled against England because they really did not stand a chance of winning. They did though and from that very humble beginning came a new superpower. If it became necessary again to overthrow the government, we, the people, would stand a much better chance of being able to do so if we are armed than if we are not. This is what our founding fathers realized. The most important rights are those protected by the first amendment. These are the rights that allow us to freely express ideas. Without these rights, we are at the mercy of the government and what it tells us is true. The second most important right is the right to keep and bare arms. This right gives us, the people, the ability to protect all of the other rights. **************** Addendum: It is also worth noting that despite the fears of the U.S. Japan never had any intention of invading the United States during World War II. One of the reasons they did not do this was because they knew that a large part of the citizenry of this nation was armed. So, Japan would not only have been up against the US military if they attempted to invade the US, they would also have had to fight the civilians. They new that they could not win such a battle.

The government under the Articles of Confederation were very limited. Government had no power to raise an army, and the nation was at a weak point after seven years of war. The American army before (and even after)the Constitution was small and depended upon volunteers. It could have well been that the writers of the Constitution were wary of any type of invasion which included Indian tribes living in newly acquired territories. The Constituion is an amazing document that was forward looking.