It is meant to serve as a chain upon the government to prevent the infringement of government power upon the Civil Liberties of Americans. .
Along with this argument, the NRA and other groups in opposition of gun control argue that the first, fourth, ninth, and tenth amendments are all constructed to refer to the citizens as individuals and not as a collective state. If one is to give a rational interpretation of the collective view to the constitution, then one would have to assume that the Framers referred to the individuals in the first, fourth, and ninth amendments; to the states in the second amendment, and then separated the states and the people in the tenth amendment, although they feel that this was inconsistent with the wording of the second amendment (2). Further proof of this can be seen in a quote from George Madison. "I ask, Sir, What is the Militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials" (George Madison, Three Elliot, Debates at 425-426)(3). Richard Henry Lee, in his Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer of 1788 stated, "A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms." (3) Title ten section 331 of the U.S. code states "The Militia of the United States consists of all able bodied men at least seventeen years of age." (3).
The founding fathers of the United States believed that government is unavoidable. They wrote the Bill of Rights, as stated earlier, to serve as a chain, which would limit government power over its citizens. Civilian ownership of firearms would, in the founding fathers' view, be the " American Peoples' liberty teeth." (George Washington) (3). This is to say that, despite attempts by some hypothetical future government to impose a tyranny, the American people would be able to resist it by armed force. The same founding fathers had only thrown off the yoke of tyranny during the revolution.