A Response to the "Anti-Government" View of the Second Amendment

I appeared on "Essential Pittsburgh" yesterday, a call-in show on NPR radio, to talk about the constitutionality of President Obama's executive actions intended to improve and enhance background checks on persons purchasing guns. Following the program I received an e-mail from a listener (first name of "Jim") who challenged my position on the Second Amendment in several respects. He wondered why I omitted the phrase "of the people" when reciting the Second Amendment from memory. (Really, it's just my age, Jim!) He suggested that I favored the "collective right" over the "individual right" interpretation of the Second Amendment. (I don't - but we still have to determine precisely what the individual right is.) He wrote that I was wrong in stating that the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 included the right to hunt. (I have since checked and it does protect the right to hunt, in Section 43.) Most importantly, he expressed support for the theory that the Second Amendment was intended to prevent "tyranny." I agree with Jim on this last and most important point. But he and I may disagree about precisely how the Second Amendment was intended to operate as a check on "tyranny." My entire response to Jim follows.