[ReelinRod]

Originally Posted by spence

By this line of reasoning today then the general public should have unfettered access to all sorts of weaponry.

The 2nd Amendment is not a provision mandating tactical equivalency. It only is intended to keep the original ratios of numerical superiority the framers embraced and recognized as "securing the free state".

The framers stated that in 1788 the largest standing army that could be maintained would, at most, amount to 1% of the total population. These government forces would be outnumbered ("opposed" was the word James Madison used) by "citizens with arms in their hands" by a ratio of 17 to 1.

In modern times that superiority has grown a bit, it now stands at 25 armed citizens to one soldier (2.9 million active duty and reserve military vs 75 million "citizens with arms in their hands" in a nation of 311 million "total souls".

While the framers did not envision every person being armed they certainly desired a significant percentage (at least 17-20% of the population) to be properly situated with small arms to effectively resist the government's standing army (1% of the population) with violence.

That ratio is the only condition they intended to preserve with the enactment of the 2nd Amendment, for that mass of armed, civic minded citizens would allow the civil authorities to form of a "well regulated militia" when necessary, mustering the farmers, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers of the community.

Originally Posted by spence

I mean, if the real intent is to be able to repel the government, you're going to need a lot more firepower than an AR-15 with an extended magazine and folding stock.

At the height of the resistance, estimates of the number of Iraqi insurgents ranged between 8000-20,000 (US) up to 40,000 (Iraqi intelligence).With 160,000 troops in country our guys enjoyed at worst a 4 to 1 advantage and at best a 20 to 1 advantage. And in the opinion of many we were in a quagmire and losing bad.

Imagine if there were 2.8 million insurgents (Madison's 17-1 ratio) and many of them were very familiar with American heavy weapon platforms and endeavored to seize and offensively use those weapons instead of just blowing themselves up?