Honey Get Your Gun

This is the text of the second amendment:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

I was surprised that today's Supreme Court overruling of Washington DC's ban is practically the first ruling on the 2nd amendment. I was not surprised by the ruling. Regardless of the interpretation and comma wars, apparently guns are here and they're here to stay. Is it time for pacifists to arm themselves? I mean, who's gonna protect me from the "well-regulated Militia"? And who is the "Militia"? Do we actually need it to secure our free state? Do I owe my freedoms and privileges to it? I don't get the relevance of this amendment in today's world.

Just like I don't get the ban on quartering of soldiers (see next amendment by ordinal order). I mean I get the reasons then, but I don't get their relevance now. That is, I love the US military - maybe not the policies of the DoD - and the soldiers to a large extent are just doing their job (supposedly for me, I pay them). If I was asked to quarter a returning veteran for charity, I wouldn't mind so much... for a while - like fish, guests start to stink after 3 days (Ben Franklin). These two amendments were put there because we didn't trust the president not to turn his army on us. Today, if we mistrust the intentions of our government, we should be more concerned about being eavesdropped on and renditioned to some faraway place for "questioning." I'll gladly give up my right to own a handgun for an amendment protecting me from those new threats to my freedom.