yes; the people and the militia are synonymous. only well regulated "militia" of the People is declared necessary to the security of a free State.nope; the point is, Only well regulated militias of the whole and entire people, may not be Infringed when keeping and bearing Arms for their State or the Union.Zackly --- and "a well regulated Militia" is hardly the only paradigm under which Arms can be used ---- although hunting shotguns weren't invented yet, nor was the revolver, nor was the Minié Ball; even simple dueling pistols were just then getting standardized ---- so their concept of "Arms" would have been a fraction of, and infinitely more limited than, ours is. It stretches credulity beyond belief to imagine that they would have meant to include all of the future technologies up to and including shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles and land mines and nuclear bombs etc.
So it's reasonable to note that at the time the 2A was written the use of "Arms" was limited to (a) war, its original purpose, (b) a well regulated Militia or (c) dueling to settle a personal score. The idea of a sniper sitting on the top of the local grain mill picking off random strangers ---- simply did not exist, as the technology to do that didn't exist.
That seems to be the implication ---- treating the term "the People" as synonymous with "members of the Militia".
The Militia is made of People, but no "the People" are not "the Militia". Unless literally everyone is in the Miliita. (If literally everyone were in the Militia, what would be its point?)
No they're not synonymous. If there's a Militia there are people in it --- but a random group of people is not automatically a "Militia".
This is the militia:
Federal law defines “the militia of the United States” to include all able-bodied males from 17 to 45 and members of the National Guard up to age 64, but excluding those who have no intention of becoming citizens, and active military personnel. (US Code Title 10, sect. 311-313)
[http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/311]
Are you in the militia...or well past that age?
I am both not in the militia and well past that age.
The tangent was simply comparing "People" with "Militia", my point being that while you cannot have a Militia without people, you can certainly have people without a militia.
Interesting definition though. From it we can infer that the Second Amendment's right to bear arms is limited to able-bodied males 17-45 Guard members to 64 and military personnel. Presumably the latter two could even include females.