Federalist Paper No 46 [Madison]
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/federal/fed46.htm
could not be clearer on the role the public's ownership
of arms was to play in the maintenance of freedom in this country from an
overweening Federal Government - something I'm sure the Liberal
Totalitarians
will be quick to address once President-for-Life Obama is elected:

Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however be made. Let a regular
army,
fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be
entirely
at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too
far
to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be
able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best
computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed
one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of
the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the
United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men.
To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of
citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among
themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted
by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be
doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by
such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the
last successful resistance of this country against the British arms, will be
most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being
armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other
nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are
attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier
against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a
simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military
establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far
as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the
people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they
would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess
the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who
could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of
officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached
both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest
assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily
overturned in spite of the legions which surround it.

Dan Mercer