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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.
"It is an historical, ideological, and philosophical point of emphasis that individual participation in the militia was perceived by the Founders to be a fundamental right. Participation ensured
that citizens understood and appreciated life and liberty and provided a constitutional counterpoise to standing armies by ensuring that the people would depend upon themselves for the national defense. It was this right to participate in the militia that many Freedmen veterans fought to obtain after the Civil War. It is well documented that Freedmen were generally excluded from service in the militia, and hoped to obtain the right to participate in the national defense alongside whites. John Bingham acknowledged this fact in an 1871 speech, stating that the Fourteenth Amendment ensured that "the right to bear arms for the Union and the Constitution was [no longer] abridged and prohibited by States laws." As Judge R.H. Dana, Jr. stated in an 1865 speech, "We have a right to demand that [Freedmen] shall bear arms as soldiers in the militia. Have we not?" Citing the Second Amendment as authority, Dana rationalized that because "Congress makes the [national] militia" it was within the national interest to "see to it that the emancipated slaves have the privilege, the dignity and the power of an arms-bearing population."
Patrick J Charles, "The 1792 National Militia Act, the Second Amendment, and Individual Militia Rights: A Legal and Historical Perspective," The Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy