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History shows that individuals were expected and sometimes even required to have their own arms. At the time of the Revolution, the law actually required people to keep and bear their own arms. For example, in 1770 the law of Georgia required men to carry a rifle or pistol to church. It further required the church officials to search each parishioner to make sure that each had on his person a gun and was therefore in full compliance with the law. In 1792, immediately following the passage of the Second Amendment, a federal law was enacted which required all able-bodied men in the United States to possess his own firearm. It is a well settled legal principle that legislation passed directly after the passage of a Constitutional Amendment should be given a great deal of weight when the courts are interpreting the scope of the Amendment. http://www.saf.org/LawReviews/Harman1.htm