- Not "everyone was armed" in 1776: slaves, women, etc. Mostly just white people who could afford a gun.
- Many slave masters didn't want a federal government taking their arms. They wanted arms to protect their "property" AKA slaves. In other words, they needed to kill slaves on a regular basis to ensure the racial caste system.
- Supreme Court has attempted, at least twice, to re-write the meaning of the Second Amendment. We seem to allow the Supreme Court to re-write our Constitution, since they said it was OK in the 1800s.
http://bigthink.com/risk-reason-and-reality/the-supreme-court-ruling-on-the-2nd-amendment-did-not-grant-an-unlimited-right-to-own-guns
RE: Reality Check: The True Meaning of the Second Amendment