The Federalist No. 29 is my personal favorite.
Remember, well regulated means in good working order, not controlled by the government. A well regulated machine is a machine that is tuned properly and working.
This is important, it shows the the government understands the meaning and roll of the 2nd Amendment.
https://www.constitution.org/2ll/2ndschol/87senrpt.pdf
Following are a few excerpts from "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms", Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution. United States 97th Congress. The purpose of the subcommittee was to document the real intent of the founding fathers and framers of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, and to put to rest those that want to introduce vague speculation as to meanings of words, commas, and such.
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole
body of the people always possess arms, and be taught
alike, especially when young, how to use them."
(Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate to the
Continental Congress, initiator of the Declaration of
Independence, and member of the first Senate, which
passed the Bill of Rights.)
"The great object is that every man be armed ...
Everyone who is able may have a gun." (Patrick Henry,
in the Virginia Convention on the ratification of the
Constitution.)
"The advantage of being armed ... the Americans
possess over the people of all other nations ...
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." (James
Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in his
Federalist Paper No. 46.)
"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." (Second
Amendment to the Constitution.)
Samuel Adams, a handgun owner
who pressed for an amendment stating that the "Constitution shall never
be construed ... to prevent the people of the United States who are
peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms"
[The proposed 2nd Ammendment] finally passed the House in its present form:
"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." In
this form it was submitted into the Senate, which passed it the
following day. The Senate in the process indicated its intent that the
right be an individual one, for private purposes, by rejecting an
amendment which would have limited the keeping and bearing of arms to
bearing "For the common defense".
Joseph Story in his "Commentaries on the Constitution" considered the right to
keep and bear arms as "the palladium of the liberties of the republic",
which deterred tyranny and enabled the citizenry at large to overthrow
it should it come to pass.
In the Militia Act of 1792, the second Congress defined "militia of the
United States" to include almost every free adult male in the United
States. These persons were obligated by law to possess a firearm and a
minimum supply of ammunition and military equipment...
There can be little doubt from this
that when the Congress and the people spoke of a "militia", they had
reference to the traditional concept of the entire populace capable of
bearing arms, and not to any formal group such as what is today called
the National Guard. The purpose was to create an armed citizenry, which
the political theorists at the time considered essential to ward off
tyranny. From this militia, appropriate measures might create a "well
regulated militia" of individuals trained in their duties and
responsibilities as citizens and owners of firearms.
)