From their own mouths...

Below are just a few documented quotes from those that formed our government discussing the intent and need for the Second Amendment. I mentioned to Nick that I would throw a few of these out there, as thousands exist.

It's true that these words are just the opinions of men. However, if we want to honestly learn how to interpret our Constitution, it's important to know what the authors motives were when they wrote it.

If you don't read them all, skip down near the end and there are a couple that I hand-picked that talk about personal self-defense (rather than the broader defense of liberty).

Since I mentioned to Nick recently that I should compile such a list so you guys don't have to take my word for it, here we go. Let's pay particular attention to the first one...
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"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p322

"The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government." --Thomas Jefferson

"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty, teeth and keystone under independence. The church, the plow, the prairie wagon and citizens' firearms are indelibly related. From the hour the pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurrences and tendencies prove that, to ensure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. … The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil influence. They deserve a place of honor with all that's good. When firearms go, all goes. We need them every hour." --George Washington, address to the second session of the First U.S. Congress

"Americans need not fear the federal government because they enjoy the advantage of being armed, which you possess over the people of almost every other nation." --James Madison

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed." --Thomas Jefferson

"A free people ought to be armed." --George Washington, Jan 14 1790, Boston Independent Chronicle.

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined...The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun." --Patrick Henry

"Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? . . . If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to use, as in our own hands?" --Patrick Henry, 3 Elliot, p. 168-9

"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life, secondly to liberty, thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can." --Samuel Adams

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." -- Alexander Hamilton

"To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them." --Alexander Hamilton, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe." --Noah Webster, 1787, Pamphlets on the Constitution of the US

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." --Thomas Jefferson, T. Jefferson papers, 334, C.J. Boyd, Ed. 1950

"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

On personal self-defense:

"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes....Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. --Thomas Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in Chapter 40 of "On Crimes and Punishment", 1764

"Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense." --John Adams, in a defense of the Constitution of the US