The provisions of the Second Amendment might just help protect you from a burglar, but they do nothing to protect you from excesses of the government. Even the slightest suggestion you are exercising those rights against an illegal government action will probably get you killed and may just get your family and friends killed to boot.

The rights that DO protect you are your right to free speech, the right to a free press (when it actually does it's job) to get your ideas published, the right to due process, and the right to submit your grievences against the government in a court of law. (Just as a quaint coincidence, all rights that have been attacked, subverted, or bypassed by the Bush administration.)

They couldn't care less about you taking advantage of your Second Amendment rights: They can declare you an "enemy combatant" (or the domestic equivalent: a "cult member" or "militia member") and send paramilitay-style police units to capture or kill you any time they like. Firing your handgun or rifle at one of their agents only provides justification for them delivering a few RPG rounds into "your castle" to burn you out, or using a sniper to kill your wife as she stands on the front porch with your baby in her arms.

The Second Amendment is useless as an individual right, and has been since the invention of the Gatling Gun. The only way citizens could hope to succeed in stopping a tyranical federal government by force would be to organize an equally-armed state militia. But I doubt any state militia will ever acquire nuclear weapons!

So the "battle over Second Amendment rights" is a Red Herring used to divert our attention from their attacks on the rights that actually mean something.