Power to the people...but who (or what) are (is) the people?

The problem is more basic than the ambiguous sentence strcture. I think most of the disagreement around the issue of whether the amendment is referring to people=individuals or People=collectively.

Members of one faction proclaim that they are guaranteed the right to keep and bear arms themselves, individually. The other extreme reserves that to The People, with no rights at all granted to the individual.

Whether the Militia is a spontaneously-coalescing group of individuals, or a preplanned (governmentally-sanctioned) organization, is equally ambiguous.

With two undefined terms open to diametrically opposed readings, it's no wonder that disputes arise - even if the sentence had been perfectly constructed.

(And don't even _think_ of addressing the question of whom we are to be protected from: external enemies or the government itself? )