The actual version: 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.
The difference, of course, is in the punctuation.
The version Skidmore author uses is much more definitive. Unfortunately, we have to live with the one we have. It makes no sense to use as a basis for argument language that does not exist in the actual Constitution. By hyphenating well-regulated, Skidmore emphasizes the meaning of regulated that refers to drilling and practice. By eliminating the first comma, Skidmore makes it clear that the militia is what is necessary for state security. And, finally, by eliminating the last comma, the statement that the right of the people shall not be infringed is much more direct and unequivocal. Unfortunately, this exercise in creative writing exists nowhere in the law, so it is moot.
The version sent out to the states for ratification and apparently the version that came out of the Congress before being sent to the printer, a government printer of course, only had one comma, as in Skidmore's version. Don't know about the hyphenation of "well regulated". None of the more or less original versions I've seen have the hyphen, although the version in the Alaska state Constitution does. In any event it was a well understood term meaning properly functioning or fit for its intended purpose. The single comma version is what was ratified by the states, and thus is the version that rules.
SAF page discussing the comma issue.
GPO Version of the second amendment has only 1 comma.
El Gato, thanks for the links.
Interesting thread BANG
Fascinating. I will have to look into this "comma" issue further.
However the hyphen in "well-regulated" is over-the-line. If it exists only in the Alaska version, to insert it into the amendment in an argument about the meaning of the amendment is not intellectually honest.