When the Founding Fathers and early Americans warned about the dangers of "standing armies," they were talking about things like the Pentagon, what we call the military-industrial-complex, and today's militarized law enforcement. The U.S.A. now lives with what they warned against...
Discussion
And gun control advocates always say "well regulated militia", completely oblivious to the context this had at that time, where states feared federal power. As I understand it, the well armed citizen was the compromise between a free for all between states and an overpowered federal government.