I've been out of town...late response. Well-regulated meant, long before the writing of the Constitution, that things were working in good order. As it has to do with a militia, it meant the same thing...every arms-bearing individual knew the manual of arms, for example: From this understanding and adherence to order, or organization of method/technique/command, comes the wording in our 2A and, further, the phrase “by the numbers” is derived from this manual.