I ran across this article by John Stossel that has a 2003 quote by a federal appeals judge named Alex Kozinski. Perhaps it's because Judge Kozinski is an immigrant from Eastern Europe that he has such an astonishing grasp of the purpose of Second Amendment. Here is the quote:

The prospect of tyranny may not grab the headlines the way vivid stories of gun crime routinely do. But few saw the Third Reich coming until it was too late. The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed -- where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbably these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.

Wikipedia has an interesting writeup of the Second Amendment. Included is some of the history of the debate around the Bill of Rights. It has some of the "draft" versions of the amendment that were shuffled between the House and Senate prior to passage. Some of the versions have a definition of militia. Specifically, it says, "A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people...." It seems inescapable that anyone with an original intent view of the constitution would say the right to bear arms is an individual right, not just a collective right.