The second amendment is irrelevant-

[hack89]

35. So how do you codify that right to defend yourself without mentioning the 2A?

any law will be referenced to the 2A to see if it is constitutional.

You can't escape the Bill of Rights - it stands at the pinnacle of our legal system. Short of another constitutional amendment, there is nothing that can possibly protect your right to own guns or self defense more than the 2A.

As for the question about rising up against the government - the founders had a well earned fear of government monopolizing the instruments of power and tyrannizing the citizens. It was important to them that government did not have a monopoly on power - that the citizens could defend their civil liberties from a tyrannical government. While I am not concerned about that in America now, it is important to note how many American gun control laws are rooted in attempts to disarm minority groups that are perceived as a threat - southern gun control aimed at former slaves, the Sullivan Act aimed at Italian "mobsters" and Mulford Act which was signed after the Black Panthers dared to carry weapons in public.