The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms and was adopted on December 15, 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights.
One version was passed by the Congress, and a slightly different version was ratified. As passed by the Congress and preserved in the National Archives, with the rest of the original handwritten copy of the Bill of Rights prepared by scribe William Lambert, the amendment says:
“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 amendment was ratified by the States and authenticated by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson as:
“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.”
Early English settlers in America viewed the right to arms and/or the right to bear arms and/or state militias as important for one or more of these purposes (in no particular order):
· enabling the people to organize a militia system;
· participating in law enforcement;
· safeguarding against tyrannical government;
· repelling invasion;
· suppressing insurrection, allegedly including slave revolts, though some scholars say these claims are factually incorrect;
· facilitating a natural right of self-defense.
· hunting
Which of these considerations were thought of as most important and ultimately found expression in the Second Amendment is disputed.
Some of these purposes were explicitly mentioned in early state constitutions; for example, the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 asserted that, "the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the state."
Patrick Henry believed that a citizenry trained in arms was the only sure guarantor of liberty while Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 29 that "little more can be reasonably aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed ..." .
There has been some controversy over whether or not individuals should have the right to bear arms even if they are not in service to the nation (i.e. in the army), but, in 2001, the federal court ruled that individuals can indeed “privately possess” their own firearms.
James Madison was the primary author of the Bill of Rights and was known as the “Father of the Constitution” because of his extensive work in creating it and writing papers to encourage its ratification.
The Bill of Rights was drafted in 1789
The Second Amendment was largely included originally because there was no trained army and the nation depended on the aptitude of its citizens when the time for war came.
John Adams began the establishment of a trained militia when he created the professional navy.
Comments