The Second Amendment
The Founding Fathers agreed that the rights of common people should not be infringed upon by federal legislation, and the Second Amendment reflects this. Specifically, the amendment results from the Founders' interest in enabling armed citizen militias during peacetime, as an alternative to maintaining a powerful standing army. The United States also wasn't as modernized back then, so there was much uncharted terrain and increased dangers. People needed guns for safety.
Interpretation of the Second Amendment varies between those who believe it protects the individual's right to own guns and those who do not. The Supreme Court has ruled that owning firearms is not an absolute right-- it has upheld both federal attempts to regulate certain weapons and states’ power to enact gun control measures.
In 2008, the Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protected an individual's rights to what they considered "suitable" firearms at home for self-defense. The case overturned the District’s law banning what had previously been virtually all handguns. |
The Second Amendment states that “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.” Even as the Constitution was being ratified, there was still a distinct conflict over what the Second Amendment meant. The prefatory clause of the amendment, which affirms the gun rights of a well-regulated militia, has been agreed upon as a necessity in carrying out national safety, but the operative clause, which addresses the rights of an individual to personally bear arms, has been the subject of much controversy. At a congressional convention in 1788, Samuel Adams, declared that “the Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from bearing their own arms.” This is an essential element of the amendments, as most people at the time agreed that the rights of common people should not be infringed upon by federal legislation. The author of the Constitution, James Madison, wrote to George Washington about troubles with the Amendments, stating directly that “if a line can be drawn between the powers granted and the rights retained, it would seem to be the same thing, whether the latter be secured by declaring that they shall not be abridged, or that the former shall not be extended. If no such line can be drawn, a declaration in either form would amount to nothing.” The Amendment results, in part, from the Founders' interest in enabling armed citizen militias during peacetime, as an alternative to maintaining a powerful standing army. The ambiguity of the Second Amendment can cause it to be interpreted differently in different cases, especially court cases.
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