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of the history and issues pertaining
to the Second Amendment to the US
Constitution can be an eye opener.
The scholarly debate was resolved
years ago. Scholars now generally agree
that the Second Amendment’s guarantee
of the right to keep and bear arms
referred to individual’s private arms,
used for the purpose of protecting
themselves, their families, their communities,
their state, and their country—and
as a last resort to protect
themselves from the tyranny of their
own government. Our Founders considered
private arms both an individual
right and a moral obligation of citizenship.
Since 1980 there have been over
60 published law-journal articles, and
all but four of them find the individualrights
view compelling. Of the four articles
which take the states’-rights view,
two were written by lawyers on the payroll
of Handgun Control, Inc. or its sister
organizations, one by a non-lawyer
lobbyist of HCI, and one by an anti-gun
politician. 8
The plain meaning of the words of
the Second Amendment are even more
clear when one consults the hundreds
of references to them by the Founders.
Here are a few examples:
“Arms in the hands of individual citizens
may be used at individual discretion...in
private self-defense.” — John
Adams, A Defense Of The Constitution
(1787-88).
“The Constitution shall never be
construed to prevent the people of the
United States who are peaceable citizens
from keeping their own arms.” —
Samuel Adams (1788).
“As civil rulers, not having their duty
to the people before them, may attempt
to tyrannize, and as the military forces
which must be occasionally raised to
defend our country, might pervert their
power to the injury of their fellow citizens,
the people are confirmed by the
article [2nd Amendment] in their right
to keep and bear their private arms.”
— Trench Coxe, “Remarks on the First
Part of the Amendments to the Federal
Constitution,” Philadelphia Federal
Gazette, June 18, 1789, p. 2, col. 1.
In response to a proposal for gun registration:
“Absolutely not! If the people
are armed and the federalists do not
know where the arms are, there can
never be an oppressive government.”
— George Washington.
Under the laws of 18th century
England, most of the thirteen colonies,
and the United States for the first century
of its existence, able bodied males
age 16 to 60 were not only permitted,
but required to possess military type
arms (“assault weapons”). The same
Congress that wrote the Bill of Rights
enacted the Militia Act of 1790 that so
stated. Current federal law also states:
“The militia of the United States consist
of all able-bodied males at least 17 years
of age…The classes of the militia are (1)
the organized militia, which consists of
the National Guard…and (2) the unorganized
militia, which consist of members
of the militia who are not members
of the National Guard…” 9
The National Guard, which didn’t exist
for the first century of this country’s
existence, was specifically raised under
Congress’s Constitutional power
to “raise and support armies,” and not
under its power to “provide for organizing,
arming and disciplining the militia.”
Why? Because an army can be sent
abroad (as it has several times), while
the militia can be used only to protect
the home ground against invaders.
(House Report No. 141, 73rd Congress,
1st Sess. (1933), pp.2-5.) Furthermore,
the Second Amendment could not refer
to the arms of the National Guard, since
the Guard’s weapons are owned by the
federal government. 10
The US Supreme Court has in all cases
dealing with the Second Amendment
affirmed the rights of individuals to
keep and bear their private arms. For
example, in US v. Cruickshank, Presser v.
Illinois, and other post-Civil War cases,
the Supreme Court clearly recognized
that the Second Amendment protected
individual rights to keep and bear arms,
but rejected the defendant’s cases on
the now discredited grounds that the
Fourteenth Amendment didn’t extend
the protection of the Bill of Rights to actions
by the states. 11
The following are examples of cases
in which the Court explicitly recognized
that the Second Amendment clearly
guarantees individuals the right to their
private arms:
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USCONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008