Second Amendment Research Paper

Date: March 8, 2015
Course: English 201
Name;Maho Konda
Second Amendment
“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 Constitution of the United States," Amendment II). This is the content of the Second Amendment. In December 15th 1791, the Second Amendment was ratified as one of the First Ten Amendments known as the Bill of Rights. Why was the Second Amendment adapted? The adaptation of the Second Amendment was promoted by two historical events: the colonization of the U.S, and Revolutionary War.
During the time European attempted to colonize the U.S, Arms especially firearms were significant things for American people in this period,

Cruikshank, the Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252, 265 (1886) happened. In Presser v. Illinois, according to Batten, “Herman Presser was charged in Illinois state court with parading and drilling an unauthorized militia in the streets of Chicago in December 1879, in violation of certain sections of the Illinois Military Code” (53). On appealing to the Supreme Court, Presser argued that “…the charges violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms”(Batten 53), however, the Supreme Court disagreed and Presser has been convicted. The Supreme Court, again, stated “the Second Amendment means only that the federal government may not infringe the right of states to form their own militias.” Even though most of the Bill of Rights has been incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment, however, the Second Amendment has never incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment because the Supreme Court reject to. The most important court related to the Second Amendment is United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174, 59 S. Ct. 816, 83 L. Ed. 1206

They were charged in this court with “…unlawful transportation of firearms in violation of certain sections of the National Firearms Act of June 26, 1934 (ch. 757, 48 Stat. 1236–1240 [26 U.S.C.A. § 1132 et seq.])”. Two defendants, especially Miller, argued that the section of the National Firearms Act, which controls transport of certain firearms between different states, violated the Second Amendment. For this claim, the Supreme Court, as the consensus of all judge, stated the Second Amendment was the Amendment for assuring “the continuation and render possible the effectiveness of … militia forces.” Also the Supreme Court stated, “…the Second Amendment does not guarantee the right to own a firearm unless the possession or use of the firearm has “a reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia” (qtd. in Batten 55) in the Miller’s