The Second Amendment And The Right To Bear Arms Throughout the years there has been an ongoing debate over the Second Amendment and how it should be interpreted. The issue that is being debated is whether our government has the right to regulate guns. The answer of who has which rights lies within how one interprets the Second Amendment. With this being the case, one must also think about what circumstances the Framers were under when this Amendment was written. There are two major sides to this debate, one being the collective side, which feels that the right was given for collective purposes only. This side is in favor of having stricter gun control laws, as they feel that by having stricter laws the number of crimes that are being committed with guns will be reduced and thus save lives. However while gun control laws may decrease criminals’ access to guns, the same laws restricts gun owning citizens who abide by the law; these citizens make up a great majority of the opposing side of this argument. These people argue that the law was made with the individual citizens in mind. This group believes that the Amendment should be interpreted to guarantee citizens free access to firearms. One major group that is in strong opposition of stricter gun control laws is the National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA argues that having stricter gun control laws will only hinder law-abiding citizens. The final outcome on this debate will mainly depend on how this Amendment is going to be interpreted. The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights states: 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. (Amendment II 1791) This debate has produced two familiar interpretations of the Second Amendment. Advocates of stricter gun control laws have tended to stress that the amendment’s militia clause guarantees nothing to the individual and that it only protects the states’ rights to be able to maintain organized military units. These people argue that the Second Amendment was merely used to place the states’ organized military forces beyond the federal government’s power to be able to disarm them. This would guarantee that the states would always have sufficient force at their command to abolish federal restraints on their rights and to resist by arms if necessary. T... ... middle of paper ... ... stricter gun control, the states are moving in a different direction. The reason behind this action is that the constitutionality of tighter gun control laws is becoming a question. Once the Supreme Court of the United States answers this question on the legality of infringing on the right to bear arms we will know what our exact right is. Works Cited [1] Cottrol, Robert, ed. Gun Control and the Constitution: Sources and Explorations on the Second Amendment. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1994 [2] Dowlut, Robert. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms in State Bills of Rights and Judicial Interpretation. SAF 1993 [3] Freedman, Warren. The Privilege to Keep and Bear Arms. Connecticut: Quorum Books, 1989 [4] Hickok, Eugene Jr., ed. The Bill of Rights: Original Meaning and Current Understanding. Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1991 [5] Kruschke, Earl PHD. Gun Control: A Reference Handbook. California: ABC-CLIO Inc., 1995 [6] Image on the cover page taken from TIME. Photographer unknown. [7] Prune Yard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 81 (1980) [8] Zimring, Franklin E., Gun Control. Encyclopedia Encarta: 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.
United States is a country that has problems with gun control, and this issue has many debates between whether or not people should be allowed to carry a gun on them. This free county not only for speech and religion, but also allows people to have the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment of the United States was written by our Founding Fathers,“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” (Government). The main purpose of the Second Amendment when our Founding Fathers wrote this amendment was to help the American citizens to defend themselves from the government at that time, and other countries from invading their properties. However, the Second Amendment could be the opposite of what our Founding Fathers wanted it to be in the twenty-first century, because many criminals are taking advantage of the right to carry guns, which in example results with the purpose of showing off with their friends, revenge for their gang’s members, or try to be like their favorite hero in the movie they had watched. On July 20, 2012, a massive shooting occurred inside of a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The tragedy happened during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises which killed twelve people and injuring seventy others. In response, this alarmed our government to rethink about the current gun control law in America. In A Well Regulated Militia by Saul Cornell, the author informed to his audience the different views of gun ownership in early America, which part was the most important part of the debate, how did slavery affect the debate over militias in the South, the Continental army officer’s views, and the arguments be...
The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states "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.
still more gun-control laws. We need to enforce the laws that we have now. It's
Professional champions of civil rights and civil liberties have been unwilling to defend the underlying principle of the right to arms. Even the conservative defense has been timid and often inept, tied less, one suspects, to abiding principle and more to the dynamics of contemporary Republican politics. Thus a right older than the Republic, one that the drafters of two constitutional amendments the Second and the Fourteenth intended to protect, and a right whose critical importance has been painfully revealed by twentieth-century history, is left undefended by the lawyers, writers, and scholars we routinely expect to defend other constitutional rights. Instead, the Second Amendment’s intellectual as well as political defense has been left in the unlikely hands of the National Rifle Association (NRA). And although the NRA deserves considerably better than the demonized reputation it has acquired, it should not be the sole or even principal voice in defense of a major constitutional provision.
“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 right of all Americans to bear arms is a right the Founding Fathers held to equal importance as the Constitution itself. Gun control laws directly violate this right and therefore should not even be under consideration. Even if that issue is overlooked, gun control advocates state that in order to reduce firearm related violence, gun control laws must be implemented to remove the violence caused by firearms. Although this may seem reasonable, the consequences of such laws are ironically counterproductive; they exacerbate the problem instead of fixing it. Besides the fact that the American Constitution guarantees its citizens the right to bear arms, the idea of restricting gun ownership in order to reduce firearm-related violence would ultimately fail given the previous experiments of gun control in England and in numerous states.
The second amendment states “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The Founding Fathers included this in the Bill of Rights because they feared the Federal Government might oppress the population if the people did not have the means to defend themselves as a nation or individuals.
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. Amendment II
The National Rifle Association (NRA), recognized today as a major political force and as America's foremost defender of the 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 NRA adheres to the belief that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individuals to bear arms. Recent U.S. Supreme Court cases have confirmed those beliefs. In spite of whether one personally adheres to these interpretations of the amendment or not, the fact is there are over two hundred million guns in this country. Moreover, there are over seventy-five million firearm owners. In addition to the NRA’s political activity for second amendment rights, it has fulfilled a service, as since its inception, it had been the premier firearms education organization in the world by providing firearms safety and training.
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.
How many of us want the U.S. government to have the right to tell us what to do, and when w can do it. There are probably not many who would agree that the government should have that right. Though having gun control laws is not to that extreme, some would say it is the first step. Growing up in a small town, and also growing up with guns my whole life I was one of those people who did not want gun control laws. Then after reading two articles that discussed this topic I found that I have been ignorant about this subject.
Gun control is an awfully big issue in the United States today. Many people in America don’t agree with the gun control laws that they have today. Gun control laws only take guns and freedom away from law-abiding citizens. Many citizens have their own reasons for owning a gun. Why would the government want to make it harder for people to own a gun? People that own guns aren’t very likely to be attacked by criminals. Owning a handgun is one of the best ways of protection when used correctly. The second amendment states “the right to bear arms”; does this grant everyone the right to own a gun? Gun control laws have not been proven to do anything for citizens. Gun control laws just make it harder for the good guy average Joe to own a gun. Gun control laws are not a good idea, and are taking part in the loss of our freedom that was given to us.
The American Constitution is sacred in that it hasn’t changed for hundreds of years, but it has come to our attention that some of the amendments are outdated. The second amendment states that everyone has a right to bear arms which sounds righteous and fair, but we live in a far different time than our fathers that wrote the Constitution did. Today, we have real problems with guns because it is so easy to obtain and so many misuse the power of such a dangerous weapon. It has always been American culture that owning a gun as a household self defense tool is considered a norm. The many cases of mass shootings made some people demand stricter regulations on gun or even ban guns completely. However, it would be illegal for the US government to ban guns, as laid down in the Constitution. It would seem “unamerican” that a man doesn’t have the right to buy a gun if he wanted to. It is also difficult to make any changes on gun laws, because of the National Rifle Association. It is an incredibly powerful organisation that represents gun owners ' rights. It is also known as one of the most influential lobbying groups in Washington. In order to lay stricter laws on guns, the government would have to go through them first. “[The NRA] have the ability to recruit and fund competitors for politicians who don’t listen to them. Lawmakers like their jobs and most try to keep them for life” (Culhane, 2015, p.2). The NRA have many wealthy members, and it is corrupted. Whenever congress tries to restrict any gun rights, the NRA will help any campaign financially to defeat them. Even though majority of the people in America want to change the gun laws, they are not as strong as the NRA. The NRA is strongly supportive of the American gun culture. Therefore, any suggestions that disadvantage gun right will be drowned to
“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.” (Amendment II, 1791). Look familiar? It should if you live in the U.S., otherwise shame on you. This concerns your ability to ‘bear arms.’ During this paper, I will go over the pros and cons to the 2nd Amendment, what people argue over what it means, and discuss both sides of those arguments. As well as some beliefs people think are true. However, I will be going over certain topics I have found online, for example, like a blog, and even a book written about gun rights… all while recieving information from the FBI, etc.
The second amendment has overall help the citizens throughout the last two century’s all around the United States of America. It has given people of America the sense of self-protection. It has helped achieve the founding fathers goals in securing life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. There are both pros and cons to the second amendment but this paper has shown that the pros outweigh the cons. Therefor the right to bear arms should be kept and defended. The right to bear arms is a good thing because it not only gives the feeling of protection to the people but it also helps build the militia to defend this great
Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.