Some proponents of private gun ownership have stated that gun control is a fine idea -- except that the Second Amendment prohibits it. The Second Amendment has long been the defense of organizations such as the National Rifle Association to justify the continuance of legal gun ownership for ordinary Americans. However, it is not true that the Second Amendment grants this right. .
This paper examines the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to establish that its purpose was not to allow ordinary citizens the "right to keep and bear arms". .
The Second Amendment.
The Second Amendment to the United States 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." It is this Amendment that proponents of private gun ownership in the United States rely on to justify individual ownership of guns and arms. Yet, clearly the Second Amendment was never intended to be a gun license for the entire American population. .
Gun-lovers throughout the United States have always focused their side of the debate on the final phrase of the Second Amendment. They completely ignore the first part of the Amendment which states, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State . . ." A straightforward reading of the entire Second Amendment makes it clear that the right to keep and bear arms was intended to apply only to members of state-run, citizen militias. .
The Second Amendment was written this way because, after the Revolutionary War, the states insisted on the constitutional right to defend themselves in case the newly formed United States" government became tyrannical and oppressive like the British royal rulers. The majority of historical and legal research clearly shows that the Second Amendment was intended to guarantee that states could maintain armed forces to resist the federal government should it get out of control (ACLU, para.