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Much of American law comes from English law. Most American colonists came from England, with English values, legal concepts and traditions. Sir William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England greatly influenced American legal thought both before the American Revolution and into the Nineteenth Century, listed the right to possess arms as one of the five auxiliary rights of English subjects without which their primary rights could not be maintained:.
"The fifth and last auxiliary right of the subject, that I shall at present mention, is that of having arms for their defense, suitable to their condition and degree and such as are allowed by law. Which is also declared by the same statute and is indeed a public allowance, under due restrictions, of the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression.".
If several centuries of English experience has transformed the duty to be armed for the common defense into a right to be armed, in part, to resist political oppression, a similar evolution in thought had occurred in the American Colonies between the early seventeenth century settlements and the American Revolution. .
Far from the security of England, sometimes bordered by colonies of hostile European powers, colonial governments viewed arming able-bodied white men and requiring them to perform militia service as essential to a colony's survival. Religion and class, as to the right to bear arms, were much less important in the colonies than in England. The need for white men to maintain control over black and Indian slaves and to defend against attacks by the native Indians helped broaden the right to bear arms and helped it to become viewed as one of the white property owners fundamental rights. .
A major cause of the Revolutionary War was the King's attempt to disarm the colonists.
