19). At the time the Second Amendment was drafted, the states demanded the right to keep an armed militia as an assurance that the United States" government would not evolve into anything resembling the government of England (ACLU, para.14). .
Furthermore, militias in 1792 consisted of part-time citizen-soldiers organized by individual states (ACLU, para.16). Its members were civilians who kept arms and ammunition in their houses and barns, but there was State involvement in the regulation of these militias. At the time it was enacted, the drafters of the Second Amendment did not intend to encourage individual citizens to keep guns, but rather encouraged individual citizens to maintain guns if they were part of a regulated militia. .
Over time, states found it difficult to organize and finance their militias and, by the mid-1800s, militias had effectively ceased to exist (ACLU, para.17). Thus, beginning in 1903, Congress began to pass legislation that would eventually transform state militias into what is now the National Guard (ACLU, para.17). .
Therefore, the original intent of the Second Amendment was to protect the right of states to develop and to maintain state regulated militias. The Second Amendment does not protect private gun ownership that is unrelated to the maintenance of militia. .
Moreover, the Courts of the United States have consistently determined that the Second Amendment does not grant any comprehensive right to own a gun, nor does it prevent gun control. The U.S. Supreme Court has heard cases involving this issue and has interpreted the Second Amendment on several occasions -- and has determined that the individual's right to "keep and bear arms" is not a right granted by the constitution. .
There are four major cases where the Supreme Court has addressed this issue. Perhaps the most important Supreme Court Second Amendment case is U.S. v. Miller, which was decided in 1939.
