Second Amendment & the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
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 Second Amendment protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms for defense of life and liberty.
In U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876), Presser v. Illinois (1886), Miller v. Texas (1894) and U.S. v. Miller (1939), the Supreme Court recognized that the amendment protects an individual right. It has never taken a different view. However, in Salina v. Blaksley (1905), the Kansas Supreme Court invented the idea that the amendment instead protected a “right” of a person to keep and bear arms only while serving in a state militia, and in U.S. v. Tot (1942), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit advanced the idea that the amendment protects the “right” of a state to have a militia.
In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court heard its first case specifically centered on whether the amendment protects an individual right to arms. Gun control supporters advanced essentially the "Salina" argument, but the Court, consistent with its previous rulings in Second Amendment-related cases, ruled that the amendment protects an individual right to keep arms and to bear arms "in case of confrontation," without regard to a person’s relationship to a militia.
In McDonald v. Chicago (2010), the court extended the Second Amendment's protection nationwide.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Fairfax, Va. – An NRA-led coalition of self-defense civil rights groups including the Second Amendment Foundation and the ...
Monday, January 26, 2009
On the heels of naming gun-banner Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, Barack Obama once again puts ...
Monday, January 26, 2009
On the heels of naming gun-banner Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, Barack Obama once again puts ...
Thursday, November 20, 2008
The Supreme Court’s decision overturning the D.C. handgun ban makes it more difficult for gun banners to do ...
Friday, August 22, 2008
The recent Supreme Court decision concerning the Washington, D.C., handgun ban, District of Columbia v. Heller, is a ...
Monday, August 11, 2008
By now, virtually all Americans, and millions of other people around the world, know that an important battle ...
Monday, August 4, 2008
In striking down the D.C. gun ban, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Second Amendment protects an ...
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
On June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment—"A ...
Friday, June 27, 2008
The Supreme Court has handed down its landmark decision in the Heller case, but we must also remember ...
Friday, June 27, 2008
The Supreme Court has handed down its landmark decision in the Heller case, but we must also remember ...