SECOND AMENDMENT

Second Amendment of the American Constitution

Second Amendment of the American Constitution

Introduction

The notion of the right to bear arms is one of the most debated issues on the legal as well as the political front in America. The Bill of Rights supports this particular right in the form of Second Amendment to the American Constitution. The Second Amendment has some advantages and disadvantages. The debate regarding the credibility of the amendment still continues to haunt the common American citizens. In this paper, we discuss the historical development of Second Amendment and its overall impact on the practice of bearing arms; a trend that still continues.

Historical Development of the Second Amendment

There are two views in relation to the reasons behind the promulgation of Second Amendment to the American Constitution. The first reason was to respond to England's military might. The military revolution during the 17th Century provided European nations, chiefly the United Kingdom to develop her military might against other rival nations. Similarly, France, Germany and other nations took steps towards developing their own armies (Reynolds, 2005).

During the American War of Independence in 1812, the American patriots decided to fight the English with their un-sophisticated militia and weapons. Unfortunately, the decision backfired and they ran out of their military supplies after a short period of time. The brutalities of war prompted the patriots to consider forming their own armed force, thus giving each individual the right to hold a weapon and use it in self defense. This transformation then led the United States Supreme Court to amend the constitution for a second time; thus the Second Amendment was included in the constitution.

The second reason relates to the anti-federalist feelings that prevailed among the states during that particular period. Assessing the sentiments and feelings, the Supreme Court bestowed upon the thirteen states the right to build their own militias; thus prompting the idea that every citizen living in the colonial states should have the right to bear arms. Until recently, the lower federal courts had uniformly refused to recognize any meaningful individual right to keep and bear arms (Malcolm, 2004). That has now changed. In 2001, a federal court of appeals upheld a challenged federal gun control statute, but adopted the individual right interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. In the case that is now before the Supreme Court, another court of appeals held that the District of Columbia's firearms regulations—which are technically federal laws and which prohibit virtually all civilians from keeping handguns or operable rifles and shotguns in the home—are unconstitutional under the 2nd Amendment. As of November 2007, the Supreme Court has agreed to review this decision, and it now seems likely that a new era of constitutional jurisprudence will soon begin.

Impact of the Second Amendment

The Second Amendment of the Constitution provides the individual citizen of the United States, the right to bear arms. This is a controversial amendment and has met with considerable criticism over the last few years. On one hand, the proponents of the amendment have called ...