The Evolution of the Second Amendment: The Right to Bear Arms Then and Now

Essay by scheerchicUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, December 2004

download word file, 4 pages 3.0

Owning guns in America is a constitutional right. The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution says, "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." These twenty-seven words written into the Constitution have sparked a two-sided debate over the last 200 years. The interpretation of this amendment has raised heated debate between the groups supporting the Second Amendment and those opposed to it. I believe the right to bear arms is crucial to American freedom and essential to maintaining equality between the government and the people. Early Americans and the founders of the Constitution were aware of the factor that in order to have a balanced democracy they needed to let the people still have some control. "Many political leaders of both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries considered preservation of the state militia to be the ultimate check and balance."

It is also important for Americans to have the right to bear arms for protection purposes, especially with the ongoing terrorist attacks. Freedom and liberty was won primarily by the use of guns in colonial times, and this belief is deeply rooted into American beliefs today.

Early settlers coming to America from England knew they would face challenges in the "new world", such as hunting for food, protection, and fighting for territory, and "[t]he English colonies required every freeman to own a gun for self-defense." Settlers would not have survived in the colonies without the presence of firearms. It was a fundamental ingredient in establishing the security of living and surviving. The founders of the Constitution knew this and encouraged Americans to form state militias. Although most militias were somewhat of a laughing stock among its peers, "In 1808 the government made...