“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.” 2nd Amendment
Two factors go into the interpretation of the 2nd amendment. The first factor is the phrasing of the amendment. At the end of the amendment it says, in no limiting or uncertain terms, “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This is a concrete statement that is both inviolable and concise. When combined with the first part, it reads as if the founders did not intend for anyone to be able to regulate, or limit, the people’s right to weapons.
The second factor in this amendment is the word choice. For a long time, the first half of the amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…” is not a qualifying statement, but rather a statement of the need of the right to bear arms. The need is security. We know from the founders’ own journals and papers that they did not intend for the right to weapons to be regulated by the government, but the disagreement has focused on which part of the government.
Gun control advocates claim that the term “State” refers to the federal government, since the dictionary’s definition of a state revolves around a collection of people in one land. Since the federal government, according to this idea, cannot regulate guns, but the 10th amendment states that whatever the federal government is not allowed to do, the states can do, the gun control advocates imply that it is regulate-able on the state and local levels. Hence, the gun control laws in many major cities, like Atlanta and New York City.
However, there is nowhere in our founding documents that they ever refer to the federal government, the United States as a whole, as a “State.” Taking the four most primary documents from our founding (the Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, and the collection of Amendments), we see that they called the USA:
the United States of America 6 times. Independent States 1 time.
these Colonies 2 times. United States 139 times.
these States 3 times. Union 9 times.
Country 1 time. several States 17 times.
United Colonies 1 time. the States 2 times.
Free and Independent States 2 times. America 2 times.
Not once did they refer to the United States of America as a “State.” When using the term “State” they always pluralized it to “States.” The only times they used a term only once, the definition of the term came nowhere near as disputable as “State” in the 2nd amendment. Country, United Colonies, and Independent States can in no way mean anything other than the collection of States as a whole, the United States.
Given this disposition to be clear on the nature and meanings of their words, the founders did not intend for the term “State”, in the 2nd amendment to be taken as the federal government. They intended it to mean, “any collection of people in a land.” That includes federal, state, and local governments.
Interpreted properly, the 2nd amendment means, “The people’s defense, being necessary to their security, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed by anyone.”
We have the right to have the same weapons, or better, than our armed services carry, for it is against them, should we need to revolt as our forefathers foresaw, that we must fight. Defend the 2nd amendment. Defend your right to own and carry weapons. Your freedom, and your life, may depend on it.
