Question

For this assignment, you are expected to share your perspectives on gun control and gun rights by Why did the framers include the second amendment to the Constitution? What rights does the Second Amendment of the US Constitution protect? Should stricter gun control laws be enforced in the US today due to .

Answer 1

Solution

It is clear that a major contributing factor to the violence is the abundance and easy availability of handguns and assault weapons. While most of us abhor this violence and want to do something about the problem, some may be reluctant to advocate tough gun control laws because they misunderstand and misinterpret the Second Amendment.

This misinterpretation has been fostered by the firearms lobby, which often quotes only the second clause of the Second Amendment, seemingly forgetting that the first clause even exists. Indeed, the second clause is the only part of the amendment inscribed on the National Rifle Association's headquarters building in Washington.

The Second Amendment in its entirety states: "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." This amendment was adopted to assure the states that they would have the right to maintain their own militias to protect against federal and foreign encroachment.

There is no substantial historical evidence for the claim that the amendment was intended to guarantee an individual the right to have arms for any purpose other than participation in a state-regulated militia. In fact, there was not even a mention of an individual right to bear arms for hunting or other non-militia purposes. Moreover, what is clear is that in contemporary America the National Guard is the militia.

Interestingly, the federal judiciary has been remarkably consistent in

finding that the Second Amendment protects a state's right to keep a well- organized militia, rather than an individual's right to bear arms. The one modern Supreme Court case concerning the Second Amendment, United States v. Miller, found that a regulation outlawing sawed-off shotguns did not violate the Second Amendment. Recently, the high court vindicated this view by refusing to hear a Second Amendment challenge to the federal ban on machine guns brought by the NRA.

Following the lead of the Supreme Court, lower federal courts have never overturned a gun control law on Second Amendment grounds and have been uniform in holding that the Second Amendment does not apply to individuals. For example, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, deciding that the National Firearms Act did not violate the Second Amendment, held that "it is clear that the Second Amendment guarantees a collective rather than an individual right" (United States v. Warin). The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Quilici v. Morton Grove, found that the Second Amendment did not bar the city of Morton Grove, Ill., from banning handguns. The court said: ''Under the controlling authority of Miller we conclude that the right to keep and bear handguns is not guaranteed by the Second Amendment."