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The second amendment was written because of a mix of fear of a British invasion and basic mistrust of professional soldiers. With this fear the government decided to add an amendment to the constitution to allow for states to have a militia that allowed them to protect against foreign and domestic enemies without the government being able to stop them.
This was of course before the US had a real military though we do still have something similar to the state militias in the national guard. When it comes to interpreting things into something completely different than the original meaning nothing out does the second amendment the original text reads, “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.” Of course the common interpretation is very different and seems to commonly be everyone in America has the right to own and operate guns without restriction. Because of this so many different opinions and meanings have been debated but to simplify them all i’m going to make three sections: red, purple and blue, the red and blue of course pointing to the extremes not everyone’s views.
The red opinion is that everybody should have guns and that gun regulation will not work whatsoever and is an ineffective solution that we should not try to implement. The purple is more of a middle ground opinion basically saying that we should still allow people to own guns but impose strict regulation to purchase and usage like mental illness, age and criminal record.
And finally the blue this opinion is basically that we should ban all guns as allowing for people to own them is inherently dangerous. Of course the debates made by legal scholars are mainly centered around if the Second Amendment had focused on whether it protects a private right of individuals to keep and bear arms, or a right that can be exercised only through militia organizations like the National Guard, this can be seen in the case District of Columbia v. Heller (2008).
This can of course be connected to the American revolution as the point of the amendment was to allow states to protect themselves. I find the purple opinion the most persuasive as it is a good middle ground that has the highest probability of being agreed upon because though it is not a perfect solution it is one that everyone can agree on. And when it comes to changing the amendment well, I would re-word the entire amendment to be much more specific in the case of gun regulations: specify how they are different for active members of the military and specify the restrictions age and other that are required for owning each separate type of gun.
Tags: 2nd, 2nd-amendment, amendment, amendment-2, amendment-ii, bear-arms, ii, jonah, jonah-madover, madover, right-to-bear-arms
2 Responses to “2nd Amendment”
Tory Mogelof
I liked your animation, and the structure of your arguments was very clear. The wording of the amendment seems to clearly draw a connection between the right to bear arms and a militia. Where is the constitutional support for individual rights to own guns apart from militia service?
Jason Joseph
I like how you split up the arguments into three different colors.
Do you think they should limit the type of weapons that can be purchased?