The 2nd Amendment Part Two: Original Intent

The founders were united in their belief that private citizens, armed with their own firearms, were vital to a free nation. They observed what happens to citizens when the means of personal defense is kept from them. They observed that the greatest atrocities committed upon humankind have been at the hand of governments.

History is chock full of examples of tyrants who have sought to disarm the people they intended to enslave. Julius Caesar, during the Gallic campaigns, recognized the difficulty of conquering an armed people: “all arms were collected from the town” and “there could be no terms of surrender save on delivery of arms.” King Charles II imposed legislation to disarm the English population nearly 100 years before the disarmament campaign in the colonies, and there are many other examples.

The 20th century has also seen plenty examples of what can happen to unarmed populations such as in Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union, and in Mao’s China, where millions of unarmed citizens were oppressed, abused, and slaughtered. Unarmed citizens will always live their lives at the whims of those who have guns, namely the government and criminals. In fact, dictators throughout history have disarmed their citizenries in order to impose power:

Adolph Hitler: "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so."

Lenin: "One man with a gun can control 100 without one."

Stalin: "We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?"

Mao: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

The founders of this great nation were revolutionaries who went to war against their government, the king of England, because of oppression. If they had allowed the government to disarm them we wouldn’t have the America we know and love today.

The founders felt it important to leave us the legacy of resistance because they understood the nature of man, which it is in his nature, once he gains a little authority to begin to practice despotism. Often the encroachments on freedom are slow, mostly unnoticeable, until one day you wake up with your freedom gone.

As we can see, the founders had a long (founded) history of mistrusting government and of standing armies as dangerous to individual liberty. For this reason it was considered the duty of every male to keep a rifle with few exceptions and this was considered patriotic. The duty to keep arms applied to every household, not just to those persons who were eligible for military service, this included older males as well.

James Madison, one of the principle architect’s of the second amendment (Bill of Rights), viewed the 2nd Amendment as protecting the right of gun ownership of the population at large. In fact many of America’s framers believed this, and on many occasions stated that the right to gun ownership is a right of the “people”.

Thomas Jefferson commenting on his mistrust of government power said,” Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."

According to Thomas Jefferson the primary intent of the 2nd Amendment is to preserve liberty and defend against an oppressive government when he said, "And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants"

John Adams seconds this notion but takes it a step further saying the 2nd amendment establishes right to self-defense against criminals: "Arms in the hands of citizens (may) be used at individual discretion...in private self defense..."

Thomas Jefferson addresses how gun control laws protect the criminal from his intended victim: "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

Thomas Paine stated the 2nd Amendment also plays a roll in protecting property rights: "...arms...discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property..."

Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society and good friend of James Madison tells us what the term “people” means when it is used in the Constitution. He also mentions the majority cannot deprive the individual of his rights: "The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals.... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of."

George Mason defines the original meaning of the “militia”: "I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for few public officials."

Thomas Jefferson tells us what to do if there is ever a question of the meaning or intent of the law: "On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."

Though, there may be some vague language in parts of the Constitution, there is nothing vague about “the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” It is quite clear the 2nd Amendment protects the rights of the people (individuals) to own and carry guns.

The explicit reasons for the 2nd Amendment are: 1. National defense- to come to the aid of one’s country against foreign invaders and to defend liberty from oppressive and tyrannous government. 2. Self-defense. 3. For defense of property.

The 2nd Amendment has nothing whatsoever to do with sporting or hunting arms, though these arms are certainly a truly American heritage. Nevertheless, the 2nd amendment is about the right to defense.