does the 2nd amendment protect gun ownership?

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I stand corrected Fatefinger gave you something to take with you to the grave, should you have children pass this down. If you want to pass this class forget you read it, but you keep it close to your heart.

The 2nd amendment 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."

The second amendment was basically copied from the English Bill of Rights of 1689, which guaranteed "subjects who are Protestants may bear arms for their defence as permitted by law;" after they had been denied them by the Catholic James II.

The part before the comma, "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state" is simply a rationale. In England, all men of less than noble rank had been required to become proficient in the use of the longbow since the 14th century, just in case those skills might be needed for a future war. The 2nd Amendment does not require that gun owners be a part of a military organization, because "the militia" in colonial times was an informal organization composed of all male citizens of good character in the community. In Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that "the adjective 'well-regulated' implies nothing more than the imposition of proper discipline and training."

So we are left with "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." So it means that everyone has that right.

The 2nd amendment codifies the depending on your philosophy the god given or natural right to own a gun in defense of oneself and ones country. It doesn't give anything. Even if the 2nd amendment never existed you still have the right to own a gun. It's the government that takes those freedoms away from you "for the greater good". And the government and country are not the same. And the "greater good" being that in the 20th century over 200 million people were exterminated by there own governments. After they were disarmed by the government of course.

It does protect gun ownership in these sense that it is in our founding document but it does not give that right but as I said protects that right from infringement by the government. Not that that doesn't stop the government from trying. The militia argument is only a recent argument but the media would have you think that's the original interpretation. It is not. It has always been an individual right. All gun control laws by a strict interpretation of the 2nd amendment are unconstitutional but when you get older, get out of college and enter the real world you start to understand that all politicians are self serving power hungry freedom haters who only want more power and to hold onto said power for longer you understand WHY the 2nd amendment was put in the bill of rights. There are few exceptions and most of those are Republicans. Probably why the media hates them so much.

Our founding fathers got done fighting a war for independence from a overreaching foreign power. They know that the greatest threat to a people is by there own government. IE nearly every socialist and communist government in the past 100+ years. The 2nd amendment exists so if the U.S. government gets out of control we have the right and ability to remove and replace that government. It exists so we can if need be overthrow the U.S. government. Say what you will about the U.S. military but there are 2+ million people in the armed forces and at minimum around 110 million gun owners and many in the military are pro-gun and take there oath to the Constitution seriously. Its to the country and the Constitution; not to the president and they have the right to defy what they believe to be an unconstitutional order. And police are woefully under prepared as it is. It sounds uncomfortable to a lot of people and it is but that is the core reason for it's existence. Makes you start wondering why the government wants to so heavily and regulate guns. Because they know if they acted upon there totalitarian wishes it would end one way. We. Would. Kill. Them. They want to ban guns, remove YOUR freedoms so they can promote there agenda without impunity. None of the rights in the Bill of Rights give people those rights; that would imply the government giving rights to the people when it's the opposite. The bill of rights protects the people from government overreach and tyranny. That's what all the ammendments do. They don't give you rights, they restrict the government. They restrict your government from taking away your freedom of speech, your right to own a gun, your right to a fair trial and due process, your right to believe in whatever religion you believe in, to not be subject to cruel and unusual punishments by the government and so on.

No. The second amendment only limits the Federal government's ability to pass laws regarding gun ownership. States can and do.

No, that's not what the 2nd Amendment says at all.

The 2nd Amendment references the militia, because the purpose of the 2nd Amendment was that the Founders wanted the people to own guns, and when a crisis arose, the people were supposed to grab their guns and report for militia duty, and bear those guns in service of the militia.

This understanding is backed up by early laws passed, such as the Second Militia Act of 1792. In that Act, it required all free able-bodied white male citizens to be considered part of the militia, and they were required to own a musket or rifle and sufficient supplies so as to be able to use it if called to duty

It is important to note that when discussing the RIGHT, the Founders were crystal clear. The RIGHT belongs to the PEOPLE.

Technically, it protects the right of "the people", as a whole, to have a sufficient total number of weapons for a militia, but does not protect the right of any particular person to have one of those weapons. The word "people" does not mean the same as the word "persons". "Persons" is the plural of "person". "People" means a group, as a whole, not everyone individually.