Referring to the Bill of Rights:
2nd Amendment:
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.
JOHN ADAMS (1788):
"Arms in the hands of citizens (may) be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense..."
(+Guns)
The Second Amendment is perhaps the most misunderstood of the amendments contained in the bill of rights. In fact, 48 percent of the American public mistakenly believe that the Second Amendment guarantees a virtually unfettered right to arm oneself in defense of life, property and against the possibility of government-imposed martial law. Contrary to public opinion, historians, scholars, and most importantly the courts, have virtually all concluded that: the Second Amendment was designed to protect state organized militias rather than the individual right to own a gun.
(Gun Regulation Project)
.
Modern Views on the Second Amendment:
"The 2nd Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights. What was the purpose?"(Burgner)
The second amendment is debated today by scholars, politicians, and the public. They question the second amendment on whether or not it was an individual right, or a collective right.
Today the Second Amendment functions primarily as a smoke screen ceaselessly conjured by the gun lobby to obscure and ultimately avoid a substantive debate about the role that guns play in American society. The federal government is clearly free to regulate the possession and transfer of firearms in order to promote public safety.
(Gun Regulation Project)
There are still arguements over what our rights of personal firearms are and what they should be. This debate has become known as Gun Control .
