2nd Amendment - article by Good English Article Sites

The 2nd amendment

The 2nd amendment to the Constitution of the United States is, to this day, still one of the most controversial issues in American society. In order to fully understand the controversies and reasons for them, however, we must first understand the text of the 2nd amendment and what it means.

The 2nd amendment reads as follows:

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.

There is also a second version of the 2nd amendment, one that was passed out to the states to ratify. The differences are slight - merely punctuation and capitalization:

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 controversy, then, stems from the "right to bear arms" and what that means. Many lobbying groups such as the NRA see it as a fait accompli that this means all citizens of the United States are legally allowed to own weapons of any kind regardless of the potential hazard that presents to the community. Those on the other side of the argument tend to be folks who are concerned about gun violence in America, which is significantly higher than anywhere else in the civilized world. In 2004, for example, 29,569 Americans were killed with guns. That averages out to about 81 every single day of the year. In Britain during the same year, there were 112 gun deaths total. So a day and a half in the United States produced more gun deaths than an entire year in the United Kingdom.

These numbers are the reason there is such a strong anti-gun lobby, and when it comes to the intent of the founding fathers, they have a significant leg to stand on. Gary Willis, a historian and university professor wrote in his book A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government the following:

... "Bear Arms" refers to military service, which is why the plural is used (based on Greek 'hopla pherein' and Latin 'arma ferre') – one does not bear arm, or bear an arm. The word means, etymologically, 'equipment' (from the root ar-* in verbs like 'ararisko', to fit out). It refers to the 'equipage' of war. Thus 'bear arms' can be used of naval as well as artillery warfare, since the "profession of arms" refers to all military callings.

In this instance "Bear Arms" clearly means the right of the people to have a militia or, as it is called today, a "National Guard." This means the 2nd amendment does not, then, specifically grant individuals the right to own private weapons.

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