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THE SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS
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.
Rarely is the Second Amendment discussed in Constitutional Law textbooks, and other than for a slew of Internet resources (see below), many people simply ignore it or shy away from the intense ideological debates. In this lecture, we cover both Second Amendment jurisprudence and Gun Control controversies.
There are no known rights binding on the states as part of this Amendment. The Second Amendment has NOT been incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment. This means two things: the right of the people to keep and bear arms is not a fundamental personal right; and state and local governments are free to devise any sort of gun law they choose. Currently there are over 20,000 existing gun laws throughout the U.S., many of which are unenforceable because of the sheer numbers involved. Estimates are that less than 5% of the population obey their local gun laws, and there's a lot of guns out there, over 220 million in civilian hands. Given that the U.S. population is only 260 million, if each person were given a gun, that's 85% of the population that is armed. But of course, it's typical to own more than one gun, so the more conservative estimate is 50 million people, which amounts to about 20% of the population being, well, heavily armed.
How many guns a person owns is their business. From one point of view, it's better if every home in America is protected by at least one good shotgun. From another point of view, it's better all the guns were kept in an arsenal or armory where citizens could get to them. We are more familiar with the latter concept because that's what the military does. What we are NOT familiar with is what the civilian militia should do.
THE MILITIA CLAUSE
The Second Amendment contains two clauses, the Militia Clause (A well regulated Militia being necessary
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.
Rarely is the Second Amendment discussed in Constitutional Law textbooks, and other than for a slew of Internet resources (see below), many people simply ignore it or shy away from the intense ideological debates. In this lecture, we cover both Second Amendment jurisprudence and Gun Control controversies.
There are no known rights binding on the states as part of this Amendment. The Second Amendment has NOT been incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment. This means two things: the right of the people to keep and bear arms is not a fundamental personal right; and state and local governments are free to devise any sort of gun law they choose. Currently there are over 20,000 existing gun laws throughout the U.S., many of which are unenforceable because of the sheer numbers involved. Estimates are that less than 5% of the population obey their local gun laws, and there's a lot of guns out there, over 220 million in civilian hands. Given that the U.S. population is only 260 million, if each person were given a gun, that's 85% of the population that is armed. But of course, it's typical to own more than one gun, so the more conservative estimate is 50 million people, which amounts to about 20% of the population being, well, heavily armed.
How many guns a person owns is their business. From one point of view, it's better if every home in America is protected by at least one good shotgun. From another point of view, it's better all the guns were kept in an arsenal or armory where citizens could get to them. We are more familiar with the latter concept because that's what the military does. What we are NOT familiar with is what the civilian militia should do.
THE MILITIA CLAUSE
The Second Amendment contains two clauses, the Militia Clause (A well regulated Militia being necessary