However, the US Revolutionary War showed that militias were not adequate to deal with invading forces such as those of the British Empire. 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 issue was a matter of debate between two camps of influential men who framed the writing of the US Constitution: the Anti-Federalists and Federalists. Federalists saw a strong, national government as necessary for the success of the newly formed US. The US Constitution was seen by the Federalists as a way of guaranteeing such a government. Anti-Federalists wanted to block the ratification of the Constitution, claiming that a national government would be unable to address the needs of people far from the capitol.
While they were unsuccessful at blocking its ratification, the Anti-Federalists were instrumental in proposing 12 amendments to the Constitution which laid out inalienable rights for US citizens — 10 of which were ratified in , including the Second Amendment. While the Second Amendment was used to keep the federal government from regulating guns, states were left to regulate firearms as they saw fit. Many blocked black men from owning weapons and guns used for militias were kept on a government roll, according to the National Constitution Center, a historical organisation founded by the US government.
That precedent lasted until , when a near-total ban on firearm ownership in Washington, DC, passed by the federal government, was challenged. City of Chicago The plaintiff in McDonald challenged the constitutionally of the Chicago handgun ban, which prohibited handgun possession by almost all private citizens.
In a decisions, the Court, citing the intentions of the framers and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment, held that the Second Amendment applies to the states through the incorporation doctrine. However, the Court did not have a majority on which clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the fundamental right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense.
While Justice Alito and his supporters looked to the Due Process Clause, Justice Thomas in his concurrence stated that the Privileges and Immunities Clause should justify incorporation. However, several questions still remain unanswered, such as whether regulations less stringent than the D. As a general note, when analyzing statutes and ordinances , courts use three levels of scrutiny, depending on the issue at hand:. More recently, the Supreme Court reinforced its Heller ruling in its Caetano v.
Massachusetts decision. See constitutional amendment. Please help us improve our site! No thank you. Second Amendment Primary tabs The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads: "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.
Jack Rakove, ed. The Annotated U. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Second Amendment, Legal Information Institute. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The First Amendment to the U. Constitution protects the freedom of speech, religion and the press. It also protects the right to peaceful protest and to petition the government. The amendment was adopted in along with nine other amendments that make up the Bill of Even before the U.
Constitution was created, its framers understood that it would have to be amended to confront future challenges and adapt and grow alongside the new nation. In creating the amendment process for what would become the permanent U.
Constitution, the framers The 13th Amendment to the U. Constitution, ratified in in the aftermath of the Civil War, abolished slavery in the United States. The 25th Amendment to the U. Passed by Congress on July 6, , the 25th Amendment was ratified by the states The 26 Amendment lowered the legal voting age in the United States from 21 to The long debate over lowering the voting age began during World War II and intensified during the Vietnam War, when young men denied the right to vote were being conscripted to fight for their By the late s, prohibition movements had sprung up across the United States, driven by religious groups who considered alcohol, specifically drunkenness, a threat to the nation.
The movement reached its apex in when Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the The 14th Amendment to the U. Freedom of speech—the right to express opinions without government restraint—is a democratic ideal that dates back to ancient Greece.
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