The Bill of Rights was added to the American Constitution all the way back in December of 1971 and a part of this was the Second Amendment. It exists to protect the rights of the individual to ‘bear arms’ or personal weapons, such as firearms. However, in recent years this part of the law in the United States has become somewhat controversial. This is mainly due to a number of high profile shooting incidents where members of the public were killed by someone bearing arms. As a result, lots of Americans think that the law should be scrapped as it would potentially save lots of innocent lives. Not everyone is opposed to the second amendment and some would simply like to see it restricted so that people who are mentally unwell are not able to have firearms or any other types of weapons on them.
If you do not understand this controversy and are a lover of the Second Amendment, then show your appreciation for it by flying a 2nd amendment flag at your home, place of work, or wherever.
Why Is It So Important?
It may be easy to think that revolutionary Amerricans simply added the right to ‘bear arms’ to the Bill of Rights just so that they could freely carry firearms when out hunting. Although lots of people back in those days did partake in hunting, this is not the reason for the Second Amendment. It was introduced in order to allow people to protect themselves from what, at the time, was a tyrannical government. This is similar to how the revolutionaries fought off the King of England and they wanted to ‘bear arms’ in case the government ever wanted to remove their rights.
At the time of writing, it was also important for people to own and have firearms on them for the purpose of organizing local militia groups, fighting off invasions from foreigners, native indian tribes, and to help keep law and order.
Why were there militia groups?
The militia groups of the time were made up of local men and they acted as a military force during times of crisis or emergency. For instance, they may be called upon to fight against native indian attacks on villages or to even act as a sort of local police force. These militia groups were well regulated in that the men in it were organized, disciplined, and well trained in guncraft. That is to say they were not just a bunch of guys running around with guns.
What Does ‘Bear Arms’ Mean?
The term, to ‘bear arms’ essentially means to be able to carry a weapon of somesort. However, there is no actual set description of what types of weapons or ‘arms’ that the writers of the original Second Amendment were referring to. It most definitely did intend to include firearms as they were in common use at the time.
However, there still remains some government regulation around the use and ownership of firearms in America.