Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Faith Brings
Mr, Lewis
Seminar
April 13, 2015
Second Amendment Origin and Changing
Gun Rights vs Gun Control, something if ever brought up, makes one hell of a
debate. It's all about recognizing both sides of the meaning of the Second Amendment.
If it either gives the right for citizens to bear arms and or if it gives right for only the mili-
tary of each state to bear arms. The reasoning for this debate would be our civil libertar-
ian's fear of one another. This fear has led to groups, such as American Civil Liberties
Union. These groups are acting as the National Coalition. Their goal is to ban individual
handguns from the common man. They take the side that the Second Amendment only
protects the state's right to an organized military and dissuading the right to an individ-
ual right.
Perhaps groups like the American Civil Liberties Unions are right, perhaps
they're wrong, but to make this conclusion; let's go through the origin and the changing
of the Second Amendment; because it was believed that the founding fathers who wrote
the second amendment, believed in the right to bear arms and the control of guns. In
the second amendment, the text writes: "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary for the
security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be in-
fringed." Both halves are totally different, and each half is used against each other.
Gun supporters believe the amendment leans in their order. That it supports
their side for the second half of the right. Gun-control advocates think the amendment
only leans towards only militia are able to own guns. Like it says in the first half of their
right, which supports gun rights. The funny thing is the founding fathers actually restrict-
Second Amendment 2
ed blacks and whites who didn't pledge their allegiance to own a gun and women of
course. The founders actually required eligible men to own a gun, and they also in-
spected and registered the guns, so let us get to know the origin and history to know
Part I
In the eighteenth-century, it was observed that the best defense for free states
was the citizens, who only took of arms when necessary. So really, it's an old proposi-
tion for citizens to pick up arms and defend one's community. It started with King Henry
II, who issued an Assize of Arms in 1181. It required, depending on wealth, the subjects
to provide an iron helm and lance. Then when Queen Elizabeth assessed the throne,
she formalized the growing of a citizen army by giving outlines to each citizen army in
each country. During her reign, the name "militia" came about.
By the end of the Tudor court reign, the "citizen militia" became a thread in
England when Parliament and the crown had a civil war, and Parliament won. Then lat-
er, during the time Charles II reigned, he disbanded the military, but besides the ones
that were believed to be loyal. From then on, Parliament created the Militia Act of 1661,
which controlled the militia in the king. In 1689, when William and Mary were rulers, the
Parliament adopted the Declaration of Rights. It created the right for subjects to bear
arms in defense. The right made it possible to bear arms, so parliament would be able
to stay in power and rule over the tyranny. So a real tyranny would not go back into ef-
fect. The ruler prior to Parliament tried to take away the right to bear arms and made
having a gun illegal. This historical concept is older than the birth of the Constitution.
Second Amendment 3
This idea of a "citizen militia" was taken from England; changed then modified to fit our
When the Second Amendment began to come forth. The ratification of the
Constitution in 1788 was finished, and the First Congress was assembled. A man by the
name of James Madison introduced amendments that subsequently served what would
become the Bill of Rights. He went and became a congressman and proposed this idea
on June 8, 1789.
One of Madison's amendments proposed; It was "that the right of the people to
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, a well-armed and well-regulated militia being
the best security of a free country, but no conscientious objector shall be compelled to
render military service in person." His proposal called for this very right and the right to
the freedom of the press, religion, and speech to be inserted in limitations on Con-
demonstrates that he understood the right to bear arms to be an individual right. Had
Madison viewed the right as the states' right, the more logical placement of the right
which reserves to the states the power to appoint the officers of the militia and provides
authority to train the same." as written in The History Of The Second Amendment by
David E. Vandercoy. Madison's proposals were referred and edited, then it was sent to
the Senate. The Senate combined some amendments and simplified others. The right to
bear arms was edited to what we see now "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."
Part II
Second Amendment 4
Additionally, over the years since the Second Amendment was put down; it's
been modified and changed. Starting during the Civil War, blacks and slaves were pro-
hibited to the right to bear arms; for instance, after the South lost the Civil War they
adopted the Black Codes. Laws designed to reestablish white supremacy by dictating
what the freedmen could and couldnt do. To enforce this law groups terrorized blacks
and the most famous was the Ku Klux Klan. They were terrorized due to that fact that
white South was afraid of armed freed slaves. Against this terrorism, the North fought
back at this "Code Black." They sought to reaffirm the freedmens constitutional rights,
including their right to possess guns. Then ordered in January 1866 the constitutional
rights of all loyal and well-disposed inhabitants to bear arms will not be infringed. When
the South didn't fallow, Congress passed Freedmens Bureau Act of July 1866, which
granted ex-slaves the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings concerning
personal liberty including the constitutional right to bear arms. That same year Con-
gress passed the Civil Rights Act, in summary, it went on about the U.S. citizen's free-
During the 1900s, some major cases that brought about major change were
the Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act
of 1965. To elaborate, the aggressive Southern effort to disarm the freedmen prompted
Malcolm X and the Panthers a hundred year later, to defend their right to bear arms.
Announcing that blacks have the right to own a gun by citing the second half of the sec-
ond amendment. Basically, the South made the blacks fight for a constitutional amend-
ment to better protect their rights. Which, lead whites, including conservative Republi-
cans to support new gun control. These gun-control laws of the late 1960s were de-
Second Amendment 5
signed to restrict the use of guns by black supremest. This fueled the rise of what we
have now, gun rights vs gun control. The Ku Klux Klan, Ronald Reagan, and for most of
its history, the NRA are groups which've all worked to abolish gun rights or in other
words, control guns. The Black Panthers were against this, and they were the most vis-
ual in their pro-gun movement, "the true pioneers" as put by David E. Vandercoy.
During the dispute during 1967, the fear of black people with guns inspired gun
restrictions from Congress. In 1968, a federal report accused the unrest(riots and shoot-
ing) on the easy availability of guns. The rioters used guns to keep law back, from this
spouted the conclusion the firm conclusion that effective firearm's controls are an es-
James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. with a gun and two months later RF
Kennedy was shot. That very day Congress passed the Omnibus Crime Control and
Safe Streets Act of 1968. Later, the Gun-Control Act of 1968 was amended and en-
larged. In this combo of law, it worked to create a federal licensing system for gun deal-
ers and clarified that the people who have a felony, are mentally ill, are illegal-drug
Uniform and National Firearm Acts were another major part of the changing of
the Second Amendment. The NRA, who are the lead group for Gun Rights, was found-
ed in 1871 by George Wingate and William Church. In the 1920s and 30s, the NRA was
at the forefront of legislative efforts to enact gun control. The organizations president at
the time was Karl T. Frederick. Frederick helped draft the Uniform Firearms Act, a model
of state-level gun-control legislation. The new measure imposed more orders and far
more restrictions. The law had three parts; the first required that no one carries a con-
Second Amendment 6
cealed handgun in public without a permit from the local police. Second, the law re-
quired gun dealers to report to law enforcement about every sale of a handgun. Then
the last, the law imposed a two-day waiting period on handgun sales. Then when Con-
gress was considering the first significant federal gun law of the 20th century; the Na-
tional Firearms Act of 1934, which imposed a steep tax and registration requirements on
machine guns and sawed-off shotguns and surprisingly, the NRA endorsed this law.
Both Karl Frederick and the NRA did not blindly support gun control. They both pushed
to have similar prohibitive taxes on handguns stripped from the final bill. Arguing that
people needed such weapons to protect their homes. Yet the organization stood firmly
behind what Frederick called reasonable, sensible, and fair legislation. In the 1960s,
the NRA once again supported the push for new federal gun laws. After the assassina-
tion of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the final version of the Gun-Control Act was
adopted in 1968.
Gun-Control Act of 1998. The goal of the states firearms control legislation was to limit
access to deadly weapons by irresponsible people. Another, was the June 26, 2008,
District of Columbia vs Heller Scotus and the latest. In this 2008 case, the court ruled
that the Second Amendment in the U.S. Constitution, allows an individual right to pos-
sess a firearm for lawful purposes, like self-defense. Furthermore, ruled, the local gov-
ernments can't ban all handguns, and that it is not required that firearms in the home be
disassembled or trigger-locked. The reasoning in this case, the Supreme Court went
Part III
Second Amendment 7
The Second Amendment also ties in with the Fourteenth Amendment. The
Second Amendment provides: "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 Fourteenth Amendment provides: "No state shall make or enforce any law, which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any
State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The Four-
teenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms
To sum up, the reasoning to why the founders wrote an amendment that guar-
antees the freedom of every American against tyranny. The framers of the Constitution
wanted to ensure the protected of basic rights; including the right to bear arms that they
enjoyed as Englishmen. When the colonists began to rise up against British authority;
early American revolutionaries were denied this basic rights; including that to carry
firearms. Founding Fathers recognized through the success of their Revolution the po-
Second Amendment, has been a generous dismantling. Starting at the Civil war with the
Freedmens Bureau Act of July 1866 and the Civil Rights Act. Then transitioning to the
1900s from the Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Vot-
ing Rights Act of 1965. Continuing to the Gun-Control Act of 1968, the Uniform Firearms
Act and the National Firearms Act of 1934. The final version of the Gun-Control Act was
adopted in 1968 and later, the Gun-Control Act of 1998. Stopping at the last major gun
Second Amendment 8
amendment change, was the June 26, 2008, District of Columbia vs Heller Scotus case.
Those're not even all the cases or laws/acts gone into effect. So, let us all prepare for
that "pendulum" to swing again, and another case'law rises from the ashes.
http://www.constitution.org/2ll/2ndschol/89vand.pdf
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/09/the-secret-history-of-guns/308608/3/
http://news.discovery.com/human/the-historical-origin-of-the-second-amendment-121228.htm
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/second-amendment.php