The Second Amendment

"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 Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms.  This was long considered to be the people's last protection against tyranny.  Until recently there was an extended debate as to whether this amendment applied to the right of individuals to bear arms, or only to the right of the states to maintain independent militias.  This issue was argued before the Supreme Court in March of 2008 in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, the first Second Amendment case before the Supreme Court in over seventy years. The Court held that there is an individualized right to bear arms independent of state militias, and in particular that a Disctrict of Columbia ordinance banning the possession of all handguns violated the Second Amendment.  The Court wrote that reasonable limitations on gun ownership such as waiting periods will be upheld,  but what exactly constitutes an unreasonable interference with the right to bear arms is a complex question that will be left to the lower courts to resolve.

Know Your Rights

  • Amendment I
  • Freedom of speech, assembly, and  religion
  • Amendment II
  • Right to bear arms
  • Amendment IIII
  • Quartering of soldiers
  • Amendment IV
  • Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures
  • Amendment V
  • Right against self-incrimination, double jeopardy, uncompensated takings; due process of law
  • Amendment VI
  • Right to speedy and public jury trial; right to confront witnesses; right to counsel
  • Amendment VII
  • Right to jury in civil trials
  • Amendment VIII
  • Prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail
  • Amendment IX
  • Reterntion of unenumerated rights by the people
  • Amendment X
  • Rights reserved by the states
  • Amendment XIV
  • Right to citizenship, due process of law, equal protection of the laws