Rediscovering Who We Are: The Origins of the 2nd Amendment

“Look beyond 1776! Look beyond America! Look to political traditions this nation inherited from England!”  This is advice that I give to those who wish to educate themselves about the Constitutional principles this nation was founded.  The debate surrounding the original intent of the 2^nd Amendment Right to Bear Arms is a prime example why I give this advice.

 “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.” – 2^nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America."

There are currently two opposing opinions on the 2^nd amendment. 

 

The anti-gun control argument is that the intent of the amendment was to place, directly into the hands of the people, one of the Constitution’s “Check & Balances.”   The reasoning is that an armed populace is not only an obstacle to tyranny, but maybe the last defense of freedom.  As Thomas Jefferson put it, “When the government fears the people, there is freedom.  When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” 

On the other side, those favoring gun-control point to the “well regulated militia” clause at the beginning of the amendment.  They argue that this clearly shows that the right to bear arms is limited to the state regulated militias and not the public at-large.  Therefore, the government has the right to limit (or control) the arms that individuals can buy and possess.

Which one is correct?  If we go by what is stated in the amendment both arguments have validity.  But if we look beyond 1776 - beyond America- and back to our English political heritage we discover that only one interpretation of the 2^nd Amendment is historically valid.  why the Founding Fathers thought it important to include the right to bear arms in the Bill of Rights.  

First, we need to understand that the drafters of the Constitution were Englishmen and that, from the initial battles of Concord and Lexington to the Declaration of Independence, they were fighting for their rights as “freeborn Englishmen.”   

 

Second, we need to understand that those rights came from the Declaration of Rights of 1689, which came nearly 100 years before the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  In my new book,”Liberty Inherited: The Untold Story of America’s Exceptionalism” I detail the English struggle against tyranny.