Right to Bear Arms?
It’s funny how defunct things are left over yet still have an impact on life. I finally looked up the Second Amendment which apparently gives the US citizen the “right to bear arms”. I remember my Greek history teacher telling us that sometimes the wording of a law can be be obscured or socially interpreted in the wrong way. He cited a modern day example of the Second Amendment in the US constitution.
The wording goes something like this…
“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.”
This Amendment was apparently drawn up to counter the threat of the British taking back the colony and the sovereign rights of the young nation would be under threat. As such, the Second Amendment secures that a well regulated militia shall be available to defend against any threat to a free state, and under that well regulated militia, people have the right to keep and bear arms. It says nothing about private ownership.
Useless fact number one for the day.
