The NRA and the Second Amendment
The Second Amendment guarantees: “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 guarantees a citizen’s right to keep and bear arms for personal defense. The revolutionary experience caused our forebears to address a second concern — the ability of Americans to maintain a citizen militia. The Founding Fathers trusted an armed citizenry as the best safeguard against the possibility of a tyrannical government.
James Madison, author of the Second Amendment, wrote that Americans had “the advantage of being armed,” that was lacking in other nations, where “the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” Patrick Henry proclaimed the “great object is that every man be armed. . . . Everyone who is able may have a gun.” The Second Amendment was then, as it is today, about freedom and the means to protect it.
Our founders risked their lives to create a free nation, and they guaranteed freedom as the birthright of American citizens through the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment remains the first right among equals, because it is the one we turn to when all else fails.
