The 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution:
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.
For such few words that seem to get to the point quickly this amendment seems to draw the most debate, I believe not because of what it does say but because what people want it to say. Those that are afraid of guns within the population hide behind the first part of the Amendment and those that want the right to protect themselves latch on to the second half of this reiteration of a God given right.
Yet I would ask all those in this debate to read the words carefully, the first clause of this law is not about who can bear arms but why they should bear arms. In other words the first clause is simply the reason the second exists, a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state. Those words are not even a complete sentence and they have caused so much debate as to the idea of self protection and yet they are not the words that push the sentence just the words that tell us why.
“the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The actual sentence, the words that hold the result of the why, those are the words with the keys to their meaning. My point is simple the people have the right to bear arms so that they can participate in a method to protect themselves and why would our founding fathers choose this as the second most important right of citizens of this nation?
This nation was born from a descent of the people for a government that no longer served them, an event our founding fathers wanted to make sure if it ever happened again the people had some protection of their own. By allowing the people the right to own and carry weapons in the eyes of our founders the playing field was leveled, knowing the why was easy, an armed people who are wholly dissatisfied with government can form a Militia and stand opposed and unarmed people become sheep to the armed government.
“The constitution shall never be construed...to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
― Alexander Hamilton
“[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
― James Madison
It is clear from these statements from our founders that it was always meant for the citizens of the United States of America to be armed and that right was born from an idea of the individual as more important than the government. It is a shame that people today who live in fear of the results of weapons in the hands of those who hold no regard for the rights of others, yet I wonder if our founding fathers solution to crime would be to simple tell those in fear to buy a weapon and learn to use it and protect yourself, it is your right and your duty to do just that.
A weapon has no morality whatsoever it is a tool, one that like any tool can be used by either good or evil. We know that evil will use these tools but I wonder what happens when the good people of this nation utilize their God given right to protect themselves and use these tools in the name of self protection if this act may reduce the willingness of evil. Our fore fathers certainly thought so.