The Second Amendment

The Second Amendment protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Its 27 words have generated more constitutional argument per syllable than perhaps any other passage in the Bill of Rights.

Ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment reads in full: "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." It was written against the background of British attempts to disarm colonial militias in the years before the Revolution, and within a political tradition that viewed an armed citizenry as the final guarantor of liberty against standing armies. For most of American history, the amendment received little judicial attention. State and federal governments regulated firearms in various ways without much constitutional controversy. The modern debate began in earnest in the late twentieth century. Two competing readings emerged. The collective-rights view held that the amendment protected the right of states to maintain militias and did not confer an individual right to private firearm ownership. The individual-rights view held that the prefatory clause about militias explained the purpose of the right but did not limit it, and that the operative clause protected an individual right to keep and bear arms. The Supreme Court decided the question in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008, holding that the amendment protects an individual right unconnected to militia service. McDonald v. Chicago in 2010 applied the right against the states. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen in 2022 established that gun regulations must be consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearms regulation. The amendment is now firmly established as an individual right. The scope of permissible regulation continues to be argued case by case.