Revisiting the Second Amendment — Mistakes Were Made

The Second Amendment of the United States reads: “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.” From these lines, we get the controversial issue of private gun ownership rights.

This Amendment causes the most discourse among the original Bill of Rights laws. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court affirmed for the first time that the right to own guns belongs to individuals for self-defense in the home. When we think of the Second Amendment, this idea of an individual constitutional right to own guns is the first one that usually pops into one’s mind. What about the well-regulated militia part? Has there always been an emphasis on an individual rights to own guns?

The American political scientist Robert Spitzer wrote that every law journal article discussing the Second Amendment through 1959 “reflected the Second Amendment affects citizens only in connection with citizen service in a government organized and regulated militia.” Only beginning in 1960 did law journal articles begin to advocate an “individualist” view of gun ownership rights. What changed? The power and influence of the gun lobby, more specifically the National Rifle Association (NRA). When there is a sudden change in legal interpretation or a…