The Constitution was signed in 1789 at the end of the Constitutional Convention, which began in 1787. The most debated amendment in the Bill of Rights was the Second. State’s rights, the security of the nation, and ownership of slaves were only a few of the issues debated by the Framers of the law of the land.
On July 28, 1789, the first draft of the second amendment was released, reading: “A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, being the best security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but no person religiously scrupulous shall be compelled to bear arms.”
Discussions continued until the second week of September; adding and changing the wording of the amendment. The final draft read:
“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.
The version ratified by the states and authenticated by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson 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.”
Why is the wording so critical, and why the changes from a capital “M” in militia, and the “S” in state, released in the Congressional version to lower case in the state’s version of importance?
The capitalization and specifically placed punctuation refers to a national army; lower case to a state militia. The wording was changed many times to accommodate specific groups such as northern businessmen and southern slave owners.
Fareed Zakaria pointed out in Time Magazine, “Congress passed the first set of federal laws regulating, licensing and taxing guns in 1934. The act was challenged and went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1939. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s solicitor general, Robert H. Jackson, said the Second Amendment grants people a right that ‘is not one which may be utilized for private purposes but only one which exists where the arms are borne in the militia or some other military organization provided for by law and intended for the protection of the state.’ The court agreed unanimously.”
James Madison opposed much of the Constitution. He offered 17 amendments on June 8th, 1789, including the wording of the second amendment; “well regulated militia” and the right “to keep and bear arms.” Then, as now, no one was certain of what Madison intended.
Nowhere in the one-sentence amendment does it state that individual Americans have the right to keep firearms for home protection. Gun rights and gun control were seen as going hand in hand. Four times between 1876 and 1939, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule that the Second Amendment protected individual gun ownership outside the context of a militia.
Founded in 1871, the NRA was primarily a gun safety organization, promoting safety for hunters, and was instrumental in writing many of our nation’s gun laws, restricting the possession of certain types of weapons by ordinary citizens. This all changed in 1977. A libertarian organization suggested that individuals should keep weapons in their homes for the protection of their families.
A new NRA was formed. No longer a gun safety advocate, it became the NRA Gun Lobby. Its purpose was now the increase of profits for gun sellers and gun manufacturers.
The second amendment has been misunderstood for nearly 40 years. Legislating comprehensive background checks for all gun sales through any venue, and eliminating civilian possession of military-style weapons and the magazines used in them, is in no way a violation of the second amendment. During the days of prohibition, the government banned the ownership of ‘machine guns’ to protect law enforcement and the civilian population from such a weapon of mass destruction.
It’s time for reality in America. The Republican Party has all but admitted that it cannot win elections without NRA support. This is unconstitutional. Allowing an outside source to influence federal legislation is a violation of the rights of the majority of the American people.
Op-Ed
By James Turnage
Photo Courtesy of DonkeyHotey
The Truth With No Restrictions 