Second Amendment: Right to keep and bear arms

The text

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.

Text: National Archives transcription of the amendments in their original form (spelling and punctuation as in the original).

What it means

• The government may not take away the people's right to keep and bear arms.
• In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) the Supreme Court held this is an individual right, including keeping a handgun at home for self-defense, not only a right tied to militia service.
• Reasonable regulations are still allowed, and the exact limits are debated.

Who proposed it

James Madison of Virginia introduced the proposals in the House of Representatives on June 8, 1789. He drew on state declarations of rights, especially George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), and on the amendments the state ratifying conventions had recommended. The House approved 17 amendments; the Senate cut and combined them to 12, and Congress sent those 12 to the states on September 25, 1789.

When it was proposed and ratified

• Proposed by Congress: September 25, 1789. Congress approved the 12-article joint resolution (House September 24, Senate September 25, 1789).
• Ratified: December 15, 1791. Virginia became the 11th of the 14 states to ratify, completing ratification of Articles 3–12 of the 1789 resolution (Amendments 1–10).

Amendments are not signed into law. Congress proposes them by a two-thirds vote of both houses, and they become part of the Constitution when three-fourths of the states ratify. The President has no formal role (Article V).

Why it was made

The Constitution of 1787 had no bill of rights. Anti-Federalists such as George Mason, who refused to sign it partly for this reason, warned that a strong national government could trample individual liberties. Several states ratified only after recommending amendments, and Federalists promised to add them. Madison kept that promise in the First Congress. The amendments limited only the federal government until the Supreme Court began applying most of them to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment (selective incorporation).

Americans distrusted standing armies after British troops were stationed in the colonies, and they relied on citizen militias. Anti-Federalists feared the new national government could disarm the state militias. English law (the English Bill of Rights of 1689) had also recognized a right of subjects to have arms for their defense.

Key Supreme Court cases

• District of Columbia v. Heller (2008): Individual right to keep a handgun at home (federal enclave)
• McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010): The Second Amendment applies to states and cities (incorporation)

FCLE tips

• The Second Amendment's prefatory phrase mentions a militia, but Heller held the right belongs to individuals.

Related study guide sections

• Chapter 6: Amendment 2
• Chapter 6: The Bill of Rights overview
• Chapter 7: Selective incorporation
• All 27 amendments