The Second Amendment – Why Our Founding Fathers Wanted Us To Have Guns

Second Ammendment | Right To Bear Arms | History of Gun Rights

The Second Amendment has proven to be one of the most controversial parts of the Bill of Rights to date. From concealed carry to gun control, questions and hell-raisers often surface over gun control, gun laws, and what the Founding Fathers of our nation actually meant when drawing up the Constitution.

For this reason, we have created a little history lesson on the Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment, as well as a modern-day perspective on the matter.

A History: The Bill of Rights

The most meaningful part of the U.S. Constitution, for the people, is the Bill of Rights. Our Founding Fathers added the Bill of Rights to the Constitution in 1791 to protect individuals from potentially dangerous central and state governments and to prevent the people's enslavement to the government.

bill-of-rights

Scholars agree that the Constitution may not have been ratified had Americans not been assured that these ten amendments would be added to both check the power of the government and to guarantee their individual liberties.

The Bill of Rights was written to protect individuals' most basic rights from tyrannical rule.

The Revolutionary War undoubtedly helped the Founding Fathers in recognizing the necessity of firearms, which was, in fact, the basic right of the common Englishman.

English [British] laws required that men practice using firearms should they ever be called to defend their nation, regardless if they owned a firearm or not.

When their distant English government imposed taxes without representation on the newly formed nation, that is America, colonists wanted to fight for the right to form their own government, but were denied their basic rights to carry firearms, even though they were Englishmen.

“I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”
George Mason
Co-author of the Second Amendment

Eventually, with an armed citizenry, the colonies were successful in fighting for their own government. The Founding Fathers saw through this success that keeping military power under civilian control by allowing private citizens to keep arms was necessary, should this course of action take place again.

The Second Amendment

“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 Second Amendment, in addition to the other nine amendments, was designed to ensure that individuals retained the right and means to defend themselves against any illegitimate attempt to do them harm or violate their trust under the eyes of the law. This amendment was meant to guarantee individuals the right to protect themselves against the government, as well as against bad guys.

However, that does not go without saying – The Founding Fathers did in fact regulate firearms in early America.

The ‘right to bear arms' carries with it an enormous burden and responsibility, and the Founders knew that. While the average American had the ‘right to bear arms,' the law did not legally require it, which exempted those who did not wish to have an obligation to carry arms, such as Quakers.

For this reason, Militias were formed as tightly knit organizations to defend individual colonies, and were legally defined and regulated by those colonies. These militias were formed, in part, to defend people from parties acting as militias without legal authority, such as a gang.

Colonies kept track of who had guns, had the right to inspect them in private homes and could fine citizens for failing to report to a muster. Even during a time when skills with a firearm were expected, the right to own a dangerous weapon was not without checks and controls.

While the Founders were aware that enabling firearm protection was crucial, they were also aware that regulations were to protect the people against sociopaths who would not respect this right.

Modern Day

“The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution.”
Thomas Jefferson
Third President of the United States

History of Gun Rights | Second Amendment

While gun ownership needs to be regulated, i.e.,

  • Gun training
  • Written test
  • Practical test
  • Health requirements
  • Liability insurance

The area that gets tricky is full-gun registration. Lest we forget the Holocaust, one of the most modern massacres, when Nazi Germany abused gun control to disarm their society.

That same year, the Nazis, led by Hitler, seized power over the Weimar Republic, which established gun registration and used the records to identify, disarm, and attack political opponents and Jews through mass search and seizure.

Hence, the argument over gun control ensues as we try to avoid repeating certain aspects of history while maintaining our stance on the Constitution.

 The Value of An Armed Citizen

What are your thoughts on the Second Amendment? Leave a comment below!

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on February 20, 2020, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

7 Responses to :
The Second Amendment – Why Our Founding Fathers Wanted Us To Have Guns

  1. Thomas Vogt says:

    ”Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” (Debates and Other Proceedings of the Convention of Virginia, pg. 43,Patrick Henry on June 5, 1788).

    “Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.”

    From now on I will have to suspect everything I read on Survival Life. The entire second half of your article is highly suspect.

    “Colonies kept track of who had guns, had the right to inspect them in private homes and could fine citizens for failing to report to a muster. Even during a time when skills with a firearm were expected, the right to own a dangerous weapon was not without checks and controls. “ Your sole citation for this ridiculous statement is an article from the NY Daily News that ends with this: “The bottom line is simple: the Second Amendment requires more gun regulation, not less. “ This is BS, there is no justification for this statement any where in the article or in any history that I know of unless it came from Michael Bellesiles. This is simply Soviet style “dezinformatsiya”, disinformation, a lie presented as an unassailable truth.

    Instead of these modern day charlatans, you should research the actual words and writings of the framers to determine what they meant when they said and wrote their beliefs on this subject. There are numerous, documented by real historians, sources available.

  2. IMPCALGI says:

    It is NOT the Second Amendment which grants us the right to own firearms; it merely codifies in writing what already exists. The right to defend yourself is found in Nature, and comes from Nature’s GOD. Ants will defend their mound, bees their hive and birds their nest. Even “cute and cuddly” animals like bunnies will defend themselves violently if attacked. How then should we expect that human beings have any less a right to defend ourselves? “We the people” do not have fangs or claws or horns or hooves or stings to use as weapons, but we do have firearms. I am a man, and a free citizen, and I do not need anyone’s permission to be able to defend my family and home.

    Ideals Mastering Power Creating All Life GOD IS
    http://www.impcalgi.com

  3. Gaylon George says:

    If people would just bother to become informed they could clearly see the benefits of owning a gun and properly learning how to use and care for it. It appears that the desire to control what someone else can or can’t do is more important to the liberals in our society than being accurately and truly informed.

  4. duane says:

    without the 2nd the rest won’t matter will they?

  5. John Conway says:

    Once, you break down the 2nd amendment of the constitution our Country (United States of America ) we are finished as a Nation. If you break apart one amendment you can destroy the entire constitution.

  6. David kendall says:

    As I have said before. If the second amendment had been written in the 20th century and not when it was written, they would have stipulated that NO arms were to be regulated. It was to keep the people on even footing with whomever they might run up against in a armed conflict, wether it be a invading force or thier own government. Since WE The people are no longer allowed to posses arms on par with the police or the military, we have already been effectively nutered. I feel very strongly that NO other weapons should be denied us, and I feel fortunate that I have the mechanical aptitude, knowledge of how firearms work and prior military training to insure that if push came to shove, I could build a weapon that would put me on a more even playing field if the need ever presented itself.

    All I ask is PLEASE try and keep politics out of this debate. We are All Americans, and we all love our country and our rights as laid down in the bill or rights. Going at each other troughs ( I am not the best speller) only serves to bring us closer to the day we MAY have to go to battle against one another again, and there are much better ways to exert our energy!!!

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