The Second Amendment
“Here, in strictness, the people surrender nothing, and as they retain every thing, they have no need of particular reservations.” – Alexander Hamilton.
Alexander Hamilton was opposed to a Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments). He feared that by expressly reserving certain rights it would preclude other rights not mentioned. However, Thomas Jefferson responded to this particular thought by saying it’s better to reserve some rights than none at all.
As one of our reserved rights and our second amendment, it goes as follows:
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 reasoning behind the second amendment was that a group, known as the AntiFederalists, feared that a large government with a standing army would hinder democracy. They were afraid that the standing army would prevent any outbursts against possible tyrannies of government.
The compromise was that the federal government would require an army to defend itself and the people would always have the right to keep and bear arms…..That is, until President Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994. Fortunately, President Bush allowed the Act to expire in 2004, and now anybody can buy a gun, regardless of whether or not it “looks scary.”
References:
Black’s Law Dictionary
Wikipedia – 2nd Amendment
The Assault Weapons Ban
Hi! I'm Zach, and I'm an eCommerce/Demandware Developer, Laravel enthusiast and former Law School student(only for a day). Mostly what you'll see here are items regarding my own interests (e.g. technology, law, science, and horror!). Enjoy! =)
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