by Joseph Veca

Created on: June 22, 2008

Any competent high school English student should be able to parse the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and understand it with clarity.

"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 first part of the Second Amendment, "A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State," is what is referred to as a preparatory clause, or reason for and why for the second part of the amendment, " the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

This right is a declaration of the right of the people considered as individuals. It is established as unalienable and consequently, no majority has the authority to deprive them of it.

In United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez (, 494 US 259 [1990]), the US Supreme Court ruled, "The Second Amendment protects "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms," and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments provide that certain rights and powers are retained by and reserved to "the people." . . . While this textual exegesis is by no means conclusive, it suggests that "the people" protected by the Fourth Amendment, and by the First and Second Amendments, and to whom rights and powers are reserved in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, refers to a class of persons who are part of a national community or who have otherwise developed sufficient connection with this country to be considered part of that community."

Whether you like it or not, firearms as an invention is what gave mankind liberty. The invention of the firearm spelt the end of the "Might makes right rule." which dominated human history for over 5 millennia. The framers of the Bill of Rights understood this. Hell, even the European aristocracy understood this when firearm were created and went out of their way to impose victim disarmament laws (most of Europe's victim disarmament laws date back to the invention of the firearm) but it didn't last because in the late 1700's a nascent group of colonists hammered the hell out of what was at the time one of the most powerful nations on earth and gained their independence.

Think about it. As long as the population is armed, it keeps government relatively honest and keeps it from becoming a tyrannical. As long a political leader knows that the population is armed, he or she will not do something that will anger them or violate their rights, knowing full well that they will be the first to find themselves up against the wall if they anger the populous.

The Founding Fathers of the United States understood this. Thomas Jefferson wrote and spoke many times that he felt the Second Amendment to the Constitution was the one that rest of the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution for that matter, hung on. For, without the Second Amendment, it is impossible defend the rest.

Learn more about this author, Joseph Veca.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.