by S. Koontz

Created on: December 05, 2007

The Second Amendment has been a highly debated topic over the last couple centuries. The Second Amendment states that "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" (Alters 3). Some people believe that only the military has the right to own guns; while others believe that the Second Amendment protects all citizens' rights.

The Bill of Rights was written by James Madison in 1791 because three of the thirty-nine men refused to sign the Constitution in fear that congress would have too much control (Alters 1). When James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights he did not clearly state the meaning behind each of the ten amendments, which left the Second Amendment open to speculation. The Second Amendment didn't become a highly debated topic until 1856 in the case of Dred scott v. Sandford.

The entire debate of the Second Amendment can almost be boiled down to the definition of two terms, "militia" and "bear arms." The meanings of these terms are defined to suit the needs of each side of the disagreement making an argument against what our forefathers meant when they wrote the Second Amendment. Rachana Bhowmik, an attorney with the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, article she defines these terms: "A "militia" as the framers understood it was, "an organized, state sponsored group of individuals acting in defense of the whole" (Bhowmik 2). She then goes on to define "bear arms" as the "means to possess weapons for military use" (Bhowmik 2). Stefan Tahmassebi, deputy general counsel for the National Rifle Association, doesn't define these terms directly, but uses the Supreme courts' past rulings as evidence that "militia" was not just referring to the military and that "bear arms" does not mean only weapons of war. In Sandra Alters' article she states that the term "militia" was historically used when referring to the military and the term "the people" was used when referring to everyone in the country (Alters 3).

The Supreme Court has never made a ruling that gives true definition to the Second Amendment, but several cases have come up with rulings that only further the disagreement. Tahmassebi mentions several cases in his article where the Second Amendment has been challenged and uses the rulings in these cases as ammunition that the Amendment gives individual citizens the right to own guns. He mentions Miller v. Texas and points out that, "the defendant was not a member

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