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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" of the U.S. Constitution, as it provides for the right to keep and bear arms, is at the center of gun politics in the country.  It is also used in the names of such groups as "The Second Amendment Sisters," a national group of pro-gun women.

How It's Used

"Leahy was preaching to a liberal choir, but Constitution worship is ecumenical. After a federal appeals court ruled recently that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to bear arms, Benjamin Wittes wrote an essay for The New Republic in which he suggested: 'Let's repeal the damn thing.'"

"For decades, partisans on both sides of the nation's gun-control debate looked to the Supreme Court as some believers await a sign from the messiah: Someday, the justices would rule, and then, like it or not, we would know. Finally, firearms would be freely available as a basic American right, or they'd be strictly regulated, restricted to limited purposes.

"But here we are, less than six months after the high court ruled 5 to 4 that the District's ban on handgun possession violated the Constitution's Second Amendment, and the partisans are at their battle stations, arrayed on either shore of the Potomac like the Hatfields and McCoys of yore."

"Her [Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's] announcement came after a private meeting at Nazareth Regional High School, in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, with the parents and classmates of Nyasia Pryear-Yard, a 17-year-old who was shot in the face and killed at a club on Jan. 18.

"'There's a very big difference between making sure hunters can hunt in upstate New York, because it's part of our heritage and our history and the Second Amendment to our Constitution, and fighting against gun violence,' Ms. Gillibrand told reporters. 'And those are values and views that I've always held -- that we do need to fight against gun violence. We do need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.' Jennifer Pryear, the killed girl's mother, said she knew of Ms. Gillibrand's background opposing gun control legislation but was hopeful after their conversation."

"A series of decisions followed that limited federal power to protect civil liberties. An 1886 decision, Presser v. Illinois, held that the Second Amendment didn't touch the states' powers to restrict weapons."

"Some of the family members of the Virginia Tech victims have become powerful voices in the effort to close the gun-show loophole, reminding Congress that keeping guns from criminals and the mentally ill has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. Will Congress listen? We’ll wait and see. But in the meantime, the Virginia Tech victims have, in death, breathed new life into legislation that could save thousands of others—the 34 Americans murdered with guns every day."

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