a well regulated militia, being necessary second amendment

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

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.

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE

COLONIES

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

THE QUARTERING ACTS

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

The Third Amendment

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be

quartered in any house, without the

consent of the Owner, nor in time of

war, but in a manner to be prescribed by

law.

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

The Declaration of Independence

“kept among us, in times of Peace,

Standing Armies without the Consent of

our legislatures” and had “affected to

render the Military independent of and

superior to the Civil power.”

Excerpts from

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

STANDING ARMY

CITIZEN MILITIA

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

THOMAS PAINE

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

Article I, Section 8

Congress shall have power…

To provide for calling forth the Militia to

execute the Laws of the Union, suppress

Insurrections and repel Invasions;

THE CONSTITUTION

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE



To provide for organizing, arming, and

disciplining, the Militia, and for governing

such Part of them as may be employed in

the Service of the United States, reserving to

the States respectively, the Appointment of

the Officers, and the Authority of training

the Militia according to the discipline

prescribed by Congress;

THE CONSTITUTION

SECOND AMENDMENT

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To raise and support Armies, but no

Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be

for a longer Term than two Years;

THE CONSTITUTION

SECOND AMENDMENT

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To provide and maintain a Navy;

THE CONSTITUTION

SECOND AMENDMENT

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THE FEDERALISTS

Image: An advertisement for The Federalist, 1787, using the pseudonym "Philo-Publius"

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

ALEXANDER HAMILTON,

FEDERALIST NO. 25

“If, to obviate this consequence, it should be

resolved to extend the prohibition to the raising

of armies in time of peace, the United States

would then exhibit the most extraordinary

spectacle which the world has yet seen, that of a

nation incapacitated by its Constitution to

prepare for defense, before it was actually

invaded.”

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

ALEXANDER HAMILTON,

FEDERALIST NO. 20

“If a well-regulated militia be the most natural

defense of a free country, it ought certainly to be

under the regulation and at the disposal of that

body which is constituted the guardian of the

national security.”

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

JAMES MADISON

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

JAMES MADISON,

FEDERALIST NO. 41

“security against foreign danger” was an “avowed

and essential object of the American Union” and

“powers requisite for attaining it must be

effectively confided” to Congress.”

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

JAMES MADISON,

FEDERALIST NO. 46

“Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources

of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at

the devotion of the federal government; still it

would not be going too far to say, that the State

governments, with the people on their side,

would be able to repel the danger. (The national

standing army would not be) an army of more

than twenty-five or thirty thousand men…”

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

JAMES MADISON,

FEDERALIST NO. 46

“…To these would be opposed a militia

amounting to near half a million of citizens with

arms in their hands, officered by men chosen

from among themselves, fighting for their

common liberties, and united and conducted by

governments possessing their affections and

confidence…”

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

JAMES MADISON,

FEDERALIST NO. 46

“…Besides the advantage of being armed, which

the Americans possess over the people of almost

every other nation, the existence of subordinate

governments, to which the people are attached,

and by which the militia officers are appointed,

forms a barrier against the enterprises of

ambition, more insurmountable than any which a

simple government of any form can admit of.”

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

GEORGE MASON

ANTI-FEDERALISTS

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE GEORGE MASON

“There is no Declaration of any kind for

preserving the Liberty of the Press, the Trial by

jury in civil Causes; nor against the Danger of

standing Armies in time of Peace.”

SECOND AMENDMENT

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“THE FEDERAL FARMER”

RICHARD HENRY LEE

SECOND AMENDMENT

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“THE FEDERAL FARMER”

“I see so many men in America fond of a standing

army, and especially among those who probably

will have a large share in administering the

federal system; it is very evident to me, that we

shall have a large standing army as soon as the

monies to support them can be possibly found.”

SECOND AMENDMENT

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BRUTUS

“a free republic will

never keep a

standing army to

execute its laws”

SECOND AMENDMENT

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THE BILL OF RIGHTS

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

JUSTICE JOSEPH STORY

“The militia is the natural defence of a free

country against sudden foreign invasions,

domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations

of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a

free people to keep up large military

establishments and standing armies in time of

peace, both from the enormous expenses, with

which they are attended, and the facile means,

which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled

rulers, to subvert the government, or trample

upon the rights of the people…”

SECOND AMENDMENT

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“…The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms

has justly been considered, as the palladium of

the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong

moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary

power of rulers; and will generally, even if these

are successful in the first instance, enable the

people to resist and triumph over them.”

JUSTICE JOSEPH STORY

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

THE CIVIL WAR

SECOND AMENDMENT

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS

“The black man

has never had the

right either to keep

or bear arms; and

the legislatures of

the states will still

have the power to

forbid it.”

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

Freedman’s Bureau Act

“laws . . . concerning personal liberty,

personal security, and the acquisition,

enjoyment, and disposition of estate, real

and personal, including the constitutional

right to bear arms, shall be secured to and

enjoyed by all citizens.”;

THE CONSTITUTION

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE IDA B. WELLS

“[A] Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every

black home…When the white man…knows he runs as great a

risk of biting the dust every time his African-American victim

does, he will have a greater respect for African-American life.”

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

COLFAX MASSACRE

SECOND AMENDMENT

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CHIEF JUSTICE MORRISON WAITE,

CRUIKSHANK V. UNITED STATES

“Sovereignty, for this purpose, rests alone with

the States. It is no more the duty or within the

power of the United States to punish for a

conspiracy to falsely imprison or murder within a

State, than it would be to punish for false

imprisonment or murder itself.”

SECOND AMENDMENT

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA V. HELLER

SECOND AMENDMENT

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JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA

SECOND AMENDMENT

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JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS,

HELLER DISSENT

The “distinctly military

Virginia proposal is therefore

revealing, since it is clear that

he considered and rejected

formulations that would have

unambiguously protected

civilian uses of firearms.”

SECOND AMENDMENT

SCHOLAR EXCHANGE

MCDONALD V. CHICAGO

a well regulated militia, being necessary second amendment

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