Right to Bear Arms
Phoebe Lindway
Phoebe Lindway
Professor Bidari
Political Science 1010
November 28, 2018
Right to Bear Arms
The United States Constitution includes a set of amendments, which were written with
the intent of securing the basic rights of all U.S citizens. It serves as an outline for the laws of the
land by dictating the powers of the people and what is acceptable under the United States
government. These rights are considered a privilege given to the people and should be exercised
as directed within the document. The Constitution defines the Right to Bear Arms as "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 guaranteed American citizens
the right to protect themselves. One particular clause in the amendment is the right to own and
operate a firearm. The Second Amendment was originally created to protect states from uprisings
against authority, the government, and slave rebellions. The Second Amendment guaranteed that
states could form militias from these threats. They had to create militias because at this time
America had no standing government. Minutemen were civilian colonists who independently
organized to form well-prepared militia companies that were self-trained in weaponry, tactics,
and military strategies, during the American Revolutionary War. Members of the minutemen,
were no more than 30 years old, and were chosen for their enthusiasm, political reliability, and
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strength. Minutemen were known to be ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. They
provided a mobile, fastly deployed force that allowed the colonies to respond immediately to
war threats. The minutemen were among the first to fight in the American Revolution.
Due to the terms agreed upon by our founding fathers, we have the right to protect
ourselves and our families by use of a firearm against a threat which can endanger a life. The
Founding Fathers were frightened by a standing army because they feared a sudden, violent, and
illegal seizure of power from a government. The Second Amendment was constructed in the
nineteenth century in the summer of 1787, the Framers conspired with each other to write the
articles of the United States Constitution during the Constitutional Convention. Fifty-five men
drafted this document which represents the blueprint of the United States government today. The
desire to construct and arrange such a plan was created in order to give American citizens the
absolute right to the proper indulgence of their own lives. This point is further adorned in an
article written by Mam Farrand entitled “The Framing of the Constitution of the United States”.
In it, Farrand starts off his book by stating “Thirteen British colonies had asserted and
established their independence because they declared the form of government under which they
had been living was destructive of their “unalienable rights” of “li...
