Essay On The Second Amendment

Words: 431
Pages: 2

The Second Amendment of the Constitution was admitted on December 5th, 1791. It states, “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.” It was made by the people to defend themselves if the government becomes “destructive at its ends.” Different court cases in history have seen this in different ways, defining the Second Amendment differently all the time. The qualifications of a self-defense device or if the gun follows the citizens rights. For example, in early 1939, there was a case where Jack Miller and Frank Layton were said to have violated the National Firearms Act (NFA) by transporting a sawed-off double barrel shotgun to sell in …show more content…
Later, the case was reviewed and “The Court reasoned that because the possession of a sawed-off double barrel shotgun does not have a reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia.” There have been multiple other cases similar to this, not all were about firearms though, for example, the Caetano vs. Massachusetts. In the case, Jamie Caetano was convicted of carrying a stun gun. She appealed to the court saying she was carrying it out of self-protection, especially from her abusive ex-boyfriend. The Massachusetts Supreme Court said that the second amendment doesn’t permit her to carry a stun gun. The US Supreme Court’s final decision was that Jamie’s right to carry a stun gun was following the second amendment due to the fact that the amendment also assured the rights of future, not at the time existent, weapons. A recent case from 2008, the District of Columbia vs. Heller, challenged the Second Amendment. In District of Columbia, it is a crime to carry an unregistered firearm and handgun registration is prohibited. But, the police chief is allowed to give a 1-year license which allows the officer to keep it in their home. Respondent Heller was a D.C. police man who applied for a permit but was