Brave New World
"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 to the United States Constitution, 1791. Within this famous paragraph lies the right that Americans both cherish and fear, the right to have a gun. Of all the civil rights endowed by Bill of Rights and it's amendments, none has been as been opposed so hostile and defended so staunchly as the Second Amendment.
Besieged in courts, bogged down in legislation, the Second Amendment as our forefathers intended it is constantly in limbo. "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." (Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights.) "The great object is that every man be armed ... Everyone who is able may have a gun." (Patrick Henry, in the Virginia Convention on ratification of the Constitution.) "The advantage of being armed ... the Americans possess over the people of all other nations ... Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several Kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." (James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in his Federalist Paper No. 26.) The Second Amendment was not the first of it's kind. Under the laws of Alfred the Great, whose reign began in 872 A.D., all English citizens from the nobility to the peasants were obligated to privately purchase weapons and be available for military duty. Under the Assize of Arms of 11 ...