The Founders' Second Amendment - Tapa dura

"This is an original and valuable approach, focusing on the place of individual ownership of firearms during the time of the American Revolution and the drafting and ratification of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. It will add appreciably to the scholarship on the origins and meaning of the Second Amendment." -Joyce Lee Malcolm, George Mason University "Halbrook consistently lets a huge variety of original sources speak for themselves. Although the general picture of founding-era thought about the issues discussed in the book is a familiar one, that picture is measurably enriched by the additional detail provided by the author." -Nelson Lund, George Mason University

Do individuals have a constitutional right to bear arms in a free society? Or is this power vested solely in the state? Tackling a hotly debated and polarizing political issue, Stephen Halbrook seeks to answer this debate by presenting the views of the Founders who created the Second Amendment. Stephen Halbrook argues that the traditional interpretation of the Second Amendment, which 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," has always been that individuals have a right to possess and carry firearms, and that an armed populace constitutes a militia that secures a free country. However, beginning primarily in the 1960s, he argues, the revisionist view became prominent that only a "collective" power of the States exists to maintain militias free of federal control, and that individuals have a "right" to bear arms in militia service, but not otherwise. This work-the first book-length account of the nature of the Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms during the founding of the American Republic-is based on the Founders' own statements, as found in newspapers, correspondence, debates, and resolutions. The period covered by the book extends from 1768 to 1826, from the last years of British rule and the American Revolution through to the adoption of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and the passing away of the Founders' generation.