The Second Amendment of the Constitution of The United States

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world."

- Ralph WaldoEmerson's "Concord Hymn" 1837

Amendment 2 - Right to Bear Arms. Ratified 12/15/1791

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.

On April 19th, 1776, General Thomas Gage was ordered to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock, dispatching soldiers to march on the city of Concord. Along the way there was Lexington, and under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, the British army intended to seize and destroy military supplies belonging to the civilian militia...

 Several hundred British soldiers were lost and forced to retreat to back to Charleston when their progress was stopped at Lexington Green's North Bridge in what was to become the first battle of the Revolutionary war - exploding at dawn on that day.

This is the basis for the inclusion of the second amendment of the constitution, "The right to keep and bear arms." , introduced by James Madison at the 1st Congress on June 8th, 1789. He began, "This day, Mr. Speaker is the day assigned for taking into considerations the subject of amendments to the constitution..."

Many of the founding fathers felt that even though the U.S. Constitution was based on the ideals of liberty and fair representation, it still needed to include certain guarantees and acknowledge the basic rights that all people are granted at birth by God.

This means that the Constitution of the United States does not grant us these rights, but states these rights as those we are already entitled to. The fear of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and many others had was that if these basic rights were not included in the document, then they would eventually be trampled upon or ignored by the government in years to come.

The whole reason that the shot heard around the world happened in the first place, is because the British government sought to deny us that right, and in the process attempted to take our arms by force.

Many of the other amendments in the bill of rights stem from similar injustices executed during the period leading up to that fateful day on the North Bridge outside of Lexington.

Not only does our U.S. Constitution acknowledge that we are born with these basic human rights, regardless of any law or government, it also saddles us with the responsibility to overthrow a corrupt government. This is summed up by a quote from Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Smith on November 13th, 1787, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

The use of the word, militia, does not mean military, like our National Guard, or Armies. The meaning of this word is confined to strictly mean civilians that are armed and ready to defend their families, property, and freedoms.

The militia that met the British on the North Bridge in 1776 was the Civilian Militia, with military arms, later to be known as "The Minutemen". Every American citizen has not only the right, but the responsibility to protect our Constitution and way of life with these arms.

In a letter to Thomas Jefferson on October 17th, 1788, James Madison wrote, "Repeated violations of these parchment barriers have been committed by overbearing majorities in every State. In Virginia I have seen the bill of rights violated in every instance where it has been opposed to a popular current."

Even though everyone thought that everyone else knew what basic rights the Constitution stood for, our founding fathers pointed out that without these rights being included in the body of our Constitution we would lose them, and our government could ignore them.

The first amendment guarantees that our government will respect our right to say what we believe, and the second amendment insures that we will be able to protect our rights. This is not a privilege, but a solemn duty, to be armed and ready to fight for our rights.

Editor's Note: On Wednesday, 20 Feb 08, my daughter Jennifer got into a little trouble at school. Her 6th grade teacher apparently had become fed up with the class not lining up in an orderly and respectful manner following recesses. They had been warned, but you know kids.

 Well, according to my daughter, her teacher decided to punish the whole class for the indiscretions of a few chatty students. I explained to my daughter that punishing everyone in the unit for the transgressions of a few may be a system employed to enlist the talent of the rest of the unit in curtailing those offenders. Jennifer said, "Well Daddy, it's against the rules at school to beat up people". 

 "There are other ways to censure, or otherwise ostracise people who cause trouble..." I said, and she might want to talk to the teacher about ways in which the class might address these issues directly with those who are causing the problems (blanket parties are out of the question, since it's not a boarding school). Everyone who has been in the military understands this method of enforcing discipline within a body of people.

"But Daddy I wasn't talking! I was only pretending to listen to someone who was." I asked her the difference between running someone over in a car, and merely running over one leg of the person - You still ran the person over.... yes or no?  "If you were listening to someone who was talking instead of quietly standing in line, then YOU ARE ENGAGED IN THE CONVERSATION. i.e., you are in fact part of the conversation, regardless of whether your mouth is moving.

 Okay that is the setup for her article above. The punishment was to choose one of the Constituional amendments in the Bill of Rights and write about it. How it came about, who promoted it, why it was needed, etc. The entire class had to do this assignment, they only had one night, and it had to be typed on two pages... enter Daddy

 I asked Jennifer which amendment she wanted to do her punishment assignment on. She already knew, and told me she wanted to cover the second amendment. I had never told her about the second amendment, she brought it up to me a few weeks ago.

 Well, yes, there is an awful lot of Daddy in the article above, I pulled much of the related research, explained the intricate details to Jennifer, deciphered the prose of the aristocracy, and typed it all up here at the shop in the morning before taking her to school (Yes, she was late - we have no Internet or way to print at home). I typed while she dictated to me. I fluffed it up with my internal thesaurus and natural tendancy toward embellishments. But she did the work, and decided which parts to include/exclude, etc.

What surprised me the most is how much she listens to the banter here at the shop when it comes to our 2nd Amendment rights, and how well she already understood these important aspects of our right to keep and bear arms. That's my little girl!