The 2nd Amendment reads in part:
...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
In every instance that the words people or person is used in the Constitution the words are used to indicate individuals and not States or Governmental bodies.
The first example occurs in the opening statement;" We the People..."
Art.1 Sec. 2- "The House of Represenitives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States."
Art.1 Sec. 2- "No Person shall be a Represenitive who shall..."
Art. 1 Sec.3 "No Person shall be a Senator..."
The meaning of the 2nd Amendment becomes clear when viewed in an individual right reference.
Further insight into the individual nature of the 2nd Amendment comes from Art. 1 Sec. 8 which states:
The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general welfare of the United States;...To raise and support Armies...To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrection and repel Invasions;
to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the dicipline prescribed by Congress..
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary Copyright 1980 defines Militia as:
1-A part of the organized armed forces of a country liable to call only in emergency.
This is the Militia we now call the National Guard and the authority for them is given in Art. 1 Sec. 8 This gives the Government the Authority keep, support, arm the Armed Services that may be needed. The Navy, Army, and Marines all predate the Constitution. The Militia's existance goes back to the Mass. Bay Colony and came into existance in 1636. There is no need to pass an amendment to give that authority to the Government as Art. 1 Sec. 8 has already done that.
2- The whole body of ablebodied male citizens declared by law as being subject to call to military service.
This is the general population and this is the Militia refered to in the 2nd amendment. With this defination in mind then the 2nd Amendment makes sense as an individual right. The founding fathers would not have been redundant in adding the 2nd Amendment.
The 2nd Amendment therefor can't be a "States or Governmental" right and must be an individual right.
