The Second Amendment of Our Bill of Rights: Need for Revision
Kyle Pruitt
April 10, 2008
English 1101-09
I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this piece of work, nor have I knowingly tolerated any violation of the Honor Code. Signed:
The Constitution of the United States is the document that spells out the organization of our government and outlines the overall laws of our country. It was originally written in 1787 and has been modified, updated or amended many times. The first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights which was made law in 1791 deals with the right to bear arms. I believe that this amendment is confusing and needs to be reviewed and modified to clarify its real meaning, especially in today's world.
The Second Amendment 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" (FindLaw). When this amendment was written, it seems that it was meant to protect the State's ability to form their own militias, allowing men to own guns as a means of protecting the State or military defense. Today, it has also been interpreted as saying that everyone has a right to own a gun to protect them or as a means of self-defense. I think the amendment needs to be rewritten so that these two possible interpretations can be made totally clear and not open for debate.
If the first interpretation is to hold and then Second Amendment was meant to protect the States right to form and arm their militias, then this would seem obsolete in today's world. If the amendment initially referred to our military and those people trained to protect our country, then it would seem that the debate over the rights of everyday citizens would not apply here. The only possible way might be with the result of 9/11 and the...