Impact on History
The Constitution of the United States is more than just a document in the National Archives. I visited Washington D.C. a few years ago and saw it first hand behind inches of thick glass, but it still looked awesome to me.
The Constitution was supposed to be the road map to a whole new way of governing and running a country. The concept of the Bill of Rights was something of a sore spot for the people of the new country. Many of those rights came from things that were forced on the people.
One of those things was the collection of all guns and rifles from the ordinary citizens by the British soldiers. You will find that under the Second Amendment of the Constitution in those rights. The "framers" or creators of these rights were very clear for the time because the revolution had just happened and pretty much everyone had the same ideas about being free and never falling under the rule of the British or anyone else.
The British thought that if all of the weapons were taken, then the uprising against the "Crown" would be harder to accomplish. It was the thought of the "framers" that having an armed citizenry would be a good thing if the government they are forming got out of control.
The idea was that as long as the people were armed, no group or government could enslave free people. The impact on our history is that this nation has a long history with it's firearms from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War to the debate about gun ownership today.
The Constitution was supposed to be the road map to a whole new way of governing and running a country. The concept of the Bill of Rights was something of a sore spot for the people of the new country. Many of those rights came from things that were forced on the people.
One of those things was the collection of all guns and rifles from the ordinary citizens by the British soldiers. You will find that under the Second Amendment of the Constitution in those rights. The "framers" or creators of these rights were very clear for the time because the revolution had just happened and pretty much everyone had the same ideas about being free and never falling under the rule of the British or anyone else.
The British thought that if all of the weapons were taken, then the uprising against the "Crown" would be harder to accomplish. It was the thought of the "framers" that having an armed citizenry would be a good thing if the government they are forming got out of control.
The idea was that as long as the people were armed, no group or government could enslave free people. The impact on our history is that this nation has a long history with it's firearms from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War to the debate about gun ownership today.
Amendment II
"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."
United States Constitution, Bill of Rights
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man..."
Thomas Jefferson, The Complete Jefferson