The Supreme Court announced yesterday they will decide if the District of Columbia can ban handguns. This has been a much anticipated case from both sides of the argument because the Supreme Court has never made a definitive ruling on the Second Amendments right to bear arms, and wether or not it pertains to the people or only State militias. The Second Amendment reads: “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.”

Many have argued that because the term “well regulated militia” preceeds the word “people”, the Second Amendment only applies to those people who are enrolled in the State’s militia. They consider this a justification clause, stating the only reason to protect the rights of the people to bear arms is in the event they are enrolled in the State militia. Gun rights advocates argue that the framers would not have added the phrase “the right of the people” if they only intended to protect the right of the States.

The Supreme Court will attempt to determine the founders intentions when adding the Second Amendment to the Constitution. In doing so myself, I could find no evidence to support the idea that it was meant only for State militias, and not for individual persons. In fact, to the contrary I have found several instances which would lead me to believe the Second Amendment was written to specifically to protect the right of individual persons to bear arms.

First and foremost, the term “right of the people” is not exclusive to the Second Amendment, appearing also in the First, Fourth and Ninth Amendments. In those three Amendments, the rights being protected belong to individual persons, not States. Furthermore it is important to remember the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution for the expressed reason of preserving individual rights.

[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation…(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
—James Madison,The Federalist Papers, No. 46.

We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles . The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed;
—Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824. Memorial Edition 16:45, Lipscomb and Bergh, editors.

No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
—Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution, 1776.

With regards to the District of Columbias ban on handguns, the Appellate Court agreed, ruling:

To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their Antifederalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second Amendment’s civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual’s enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.

I believe there is a very good chance the Supreme Court will uphold the Appellate Courts ruling and proclaim the people have a right to bear arms.

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Appellate Court, Constitution, Features, Second Amendment, Supreme Court