Second Amendment Essay

“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” (law.cornell.edu). These twenty-seven words are the Second Amendment of the Constitution. Where did this amendment come from? How did the founding fathers of the United States come up with this? This paper will show the foundation of where the Second Amendment came from, how it became an amendment, and what happened after the amendment went into effect.

Origins of the Second Amendment
When the English settlers came over from England to the new world, they brought English laws with them as well. As we have been taught since we can remember, those settlers came to the new land to escape religious
The first version consisted of what the Whig party wanted: It is necessary for the publick Safety, that the Subjects which are Protestants, should provide and keep Arms for their common Defence. And that the Arms which have been seized, and taken from them, be restored (Malcom). The second version is a bit revised: That the Subjects, which are Protestants, may provide and keep arms, for their Common Defence (Malcom). And the final version reads as: That the Subjects, which are Protestants, may provide and keep Arms, for their common Defence (Malcom). Essentially, all Englishmen regardless of religion have a right to bear arms for their personal
South Carolina kept to what the English Bill of Rights had stated regarding the right to bear arms (p.128) South Carolina expressed the following: “The Subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions, and as allowed by Law” (p. 128). Virginia was next, but the first colony to adopt a bill of rights (p.129). Author George Mason wrote the following: “That a well regulated Militia, composed of the Body of the People, trained to Arms, is the proper, natural and safe Defence, of a free State; that standing Armies, in Time of Peace, should be dangerous to Liberty”