CONCLUSION:
For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the Second Amendment secures an
individual right to keep and to bear arms. Current case law leaves open and
unsettled the question of whose right is secured by the Amendment. Although we
do not address the scope of the right, our examination of the original meaning
of the Amendment provides extensive reasons to conclude that the Second
Amendment secures an individual right, and no persuasive basis for either the
collective-right or quasi-collective-right views. The text of the Amendment's
operative clause, setting out a "right of the people to keep and bear Arms," is
clear and is reinforced by the Constitution's structure. The Amendment's
prefatory clause, properly understood, is fully consistent with this interpretation.
The broader history of the Anglo-American right of individuals to have and use
arms, from England's Revolution of 1688-1689 to the ratification of the Second
Amendment a hundred years later, leads to the same conclusion. Finally, the
first hundred years of interpretations of the Amendment, and especially the
commentaries and case law in the pre-Civil War period closest to the Amendment's
ratification, confirm what the text and history of the Second Amendment
require.
