http://usatoday.com/news/acovfri.htm
08/27/99- Updated 12:35 AM ET
Case could shape future of gun control
The Second Amendment establishes a right to possess firearms. The question is: Is it
an individual right or a military necessity?
By Richard Willing, USA TODAY
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. - Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
1791
Tucked inside this famous paragraph, amid the multiple clauses, odd punctuation and
18th-century syntax, lies the right that Americans both cherish and fear: the right to have a gun.
But whose right is it anyway? Is there an individual right to own a gun, like the individual right
to freedom of speech or religion? Or does the Second Amendment mean only that Americans
can defend themselves collectively through state militias, like the modern-day National Guard?
The debate over what the Second Amendment actually means has filled a forest of law review
articles and scholarly papers over the past 10 years. Now it is about to spill out of the ivory
tower and into the real world of guns and gun control.
08/27/99- Updated 12:35 AM ET
Case could shape future of gun control
The Second Amendment establishes a right to possess firearms. The question is: Is it
an individual right or a military necessity?
By Richard Willing, USA TODAY
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. - Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
1791
Tucked inside this famous paragraph, amid the multiple clauses, odd punctuation and
18th-century syntax, lies the right that Americans both cherish and fear: the right to have a gun.
But whose right is it anyway? Is there an individual right to own a gun, like the individual right
to freedom of speech or religion? Or does the Second Amendment mean only that Americans
can defend themselves collectively through state militias, like the modern-day National Guard?
The debate over what the Second Amendment actually means has filled a forest of law review
articles and scholarly papers over the past 10 years. Now it is about to spill out of the ivory
tower and into the real world of guns and gun control.