U.S. Second Amendment

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In August of 1776 the founding fathers sent the Declaration of Independence to the King of England. This was both a list of complaints and a justification for their actions. In 1787, after winning the war of independence, the founding fathers wrote the United States Constitution. Soon they decided a few amendments were needed and among them was the second amendment. It is a simple sentence and deals with issues in both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. 

"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." Does this sentence allow arms to be kept by the people of the U.S. or is there another meaning?

Looking at the middle of the sentence, a militia is necessary for the security of the state, tells us that they understood that the nation and individual states would need to defend themselves at some time. The war of independence taught them that an army, or militia, is needed and so provide security for the nation. The war also taught them that a tyrant can arise not just from a monarchy but from within an internal population and as such it would need to be watched over. 

The states governors could not be trusted because absolute power corrupts. The president and national government could not be trusted for the same reasons. The solution, the militia would be well regulated, but not by the government of the nation or the states. It had to be regulated by the people of the nation. Some of them would be in the militia and those that were not had to be able to defend themselves incase the military, executive branch, or the congress got rambunctious and develop thoughts of elitism, despotism, or military coup.  

Thus, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed was inserted to ensure that the governments were not the only ones to have weapons. The people needed a methodology of keeping on par with the government. Since the framers of the constitution did not specify a particular type of weapon such as “match lock or flintlock” they understood that the government would develop better and better weapons and the people needed to be on par with them and have access to the more sophisticated weapons thus keeping a potential fight even. 

So, I believe that the second amendment not only allows the people of the nation to have weapons but also requires them to have them to ensure the ability to remove any form of government that is trying to oppress the citizenry of the nation. Considering local, state, or federal government types, if any of them tries to remove access or restrict the ability to own weapons and ammunition or weapons system that are approximately equal to the types of weapons any of those government types own then that action could trigger a movement to remove the government and insert a new form of government. 

It should be understood that in the modern United States the local police, County Sheriffs, State Police, and State National Guards are all militias since they are sworn to uphold the laws of the state, county, and local governments that they serve which means they all report to the Governor of that state. Every State Governor is a potential Despot without the Second Amendment in place.

How can this be the case that the people of the United States of America are required to move against an oppressive government? 

A quote from the Declaration of Independence: “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.”

The modern definition from Webster’s dictionary is:

Militia noun

mi·​li·​tia mə-ˈli-shə 

1: a part of the organized armed forces of a country liable to call only in emergency

The militia was called to quell the riot.

b: a body of citizens organized for military service

2: the whole body of able-bodied male citizens declared by law as being subject to call to military service

3: a private group of armed individuals that operates as a paramilitary force and is typically motivated by a political or religious ideology

specifically : such a group that aims to defend individual rights against government authority that is perceived as oppressive